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| Is there a nuclear option for defeating the dreaded SVB? I'm talking Sevin, Imidan, Raid, DDT, toxic waste, anything?!?!
For the most part, I'm organic and pesticide free but I really want to grow some pumpkins and gourds and winter squash and I'm at the point that I don't really care what it takes to get them to harvest. For the past few years I get beautiful vines, and some nice looking fruit, but the next thing you know, most of them are dead from the SVB. Is there a proven pesticide that I can spray on the stems that will save my plants? I can only access my garden on the weekends so visual monitoring and manual removal is probably not a viable option, that's why I'd like to be able to spray something nasty on the stems to protect them. Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| hoop houses and netting are your best bet. You will have to hand pollinate. |
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| Agree. Row covers and hand pollination. Difficult in your situation but doable with extra effort in the much less than ideal situation you are using to garden. Pesticides don't work on the larvae once they bore into the stem so you have to carefully time the applications to the moth activity. That means determining the moth time in your specific garden. The general guide is mid-June. But that can be +/- 2 weeks either way. Double dusting/sprays) of the base of the plants 7 days apart immediately prior to the moth arrival and for 2 weeks after is the recommendation. If you understand how "degree days" works then U. of Kentucky Ext. recommends using 950 degree days to begin pesticide applications. Adult emergence occurs at approximately 1000 degree days (base 50F with a Jan 1 biofix) in the early summer. Use 950 degree days as the time to begin... Not that I am recommending this - I definitely don't because numerous beneficials will also be killed - but that's the commercial approach and the "nuclear option" you are seeking. Link below lists recommended pesticides. Dave |
Here is a link that might be useful: SVB - Pesticides
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| Thanks all! Dave - interesting you mentioned commercial operations, because there are a couple commerical pick your own pumpkin farms within a few miles of me and I always wondered how they were able to get by unscathed. Then again, maybe it's the size of their operation.....if you're growing acres of pumpkins you can afford to loose 5 or 10. Me, I'm only growing about 10 plants total! |
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| Yeah by the time they are ready to admit customers to pick their own SVB season is long over so you have no way of seeing or knowing what was done to the plants during that period of time while borers were an issue. Commercial organic growers down here use hoop houses and row covers for the first part of the season. They can also used timed planting to avoid the borers since they have such a long growing season. I can do that - timed planting - easy enough with my squash but pumpkins have to go under cover for me. Dave |
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| I just grow varieties from the c. moschata or c. argyrosperma families. They're quite resistant to borers. The Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin could even be carved as a Jack O'Lantern. Baker Creek Seeds lists their squash/pumpkins with scientific family information. George |
Here is a link that might be useful: Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin
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| Just out in the garden, saw a SVB moth zipping around the Zuk - went for my bottle of Sevin and zapped it in midair. There being no open flowers to attract bees at the time. Then sprayed the stem where, again, no flowers. |
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| I've stopped growing all together. The torture they put me through was killing me. It's my 2nd year without them. |
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| I agree with ltilton. Sevin sprayed on the stems where and when the bees are not working usually can work pretty well. |
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