Squash Vine Borer (SVB)

SVB larva!

Hello all!

So this little bug is what has been tormenting me this entire summer:

It flew by completely under our radar until we finally decided to pull out one of the clearly dead Winter Squashes from the ground. We look at the roots and noticed the sawdust-like material known as "frass" in some holes at the base. Frass is poop. This bug has been eating the inside of our Squash for months!

The symptoms that they are inside your plant: your Squash wilts, at first during strong sunlight, but then in the early mornings and evenings when it shouldn't be wilty! The holes and frass at the base and stems are other obvious symptoms. Umm... that's pretty much it! Unfortunately, once they are inside, your Squash is as good as dead.

Best way to manage this pest is through prevention. Below is a picture provided by the University of Minnesota of the adult moth these pests eventually become (1).



They look like wasps, so I guess a lot of people wouldn't thinking of harming them. However, I've never even seen these things! I would have definitely noticed something this colorful in my garden. Anyways, they lay small brown eggs on the stalks and vines of the Squash (2).

Management revolves mostly around prevention. One way to prevent it to plant cucurbitis that aren't typically attacked by SVB. Butternut (what we planted) is supposed to be resistant, but obviously this didn't work out so well for us (1). Cornell University suggests putting in row covers that are anchored down (so the moth won't crawl under) until flowers begin to bloom for pollination (3). A user named vaherbmom on gardenweb.com sugguested having a yellow plate filled with water will attract the moth and drown it - maybe mix the water with some pesticide for extra assurance (4). She also suggested having the stems either wrapped in aluminum foil or smeared with Vapo-Rub so that the moths don't lay eggs on it (4). I've also heard putting a pesticide like BT works as well.

However, we are obviously past the preventive stage of this dilemma. Though there's little chance of survival, the University of Minnesota offers (with little hope!) the suggestion to perform surgery on your plant with scissors or a blade to get the worm out (1). The plant, however, may die from the damage of that itself. Similar to this idea, Cornell says using a sharpened wire and putting in the hole where the borer dug in through can work (3). And finally, my boss said she once heard somewhere that people inject the plant with a pesticide, like bt or entomophagous nematodes, to kill the borer.

So far, we've just performed surgery. I'm not very hopeful for the Winter Squash - especially since the ones that didn't get the borers until later now have Powdery Mildew. I noticed some of our Summer Squash have the holes with frass as well. They've been producing so much though, we're hoping we can get a good amount of produce from them before they shut down.

La vie d'un agriculteur!

Sources:
(1) http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1209.html
(2) http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef314.asp
(3) http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/entomology/extension/idl/upload/Squash-Vine-Borer.pdf
(4) http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0614401930990.html

~ jesusnunezx

Recent Press!

Hi all!

Thanks to Margaret McCaffrey for writing this awesome press release for us. Meg has helped us tons throughout the Summer and previously helped us with the garlic harvest.

http://www.fairfield.edu/press/pr_index.html?id=3168

Oh, and freelance writer Eileen Weber wrote about us at Townvibe

http://www.townvibe.com/Blogs/Fairfield/Posts-2011/Another-Garden-in-Fairfield/

~ jesusnunezx

Powdery Mildew

Powdery Mildew

Hello all!

So our Winter Squash have yet another ailment! This time, the all-too-common powdery mildew. The signs and symptoms are pretty obvious. Powdery white stuff, which started off as spots but begin to infest the entire leaf, are seen on the tops and bottoms of leaves. I've also seen it spread to the stems as well, but not the actual fruit itself.

Cornell University says that the best conditions for powdery mildew to develop is when there is dense plant growth, low light intensity, and high relative humidity (1). I guess we are sort of guilty of the denseness of our plants, but we have a very sunny spot that gets dry rather easily. The drip irrigation system helps reduce the relative humidity, but maybe the sometimes disgusting amount of rain we get ruined it. Also, older plants are more susceptible - which makes sense because this is a fairly recent problem for our squash.

Besides looking super ugly, this fungus yellows and begins to kill the leaves. According to UC Davis, powdery mildew in severe cases decreased fruit yields, the harvest period of the plant, and makes for fruit that lacks flavor - possibly because they ripened immaturely or incompletely (2). Colorado State states that removing infected leaves and not composting them will help slow the spread of infection (3). Also, by selectively pruning some of the leaves from the plant, we can reduce the relative humidity so that less leaves get infected. In case we do get a ridiculous amount of Mildew, it is also suggested to use neem oil, or a solution of baking soda (4).

