Garden...

Althea said:
Can you take pics of the bugs?
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You had asked about a picture of these back in the spring when they showed up. I had killed them out but a few have showed up again. I won’t spray now because things are still blooming and I don’t want to damage any bees. Besides, I’ve had about all the cucumbers I need/want.

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I’ve included the un-cropped pic containing my old pocketknife for perspective. I was picking cucumbers when I encountered this fellow. I snapped the pic before squashing him. The Hen and Rooster circular seal on the knife has a diameter of about 7 mm.
 
leaningright said:
You had asked about a picture of these back in the spring when they showed up. I had killed them out but a few have showed up again. I won’t spray now because things are still blooming and I don’t want to damage any bees. Besides, I’ve had about all the cucumbers I need/want.

20p351w.jpg


s664d3.jpg


I’ve included the un-cropped pic containing my old pocketknife for perspective. I was picking cucumbers when I encountered this fellow. I snapped the pic before squashing him. The Hen and Rooster circular seal on the knife has a diameter of about 7 mm.
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Looks like a flea beetle. Some suggested organic controls: https://www.almanac.com/pest/flea-beetles
 
This is what I’m working on today.

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The crock on the right contains three day pickles on day two and the one on the left contains an experiment. Larger cucumbers, seeded and in lime water. I am going to attempt a sweet relish with them.

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leaningright said:
This is what I’m working on today.

2isbfqt.jpg


The crock on the right contains three day pickles on day two and the one on the left contains an experiment. Larger cucumbers, seeded and in lime water. I am going to attempt a sweet relish with them.
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Are the white squash pattypans? I've never tried one... tell us about them?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Are the white squash pattypans? I've never tried one... tell us about them?
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Yes, they’re pattypans. I didn’t learn that until a couple of years ago. We’ve always just called them white squash or Indian squash. My hillbilly grandmother always raised yellow squash and zucchini while my Indian grandmother and her relatives had substantially more of the white squash in their gardens. At any rate, I like them the best out of all squash I’ve tried, mainly because they cook up firmer than any I’ve tried. That’s my main complaint about most squash...it’s mushy.

You can basically do anything with pattypan squash that you can do with yellow squash. It has a nice, sweetish flavor like the yellow variety. My wife made a very good casserole Sunday using the white squash in her grandmother’s yellow squash recipe.
 
leaningright said:
Yes, they’re pattypans. I didn’t learn that until a couple of years ago. We’ve always just called them white squash or Indian squash. My hillbilly grandmother always raised yellow squash and zucchini while my Indian grandmother and her relatives had substantially more of the white squash in their gardens. At any rate, I like them the best out of all squash I’ve tried, mainly because they cook up firmer than any I’ve tried. That’s my main complaint about most squash...it’s mushy.

You can basically do anything with pattypan squash that you can do with yellow squash. It has a nice, sweetish flavor like the yellow variety. My wife made a very good casserole Sunday using the white squash in her grandmother’s yellow squash recipe.
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Putting those on next year's list of things to try!
 
leaningright said:
Yes, they’re pattypans. I didn’t learn that until a couple of years ago. We’ve always just called them white squash or Indian squash. My hillbilly grandmother always raised yellow squash and zucchini while my Indian grandmother and her relatives had substantially more of the white squash in their gardens. At any rate, I like them the best out of all squash I’ve tried, mainly because they cook up firmer than any I’ve tried. That’s my main complaint about most squash...it’s mushy.

You can basically do anything with pattypan squash that you can do with yellow squash. It has a nice, sweetish flavor like the yellow variety. My wife made a very good casserole Sunday using the white squash in her grandmother’s yellow squash recipe.
Click to expand...

I like to boil them long enough to soften the insides up, scoop out the guts to mix in with whatever other veg/meat I am hankering for and put them back in the squash to finish off in the oven. Basically like stuffed peppers.
 
Kacper said:
Looks like a flea beetle. Some suggested organic controls: https://www.almanac.com/pest/flea-beetles
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My flea beetles are much smaller. They look like fleas. Although, there are other flea beetles in other regions I'm sure. That one does look like a shiny flea beetle. The ones I have don't do much damage. They bore tiny holes in the leaves, and I have a small leafy weed that grows in my garden that seems to attract them. They really go to town on the weeds, leaving my plants alone.

I don't believe they are as bad as the squash vine borers that I thought LR had problems with.
 
