23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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!
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.
Certainly any variety can work, but there are varieties being bred specifically for the purpose as agritourism becomes more popular.
That looks to me like a tricky proposition. The plants are very close to each other, and the pot is small for just one plant that size. I think that has to mean that the plants are root bound, and the roots are probably very tangled.
But I agree that the only option to try to keep them all is soaking, and teasing them apart. Just don't let the roots dry out. It will take a while for each to get themselves reestablished, and I suspect you'll lose half the foliage in each.
I would have half a mind, as you were thinking. to thin to two or three, transplant them together in some good deep soil, and see what you get. The plants will be healthy, but they won't grow that big, and it may be a challenge getting much fruit. If these were small peppers, you might have more luck.
Don't just soak the roots. Soak them in a bucket, but grab them by the stalks and swish around in the bucket of water. Then take an adjustable spray nozzle and wash off the majority of the soil. Then start tugging loose each individual plant. Then get them to their final growing spot and drench. If at all possible, let the soil dry out before the next watering.
I just did this myself about 2 weeks ago with 3 red bells and all are rebounding just fine.
Kevin
This post was edited by woohooman on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 0:40
seysonn-do you think the yellowing is normal? It just seemed like it started when the powdery mildew came on. I'm relieved to hear that you think it looks normal! I've been pretty worried about it but like I said, all the new growth looks good.
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.
Yup, I've been pulling 3-4 a day off the squash for anout a week. I just squish them right there.