How do you stop them from killing the vines? I tried to cover the vines with soil but that didn't work. I tried Sevin dust. That didn't work either. What are you doing that works? We are growing squash, water mellons and cantalopes.
I personally gave up on trying. :-( I'm considering trying them as a fall crop. Some people report good success by spraying the bases with BT on a regular basis. Others have tried sevin spray instead of sevin dust.
Are you talking about them being already in the vines and boring?
If they're already in the vines, slit the vine near the point of entry, remove the borers and then immediately cover the slit with earth. The vine should put down roots at that point.
We've done it for squash. It worked. We moved to butternut squash because it keeps (just ate the last of the harvest) and it's resistant to borer.
We don't do melons.
*Be aware that Sevin is particularly toxic to bees.*
If we can't find something to work we too will give up on these crops. With prices so high in the stores and loving these veggies I thought I'd try one more time growing them.
We have two vegetable gardens several hundred feet apart. Everything is rotated but the greens. The borers found the squash. A neighbor suggested we cover them with screening but the cost is too much. The soil is rich with compost and the plants get huge.
"Katey Didd" wrote in news:g00kfp$38c$ snipped-for-privacy@news.datemas.de:
the borers are generally only an issue with seedlings though. sometimes tinfoil collars work, or if the borers are already in the vine slit it & remove them. do not compost vines killed by borers. sanitation helps a lot too.
When you plant your squash, plant three white icicle radish seeds near the stem. This prevents the squash borers from doing their damage. If you already have damage, remove the borer, and plant the cut part as deeply as you can and water in well so it has a chance to re-root.
"Katey Didd" wrote in news:g009aa$nf7$ snipped-for-privacy@news.datemas.de:
My neighbor dusts with BT and also injects the vines with a BT solution, and the vines take over his backyard and produce like crazy.
Another option is rubbing Vicks VapoRub on the stems, which supposedly will deter vine borers. Maybe the VapoRub plus wrapping the stems with foil would increase the effectiveness. I have not tried this tip but it seems like it might be worth a shot.
You could be somewhere, where your squash is already in the ground and well along. The newsgroup is worldwide and your posts appear to be coming through datemas.de which makes it look like you're in Germany.
I only know our area, and of that I only know our garden well and it changes according to the weather and climate.
Could it be that the vines were infected?
I'm pretty sure my wife watered at the covered, damage point but I'd have to ask her, and she's not here right now.
I'd wonder if encouraging rooting at different points along the length of a vine would be helpful. (Anyone care to comment?) We had one that was virtually destroyed at the original root butproduced well through the season from roots along its length.
What I like about Google is that it throws up information for farmers as well as gardeners... We have something between 80 and 120 books on gardening but they don't deal with the issues in quite the same way.
Tatuma is delicious. :-) Now I just need to look for seeds! No, I'm not the OP, but I've had the same trouble so had just given up on even trying to grow squashes or melons.
If the list gives us alternatives, we'll both be happy. :-)
I just read one post that said butternut is resistant. We love that stuff but it's a winter squash. I'd like to be able to grow both.
Tatuma really is good. They sell it in the stores here so I may give that a try. Baby pumpkin also eats well as a green squash and I don't recall whether we had problems with borers or not with those. It's been too long since I've grown one.
The only ones that were destroyed by borers were our crooknecks and zucchinis. Two of our favorites. Butternuts were not affected. Our squash are all coming up now. Unless watered profusely, pumpkins don't do to well where I live.
The vine borers here get into the main stem and kill the plant, not the seedlings. They usually start their damage when the fruits have already started to form. I've yet to ever see the adults. I've tried to slit the vines to remove them and the plants would die anyway. They're not easy to find in the vines and slitting the vines seems to kill the plants even faster. Have you tried tinfoil collars and did the work for you?
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