We haven't done anything to the plants, yet. We figured that the mildew won't affect the plant all that much. But I'm interested to see what the baking soda solution will do. It won't hurt to try. Especially since there's something far worse killing our plants at the moment...

Sources:
(1) http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Cucurbits_PM.htm
(2) http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7406.html
(3) http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/02902.html
(4) http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/powdery-mildew.html

~ jesusnunezx

Why Does Everything I Touch Die?

Hello all!

Why are all of our Winter Butternut Squashes dying? We've had such bad luck with them this entire Summer and I'm just soooooo frustrated with it.

The first time we planted them, it was back in early June; we had a thing where we let kids from Orientation place Squash seeds inside Jiffy Pellets so that they can grow and we can transplant them later. Those died from over-watering. Squash seeds are prone to rotting before they even germinate and thus, why our seeds are covered by an anti-fungal powder. But the powder is no good when you have a disgusting amount of rain drenching the seeds. The very few that didn't rot (I accidently left those indoors, so they were protected from the rain) were quickly transplanted into their current position up on the hill. Here they are dying:

The Second time around, we tried planting the seeds directly to the ground. Of the 30+ or so of seeds we planted, precisely 2 actually germinated. We're not sure why the rest didn't germinate, I tend to think it's because I put them in too deep so they couldn't find their way to the surface and just rotted underground. However, my boss helped plant some seeds too and I know she's good at the whole depth thing, so that's most likely false. Essentially, we don't know why they died. Well, here they are dying:

Finally, we re-seeded everything on the second week of July with great success. Most all of the spots germinated - I was happy. Here they are doing wonderfully.

So, as you can plainly see, we have squashes that grew weeks apart. This is incredibly awkward when it comes to watering because I have some plants that want tons of water, while others don't necessarily need to be drenched. That's why, we think, the older plants are dying. Because they were so dry that they wilted down to a point where those leaves weren't going to bounce back to health. The older ones did recently go to flower, and some are actually making fruit:

But even those flowers are dying:

It could be that the flower wasn't pollinated, but I've seen so many pollinators in our garden, that I just can't believe that to be true. It could be too dry, but ever since we diagnosed the Squash problem, I've been wetting them like crazy. Maybe now they are too wet? I did actually cause some of our peppers to get root-rot from over-watering. I'm not sure anymore of anything anymore.

I normally don't like advertising all the bad that's going on in the Garden, but it's therapeutic. Fairfield loves reflection and the good it does. Maybe one day I will reflect on this issue and say: "wow, I put in so much work and they all ended up alive and well". OR, more likely, I will say: "wow, I put in so much work and they all shriveled up and died, mocking me for my efforts". Either way, I know this:

It's good to be a farmer.

~ jesusnunezx

Tomato Hornworm

Hello all!

So The Bosses and I found this thing when I was trying to figure out why my plum tomato plant looked so awful way back when.

At first we thought it was a disease that was killing the plant, but then we found the evidence below.

Their poop looks like little grenades. This guy had plenty of food to process too! He ate half a tomato and a very good amount of my plant. This is surprising to me because I've seen so many predatory wasps flying around who would otherwise parasitise this fat blob.

Below, a picture (provided by the University of Minesota) of what the caterpillar would look like if it was parasitised:

If you see the caterpillar like this, it is suggested you let it live! This way, the little wasps eat him alive and you have more of these beneficial insects to parasitise more hornworms. Furthermore, lady beetles and green lacewings love munching on their eggs - which are smooth, oval shaped light green eggs which (I've been told) are laid on the underside of tomato leaves.

I decided to keep this guy as a pet, by the way. He had an entire bucket and spare cherry tomato plant to himself (seen below).

However, the idiot ran away. He didn't know how good he had it. Boss told me when they do pupate, they burrow underground (which is a good reason why you should till your soil). However, when I completely dumped the bucket and sifted through the dirt, I found nothing! So he either ran away to a better host (as if one exists...) or was eaten by an eagle. I sincerely hope for the latter.

PS: I would also like to refer you to a post I made a long time ago when I freaked out about a moth that I thought was eating my plants, but was in fact just laying the seeds that would in fact grow fulfill my greatest fears. Below, what the moth actually looks like:

Source:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1224.html

~ jesusnunezx