23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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Newatthis22

Yeah, ive been checking every hour or so, and spraying them off with the hose!

Luckily, ive only seen them on one pepper plant, but its pretty close to my tomato plant!

Seems to be working! Less and less every time

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 11:26PM
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planatus(6)

One thing to bear in mind is that both thrips and aphids are way down on the insect food chain. If you want to keep beneficials around, they have to have something to eat.In addition to ladybeetles and lacewings, there are tiny wars going on too small to see. Syrphid flies are laying eggs near the aphids so their larvae can eat them.

That said, I'd have quickly clipped off that aphid-infested leaf and dumped it in the composter and then sprayed the plants with water a few times.

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 2:38PM
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raistlyn

Thanks Kevin. Would I have to spray it on the caterpillars directly or can i just spray on the eggs that are already on the net?

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 11:10AM
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woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a

Nope. It isn't a contact killer. It's a bacteria which, when the caterpillars feed on foliage, kills them. Just spray entire plant(including undersides of leaves).

If infestation is bad, spray on a weekly schedule for a couple weeks and then on a 2 week schedule after that.

Kevin

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 1:03PM
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earthnut(WA/usda8/ahs2)

Another thought I had is to plant things that people recognise and will tend to steal anyway. Raspberries and tomatoes are always stolen when grown next to the sidewalk and that may be desirable for you since it would be a demo garden after all.

    Bookmark   June 9, 2013 at 3:49AM
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pha9

The grass edge is actually now marked out at 1 foot all the way around. I had hoped this patch would absorb runoff and filter soil from hitting the streets and sidewalk, and double as a relatively clean place for gardeners to work from.

I can not mound the soil in any way because will promote loss of soil, and all the good amendments! Edging with some sort of protection is not a bad idea, but I think I will leave a lot of the perennial development of the garden to another year. Right now I want to get the garden growing something, and for it to look good.

As for the edging, that sound pretty important. Would rock edging really do that much more than plastic garden trim/edging? Sinking rocks into the edge sounds like a ton of work, and I don't think we're ready for something so permanent.

So far I'm gathering that I don't so much need to replace all the soil, as add some good compost (the cafe just began their 3-bin compost 2 weeks ago) and maybe some coir as required.

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 12:28PM
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hnycrk(8a)

I hate them, I pick them off and feed them to the chickens. I've found that when u water the plants they will crawl up the stems to escape the water which makes it easier to pick them off.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 8:29PM
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sunnibel7 Md 7(7)

Yup, I've been pulling 3-4 a day off the squash for anout a week. I just squish them right there.

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 10:48AM
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mckenziek(9CA)

This is great information. Thanks everyone!

    Bookmark   June 5, 2013 at 2:19AM
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tdscpa(z5 NWKS)

I plant the same crops in the same places every year, because I have found the arrangement I like.

At the end of the season, I till it a bunch with my tractor powered tiller, which moves the soil a long distance. Thus, I rotate my soil instead of my crops.

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 3:42AM
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CaraRose

I had poor results last year with carrots on seed tape. Normal seed this year faired much better.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 10:24PM
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seysonn(8a WA/HZ 1)

I have experience that cucurbita bloom early in poor soil. That can happen in the pot when kept too long. The grow tap root and when it hits the bottom and the soil is poor and there is not enough room for roots, they figure they have reached the end of their rope and must get on with their mission, i.e. flower and produce fruits/seeds. The same can happen in poor soil in the ground too. But if they are provided good soil with adequate nutrients, they sould resume growth.

    Bookmark   June 12, 2013 at 12:30AM
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hnycrk(8a)

They went into the dehydrator. That why they were peeled.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 10:55AM
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AiliDeSpain(6a - Utah)

Planatus-for your overwintering varieties did you start them from seed? If so when do you plant them out?

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 9:40PM
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donnabaskets(Zone 8a, Central MS)

Female flowers open VERY early in the morning and close back up fairly quickly thereafter. I go out before six o'clock each morning to hand pollinate and still have to force some of them open. The male flowers appear to stay open all day long. Try checking on your plants just as the sun rises. And sometimes, no matter what you do, females are open, but males are closed, etc.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 8:26PM
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glib(5.5)

If you have a mix of varieties, you will always find an open male. For the females, I use a very thin paint brush, if it is just barely open I can do the deed.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 9:28PM
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hnycrk(8a)

I feel your pain man!