Althea said:
My flea beetles are much smaller. They look like fleas. Although, there are other flea beetles in other regions I'm sure. That one does look like a shiny flea beetle. The ones I have don't do much damage. They bore tiny holes in the leaves, and I have a small leafy weed that grows in my garden that seems to attract them. They really go to town on the weeds, leaving my plants alone.

I don't believe they are as bad as the squash vine borers that I thought LR had problems with.
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squash vine borers are my bane. I am pretty much reduced to zuchinni. I keep trying yellow squash but they destroy them as soon as they start producing.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
I had that problem when we lived in STL as well. The other issue there was powdery mildew. I have yet to successfully grow any winter squash other than pumpkins. We'll see how this year's acorns turn out. I also planted these:

https://www.rareseeds.com/lakota-squash/
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I planted butternut squash a few years ago and got so absolutely sick of them I stopped harvesting and the sumbitches still laid around in the field long after the vines were gone just taunting me.
 
Kacper said:
squash vine borers are my bane. I am pretty much reduced to zuchinni. I keep trying yellow squash but they destroy them as soon as they start producing.
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Squash vine borers typically show up when you've been using the same spot for squash year after year. I got away with it for many years, but I planted nasturtium/white icicle radishes with the squash. I let the radishes go to seed, and come back year after year. The year my radishes didn't come up, I got the borers.

If you just give the spot a rest for two/three years, the eggs hatch and the borers have nothing to feed on.
 
Althea said:
Squash vine borers typically show up when you've been using the same spot for squash year after year. I got away with it for many years, but I planted nasturtium/white icicle radishes with the squash. I let the radishes go to seed, and come back year after year. The year my radishes didn't come up, I got the borers.

If you just give the spot a rest for two/three years, the eggs hatch and the borers have nothing to feed on.
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That hasn't worked with me. mine this year were planted a good three hundred feet from where they were last year and still showed up. I probably just won't plant any or will build a felt fortress around them next year as soon as they start surfacing from the ground. I have 4.4 billion square feet of the stuff. Not sure why I use it so seldom. Guess I am lazy.
 
Althea said:
Squash vine borers typically show up when you've been using the same spot for squash year after year. I got away with it for many years, but I planted nasturtium/white icicle radishes with the squash. I let the radishes go to seed, and come back year after year. The year my radishes didn't come up, I got the borers.

If you just give the spot a rest for two/three years, the eggs hatch and the borers have nothing to feed on.
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Thanks, good to know... esp. about the nasturium and white radishes... are they the same as daikon radishes?
 
Kacper said:
That hasn't worked with me. mine this year were planted a good three hundred feet from where they were last year and still showed up. I probably just won't plant any or will build a felt fortress around them next year as soon as they start surfacing from the ground. I have 4.4 billion square feet of the stuff. Not sure why I use it so seldom. Guess I am lazy.
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Have you tried the companion planting? Especially white icicle radishes. Maybe the nasturtiums confuse the beetles that lay the eggs? I'm under the impression that the eggs are laid in the soil, and emerge about mid season. That's odd that you got them so far away?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Thanks, good to know... esp. about the nasturium and white radishes... are they the same as daikon radishes?
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Probably similar. I'd think that the radishes below the ground must do something to the larvae, or just dissuade the laying of the eggs.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
I couldn't find that out about them, but they are used for "tillage," a winter cover crop, and soil improvement:

http://dirtsecrets.com/2015/03/daikon/
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Just re read some studies. The radish/nasturtiums work against squash bugs, but not borers. Something I haven't used on squash, but have on brassicas and on my apple trees, is BT spray. It's an amazing way to murder any type of caterpillar, and it doesn't harm anything else. It has an organic rating of 0, which means it can literally be applied on the same day as harvest.

I found an interesting idea here. Yellow bowls are something I've never tried.
 
Althea said:
Just re read some studies. The radish/nasturtiums work against squash bugs, but not borers. Something I haven't used on squash, but have on brassicas and on my apple trees, is BT spray. It's an amazing way to murder any type of caterpillar, and it doesn't harm anything else. It has an organic rating of 0, which means it can literally be applied on the same day as harvest.

I found an interesting idea here. Yellow bowls are something I've never tried.
Click to expand...

Great article.... thanks! Now that I've read the description of what the infestation looks like, that explains what seemed to often happen to my squash where we used to live. The yellow bowl trick sounds like something to try as well. Where we live now is not an agricultural area so I'm hoping that we won't be as bothered by the borers/bugs as in STL. Last year I only grew zukes and they did amazingly well with neither powdery mildew or signs of insects. We'll see how the winter squash do this year. If all else fails I can grow them inside the greenhouse next year.
 
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