I love to grow squash but it can be a very big challenge in the garden because of an
insect called the squash vine borer.
This is a worm that actually borrows into the stem of the squash and starts to eat the
plant from the inside out and sometimes you don't notice that its happening until you
see the plant totally wilt and by then its too late to do any control.
And so there's (some strategies) you can do to make yourself successful with growing squash.
Now, if you're growing butter nutter acorn squash, those tend to have more resistance
to squash vine borers because they don't have the hollow stems as the yellow and green squashes.
Also the patty pan squash tends to have fewer problems too.
But if you're determined to grow the greens and yellow squashes, there are a couple of
things you can do.
Now one thing that I do is I plant a lot of squash.
And I plant some, just kind of seeds, there's always extra seeds in the packet, so I plant
seeds all over the garden.
Those are my trap plants.
The other thing that I do, and when those start to get the insects inside the stem,
I just pull the plant out and destroy the larvae and throw those plants in the trash.
Now I do plant some squash that I'm going to protect and I tend to plant them along
with onion sets that I purchased during the winter and saved and some radish seeds.
Its usually too hot to get good onions and radishes from these plants but they're really
just a companion so it helps deter the adults, wasp-like moth from planting their eggs near
those plants when you put the seeds in or the new plants in.
Now, the adult of the squash vine borer looks like a wasp but if you know what the adult
looks like, you can easily catch them and dispatch them.
Now I know it's a little bit intimidating because it looks like a wasp so just make
sure you know what the adult looks like and get rid of those when you see them in the
garden.
Now you can also spray your plants regularly with spinocid once the plants are in.
Once or twice a week, spray the area around the base of the plant with spinocid, that
should help destroy any larvae that are hatching out from the eggs.
An adult can lay 150 to 250 eggs in your garden so that's why I put all the other extra plants
out, to keep those moths busy.
Now you can cover the stems with foil, that prevents the larvae from hatching out in the
egg form and burrowing into the stem.
But if you notice a hole in the stem, with a little bit of sawdust-like shaving at the
bottom of the plant, if you'll cut and make a cut with a sharp knife, go in and pull out
any larvae that you see and sometimes its more than one then close that stem up and
put some good compost on top and bury the stem again.
A lot of times the plant will recover but again, if you wait until the plants are wilting,
its too late.
Another thing you can do is inject BT into the stem, I haven't found it to be as effective
as actually pulling the caterpillars out.
But one thing I think is really crucial is covering your plants.
Now you want to use a lightweight grow web fabric.
This is not the same fabric that you use to protect your plants in the winter, its much
lighter weight.
And this is just for preventing insects from getting to your plants.
Make a tent over your plants and cover them until they start to bloom with female flowers.
The first flowers on your squash are male flowers, so the female flowers are easy to
tell because they have, at the base of the flower, a little swelling that looks like
the squash.
And so once you start to have female flowers on the plants, you've got to pull that cover
off so that the insect pollinators can get to those plants.
When you cover your plants, make sure your covering is very tight to the ground.
I use rebar hoops and I clip the fabric onto the hoops with spring clamps, all the way
down to the ground, very secure then pull that off and just keep planting those decoy
plants around the garden throughout the growing season.
You might even put some seeds in a container so that you have a new succession crop to
come in and hopefully if you do these things, you'll have more squash than you'll know what
to do with.