How big is your garden and how many tomato plants?

[sixdogs]

Thanks for the help guys The plant with the rot is in the middle of the row the ones on either side look good, is there something I should do with them? Thanks DFB this plant comes up every year scattered all over the garden, I have never seen it anywhere else. This thing comes up even in the worst growing conditions and keeps coming back. Thanks for the link I would never have dreamed what all it is used for!

Spray them with roundup or generic to kill them and never let a weed go to seed in the garden. We have done that and now rarely have a weed show up. If you just pull the weeds out you leave enough of the weed to grow again. Forget to kill one that's hidden in the corn, it goes to seed and some if these weeds hold untold thousand of seeds.

 

[Creamer]

A lot of gardeners on this thread so I have to ask. Squash bugs - we used to grow great squash and we tried to keep the garden organic. After about ten years we started losing all of our vines to squash bugs. I started using Sevin on the plants but still lost them The last two years I did not plant any vines to try to break the cycle and this year again my plants have been attacked. Suggestions?

 

[lakngulf]

Just keep planting. Squash seed germinates easily (I start mine inside and then transplant), so I just keep planting. I have a small can of sevin, and sprinkle a little where the stems come out of the ground. Helps some, but not always. This time of the year (hot summer) lots of attacks on plants and fruit, and the earlier squash plants have succumbed to the heat and humility.....just plant more

By the way, does anyone know where to buy bulk sevin? Like the 5 lb bag? I can only find the small cannisters.

 

[jinman]

Last year, I fought squash bugs over and over until they won. Technically, they did not win, but the plant viruses they carry caused my plants to collapse. I still got squash, but not a good production. This year, I was determined to win the war on squash bugs. I did not use Sevin Dust a single time. I stayed with the liquid Sevin. My first treatment was on the ground around the plant using Bayer Advanced fruit and vegetable treatment that goes on the ground around the plants and is systemic. In addition, I checked the plants for bugs every few days (sometimes daily) and gave them the thumb and forefinger 'hug-a-bug' treatment. I also sprayed with Sevin weekly and after any rain shower that washed it away. I also examined every leaf of the small plants for squash bug eggs, giving them the aforementioned hug-a-bug squish treatment. I briefly tried Spinosad, but found it had little effect on the bugs. As my plants matured and started producing fruit. My insecticide changed to Malathion spray. I broadcast sprayed the leaves and then sprayed the stalks from the ground out to where the bloom pods began. I tried my best to carefully keep insecticide off of the bloom pods so I was not directly attacking bees. Even as the plants were mature and producing nicely, I would still find pods of seeds on the leaves. My grandson got really good at spotting them. With all this attention, we've had a tremendous squash harvest and continue to get two or three times more squash than we can eat or put in the freezer. We have not had any infestation of squash bugs. I have not even seen a single bug in the last month. I've seen grasshoppers, but no squash bugs. I noticed an assassin beetle and a big wolf spider this week, but no squash bugs. The beetle and spider are good guys, helping me by eating other bugs.

It's taken a tremendous amount of close attention and work with different insecticides to keep my squash bugs away. Weekly sprayings and lots of inspections is something I can do because I am retired and have so much spare time to spend on my garden. The payoff is buckets and buckets of beautiful yellow squash and zucchinis. I'm sure the Sevin dust works where you can get it, but I just like the liquid insecticides and my little 1-gallon sprayer for application. With the 1-gal sprayer freshly mixed, I can generally spray everything in my whole garden, including a light broadcast spray of my tomatoes to keep worms away.

 

[randy41]

A lot of gardeners on this thread so I have to ask. Squash bugs - we used to grow great squash and we tried to keep the garden organic. After about ten years we started losing all of our vines to squash bugs. I started using Sevin on the plants but still lost them The last two years I did not plant any vines to try to break the cycle and this year again my plants have been attacked. Suggestions?

for organic growing you can use pyganic for squash bugs but it has no residual killing power. it also kills pollinators (as i guess sevin does also)so it's applied very early in the morning or late in the evening when most pollinators have turned in for the night. you spray it on the bugs not the plant.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I do basically the same thing Jim Inman stated above. It is very important to spray the ground around the plants. I use a different product name but it is still the same.

I am doing the same treatment to my pumpkins.

No squash bugs this year:thumbsup: However once my squash started producing two monsoon rains cam in and broke all the big leaves off at the stem

I am planting squash and cucumbers again this week end for a late crop.

 

[DFB]

Adult squash bugs are almost impossible to kill even with insecticides. They like to hide under boards, baskets, mulches and crop residue and easily winter over to the next season. I used to find them in the storage areas of winter squash months after harvest.

Look for the eggs and hatch, early spraying of the nymphs and eggs gives the best success with pesticide applications Acetamiprid(Assail) and Carbyl (Sevin) are recommended along with Pyrethrins and are all non federally restricted products. All are seriously toxic to bees so spray late in the day.

Crop rotation has already been mentioned

My take on Spinosad is those products do work good but there best for caterpillars, worms and Colorado potato beetle (CPB)


Blue Hubbard winter squash, Buttercup and cucurbita maxima varieties like giant pumpkins has been found to be favorite of squash bugs and cucumber beetles and its been recommended for years now to plant trap crops for local control of both insects. Its been reported to work for so well some growers protected crops may not even need to sprayed at all.

 

[Larro Darro]

I did a lifetime's worth of squash growing back when I truck farmed. If feel like a mess now, I just get some from my cousin's, or sister's garden.
We went through a bad stretch with tomato worms eating the pepper, but that has stopped now. Today there were only four peppers with damage, and it didn't look like it was from tomato worms. Do you like my red neck rubber gloves? You don't want to pick Habanero when it's wet without something to protect you. I wipe my eyes too often to risk it.



I used Sevin early, but haven't in a while. Here is why. I enjoy the butterflies about as much as the veggies.



The rain is what is hurting me now. I threw three melons away this morning.





And with all this rain, this is what happens if you miss a day picking peppers.



This is the gourds that came up by the front porch. [we gave the kittens a dry gourd to play with, and they played a hole in it] The first gourd. Lots of blooms. Reaching for the sky. Insecticide.



Sorry for the large amount of pictures, but like Rod Stewart said, every picture tells a story, don't it.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Larro,

That's some nice looking peppers. I pick on Friday evenings for the Farmers Market Saturday morning. Last week I picked 2 bushel of bell, 1 bushel sweet banana, and 1/2 bushel of Jalapeno. Attached a pic, bells go real fast.

You may also notice we changed our farm name.


I watch a local TV show last night of a guy in Charlotte NC that is going for the worlds hottest pepper 1.4 to 1.5 million Scoville.

 

[Creamer]

its been recommended for years now to plant trap crops for local control of both insects. Its been reported to work for so well some growers protected crops may not even need to sprayed at all.

What is a trap crop?