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 2:45PM
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andy32844

I hope my dose of nitrogen wakes them back up.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 7:47PM
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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

They already laid eggs on the first 2 cukes I planted in early May.

Are you 100% sure they were SVB eggs? Awfully early for them especially this year when the hatch has been delayed for a couple of weeks by the early spring weather. Where in zone 7 are you? They don't normally turn up until mid June at the earliest here.

Dave

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 6:13PM
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lm13(7)

I'm in Birmingham, AL. I transplanted May 3rd and eggs showed up May 21st. Absolutely positive they were SVB eggs. I picked hundreds of SVB eggs off squash, zucchini and cucumbers last year. I could spot those things from a mile away. Haha. I thought it much too early as well, but I guess these just wanted to ruin my summer as soon as possible.

I put in four new beds this year, so that took up a lot of my gardening budget. I'll be able to put my money for next year's garden towards row cover and maybe drip irrigation. Using soaker hoses currently - not that I've really needed them too much with all the rain we have had!

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 6:57PM
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edweather(Zone 5a/b Central NY)

A little fungicide couldn't hurt! I had some funk on one of my tomato plants and sprayed a couple of weeks ago. All plants look good now. More rain coming tomorrow :-)

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 6:07PM
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jean001a(Portland OR 7b)

Because they're part of the environment!
And because they're always looking for a new place to go out to dinner.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 5:11PM
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CaraRose

Here's an up close and personal look at the enemy.

Funny story, I'd never heard of SVB. Every year my dad's squash would get "stem rot" and die back. Frustrated him to no end. The first year I started any gardening of my own, I was growing some veggies, including some crookneck yellow squash in containers, since my dad didn't have room in the garden to give me any space.

One day I was at the local nature center and saw this "cool" red and black moth feeding on rattlesnake master. I'd seen them in my yard a few times. Took a series of macro shots (attached is one of them). Went home and googled "red and black moth IL" in image search, spotted the same moth, clicked image-- and at the top of the page in bold letters was the common name:

SQUASH VINE BORER

At that moment it occured to me my squash were looking a little sickly. It didn't take long to figure that they'd been killing my dads squash every year, which he thought was the stem rot.

And thus my (still mostly losing) battle with these things began. Wiped out my crooknecks that year. I managed to keep my squash alive last year by injecting with BT and heaping dirt on the vines to get some new roots, but ultimately production went down to nearly zero on the two survivors.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 5:32PM
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IAmSupernova(SE Texas 9A)

Some of them can be really easy to knock off.. I just barely touched my first ever pepper and it fell off.. Not all of them will though. My guess is like mentioned above, perhaps the plant was preparing to drop it anyways.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 1:38PM
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Ann_in_Houston(z9 Houston)

Ok, well I can deal with that. I hope it will make more. There were no more casualties this morning. Today has been better on many fronts than I was expecting.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 4:12PM
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cait1219(8B (St. Augustine))

I agree with what was said above...I only see male flowers in your pictures. I have crookneck squash plants too and even my first pollinated female flower (I know it was pollinated because I did it myself) fail to grow into a fruit. I was disappointed but as long as that isn't the case every time, I'm assuming it's normal. When you see a female flower, you'll know!

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 2:59PM
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Ann_in_Houston(z9 Houston)

Thanks so much. I'm starting to get the full picture now. I also saw a pic elsewhere on the web, that makes the female with the fruit on it more plain. I feel like I know now what to look for. Thank goodness for you folks on GW

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 4:11PM
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pnbrown

The variety I grow for grist - hickory king - would be ideal. Massive strong vigorous plants.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 2:41PM
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weirdtrev

There actually are varieties of maze corn (not to be confused with maize). Rupp seed has varieties of ornamental corn specifically bred for mazes.It was initially marketed as not producing hard ears of corn to keep pesky kids from being able to throw and or hurt people with it. This part of the description is absent from this years (2013) catalog, but the variety still exists. The name is not surprisingly "Maze Corn". Just take a look at their catalog. Catalog pages 60 and 61.

Rupp 2013 Catalog

Certainly any variety can work, but there are varieties being bred specifically for the purpose as agritourism becomes more popular.

    Bookmark   June 11, 2013 at 3:01PM
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