Squash borers infesting my pumpkins and zuchinni. Advice needed

Dtrizzle2091

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Apr 28, 2020
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Hi all, I have my victory garden going and this is all new to me and a learning experience. I need someone native to New England willing to give me advice. I have a huge pumpkin vine with zero pumpkins. At first I thought blossom end rot so infused soil with gypsum. Still happening. Then I found borers in my zuchinni and cut them out the best I could. Today I went out and cut open the pumpkin vines and they are EVERYWHERE. I ordered neem and the
Other organic beneficial bacteria that
kills the worms but at this point is it too late for them? Should I just rip them up, treat the soil and grow a fall crop? Also, what have you done in the past to prevent this from happening?

My plan for next year is to treat the soul with gypsum, compost, neem and beneficial bacteria before planting, them spray plants once per week after and wrap stem bases in tin foil.

This is all a learning experience for me, but in a scenario where we were relying on those crops, I would’ve failed miserably and...I don’t like to fail.
 

polymoog

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i would get some diatomaceous earth and dust the area.

i put a neem oil spray on my figs to get rid of these tiny beetles and it didnt do anything. i know what "they" say about neem; ive found it to be so-so. its really a preventative, since the stuff works by disrupting the (first?) instar larvae of insects, so they cannot mature.

re: ripping them out... at the end of july? i think i would keep them. i would guess they will send up more flowers.

just my opinion, but you are better off growing what seems to grow well in your area-- i am talking about eating native weeds/plants. purslane, maybe stinging nettle if you have it... wild foraging, or at least growing what already does very well there is a FAR easier approach.

see if you can have a free soil test at your local state agricultural extension office. sometimes if the soil is depleted in something, insects can attack it far easier.
go online and see if you can find some azomite and throw that into the soil. it could only help.
 
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polymoog

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check some of these wild plants out. once you learn to spot them, you can simply forage for them or plant them and neglect them since theyll grow anyway.
 

Dtrizzle2091

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So cool! I took my children to forage wild blueberries and black raspberries in the bushes behind our house and it was awesome. I’ve foraged yarrow and elderflower and have made salves and tea from them. Can’t wait to teach them about these.
 

polymoog

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So cool! I took my children to forage wild blueberries and black raspberries in the bushes behind our house and it was awesome. I’ve foraged yarrow and elderflower and have made salves and tea from them. Can’t wait to teach them about these.
in august, look for giant puffball mushrooms (theyre big white solid mushrooms). great taste. and chicken of the woods-- its an orange shelf fungus. you cant confuse it with anything-- its a big cluster and growing on the base of trees. tastes exactly like chicken (i know the cliche, but its true). i made a monster omelet with that and a dozen eggs. awesome.
both should be growing in a clean (not sprayed with chemicals) location. the only other thing is that the chicken of the woods cannot be growing on a cedar or a locust tree. thats it.





 

Lisa

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i would get some diatomaceous earth and dust the area.

i put a neem oil spray on my figs to get rid of these tiny beetles and it didnt do anything. i know what "they" say about neem; ive found it to be so-so. its really a preventative, since the stuff works by disrupting the (first?) instar larvae of insects, so they cannot mature.

re: ripping them out... at the end of july? i think i would keep them. i would guess they will send up more flowers.

just my opinion, but you are better off growing what seems to grow well in your area-- i am talking about eating native weeds/plants. purslane, maybe stinging nettle if you have it... wild foraging, or at least growing what already does very well there is a FAR easier approach.

see if you can have a free soil test at your local state agricultural extention office. sometimes if the soil is depleted in something, insects can attack it far easier.
go online and see if you can find some azomite and throw that into the soil. it could only help.
You would eat stinging nettle? Have you been stung by those things? How would you eat them? And yes! I have been stung by them..they aren’t called stinging nettle for nothing!
 

Lurker

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You would eat stinging nettle? Have you been stung by those things? How would you eat them? And yes! I have been stung by them..they aren’t called stinging nettle for nothing!
The sting goes away with cooking. Do. Not. Eat. Raw.
 

polymoog

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The sting goes away with cooking. Do. Not. Eat. Raw.
you can if you roll them up into a tube shape to crush the stinging hairs. strip the hairs outward from the leaf and then crush it to crush the hairs. then eat.
youll want to eat only the young ones.
 

Lisa

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you can if you roll them up into a tube shape to crush the stinging hairs. strip the hairs outward from the leaf and then crush it to crush the hairs. then eat.
youll want to eat only the young ones.
I think I’ll pass..
 

Johnny5

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@polymoog Azomite is good stuff? I have just recently started hearing radio ads for it. I thought it might be typically ad hyperbole like the old DynaVite for dogs ads or Andro500 for Men ads.
 

polymoog

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@polymoog Azomite is good stuff? I have just recently started hearing radio ads for it. I thought it might be typically ad hyperbole like the old DynaVite for dogs ads or Andro500 for Men ads.
azomite has a lot of trace minerals in it, but more importantly, it has a lot of ORMUS(ORMES) in it as well, so this is supposed to create scalar energy fields which promote growth.

the guy from freshandalive.com, ken rohla, featured a few interviews and videos about it, which is where i first heard of it.

i get the 44 lb bags from https://www.7springsfarm.com/azomite-micronized-powder-44-lb-bag/ with shipping, its still cheaper (last time i checked, at least) than amazon, and im supporting this place rather than that BLM-supporting slime, jeff bezos.

i actually mix it into my EM-1 brew, so i am consuming it too.

youre going to ask, "does it work?" honestly, i dont know because i dont have test beds for comparison. i spread it around, have golden ratio pyramids in different spots, orgonite devices, cloudbusters, water them with fractal water, rainwater/compost tea, etc.

this is a good video on it from growing your own greens:

(he says its got to be mixed in thoroughly with composted material so that its broken down by microorganisms into a plant absorbable form. i agree with this, but the fact that it is around the plant means the plant is in the scalar energy field and is benefitting from that.)
 
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