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| I am trying a new method of borer control this year. Check out these barricades made of wire, floating row covers, and clothes pins. Plants are in a spot never used for squash before, we tilled a lot pre-season in case. I am hoping it will get me through until it is a safe time to plant my back up crop to grow WITHOUT any row covers. I'm just hoping I can time that right this year. We had a few mid 90 degree days already, but the plants seem to like it, so far heat isn't an issue. I have already hand pollinated three squash, and had one for dinner :). Fingers crossed! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Very cool. I am curious to know how well it keeps them out - hopefully 100%! |
Here is a link that might be useful: How Do I Pollinate My Plants by Hand?
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| I do it for several years already. Usually I took row cover off in July, when got tired of hand-pollinating. I still had the bugs later in the season, but plants had much longer life. This year I did two different things. First, changed row cover for tulle - much better air flow and better to see through, you can even water through it right near ground with a shower nozzle and water just go through the tulle right to the roots. And second, I am not opening them other then to pick and to weed in the same time - I have self-pollinating Caveli and Perfect Pick, and so far so good. I seeded 12 plants inside on May 3. Transplanted in the garden on May 25 (had to do it early as I was going to leave for a week). Yesterday got my first gallon of zucchini spread canned). |
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| I have cucumbers and squash under row covers this year as well. I planned to take the covers off for pollination, but i have so many cucumber beetles that i decided to hand pollinate my cukes rather than give them up to the beetles. It's tedious and i'm not sure how much longer i can keep it up. I just added some parthenocarpic cukes and zucchini under the cover, which will be easier to manage. When those plants are a bit bigger i may uncover the regular cukes and zucchini for pollination. I used low tunnel hoops and a lightweight Agribon. My insect netting is only 7ft wide, which isn't wide enough to fit over the hoops. I can't see thru the Agribon, and it's toasty under the cover, but the plants are doing well. I keep thinking about taking the cover off and being done with this nonsense, but when i see how healthy my plants look, i decide to keep with it, at least for now. My winter squash is just covered with Agribon but no hoops. The plants are starting to vine out and i need to either remove the covers soon or add hoops to give them more room. I'd like to at least keep them covered for vine borer season. I found a MD extension agency publication that said vine borers were only a threat until mid-June. I'm in a colder part of the state so think my vine borer season may be a bit later than that. I'm hoping if i keep my plants covered thru the end of the month i'll miss the worst of it. And then there are squash bugs to worry about. I hate them all. |
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| I also use tulle, but I remove them when the female flowers come up.. I'll get plenty of squash before the SVBs get to the plants, since it probably takes around 3 weeks until you notice their attacks. (7days for eggs hatching, at least 2 weeks for grubs to grow big enough to cause any damage.) A couple of issues I see: |
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| Saw my first borer moth flying around. Tried to hit it with a garden trowel but missed. I hate those things |
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