The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Sauly

My kind friend Maxie watered my garden for a week while I was away. Thanks to her help, my garden survived that Stage 2 drought. But even Maxie’s sweet sweet Garden Whispering couldn’t save it from a barrage of pest ridiculousness. As I surveyed the damage, I wanted to hammer out a little Ball of Rage post about how stupid Nature is being. But then I realized that no one’s going to read this thing if I always sound like some kind of sullen pre-teen. After all, if I had a penny for every time I de-friended someone on Facebook for posting status updates that make me want to call the Waa Waa Waambulance, I’d have enough money to buy a box of Pop Tarts.

So here it is: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly…

THE GOOD:

PEPPERS ARE HAPPENING

My Sweet Peas look like a bunch of hippies

After weeks of exposure and extreme gross negligence, my 10 asparagus roots got planted. I had assumed they were way past dead. SURPRISE SURVIVAL! These beauties keep popping up like little presents. I’m trying not to step on them, but I am bad at sports (i.e. most forms of coordination), so no promises.

No new cases of wilting tomatoes! Plus, the wilted one that I left is miraculously still making a delicious tomato. Thanks, Wilty.

SPINACH FOREST!

We had abandoned all hope of enjoying our summer squash after the invasion of the vine borers, but we came home to 3 chewable-sized treats.

Would you believe it?! The zucchini survived the squash vine borer and subsequent borer-removal surgery (on the left). What resilient and forgiving plants.

THE BAD:

RETURN OF THE VINE BORERS. While one of my zucchini plants is thriving post-surgery, its buddies were looking a little bit sucky (see the previous picture, right). Closer inspection showed that the little buggers were back… or were missed the first time. Since they were already damaged, this second shot at cutting open the stem to pluck out the grubs severed the plants from their main root systems. I buried the stumps in compost and crossed my fingers. LESSON LEARNED: If you’re cutting open to get at squash vine borer, you might as well be thorough the first time even if it means risking unnecessary damage to the plant. Likely, more borers than you think are hiding in the stem and you will only have to cut it open again later.

The dreaded cucumber beetle is all up in my grill. Don’t be fooled by the fancy stripes, this guy is NOT cool or fun. More on this later.

(THIS JUST IN: I now reign victorious over the cucumber beetles! Click here for the update)

Now, I’m no food critic, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to eat these tomatoes. They look like they got into a laser fight while I was gone. Since I left, they’ve developed open, black-rimmed scars on their undersides. More on this later, too.

(THIS JUST IN: the laser-tomato problem is called Catfacing! Click here for the update)

THE UGLY:

hahahahahhhahahahahahah

Squash Vine Borer

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Sauly

Honestly. My garden has more characters creating drama than the cast of The Young and The Restless.

It’s been hot here. Really, really, haven’t-even-towelled-off-yet-from-that-cold-shower-and-I’m-already-sweating hot. So, when my (previously thriving) zucchini plants started to wilt, I chalked it up to the fact that the plants probably felt the way I was feeling in the heat.

NOT SO!

Today, I decided to take a casual garden stroll in the incinerating afternoon sun. Why I decided to wait for the paralyzing heat to really investigate what’s going on is a mystery, but nevertheless I decided to have a closer peek at my droopy zucs. Here is what I noticed, right at the base of the stem:

crusty, mealy yellowish-green grainy deposits
white/grey lesions that looked a bit like cracks

This new observation immediately unleashed “Saul 1.0”- my obsessive-compulsive alter-ego. She is an irrational, impulsive honey badger (<– warning: swear words!)- but she gets the job done. So Saul 1.0 got a sharp knife, went back out into the sweltering heat and- whilst sweating profusely- and cut some small incisions where the grey lesions were. And

LOOK.

WHAT.

HAPPENED.

Squash Vine Borer

Can you see that?! Can you see that little jerk in there, peeking out at me, as if to say, “Hey! Look! I just chewed myself a condo inside your plant!”. Well, not for long, buddy. This guy got stone-cold evicted by Saul 1.0. What’s worse? I checked my other zucchini plants and ALL SIX OF THEM had the bugs. One plant had FOUR borers inside of it.

I looked for info in my usual books, and they all talk about this pest but their only recommendation is chemical sprays. No thanks. Then I found this interesting post at gardens alive and followed its advice.

IF THE BORERS ARE ALREADY THERE: Cut a small incision in the stem where you see the yellow sawdust-like deposits, remove and kill the bugs, and bury the damaged part of the stem under compost and hope that it spreads new roots. This is what I’ve tried, but I’m not very optimistic that my zucchinis will bounce back, seeing as the stems were so mangeled after the borer/Saul 1.0 combo was finished with them.

Sadly, waiting for the wilting is leaving it a bit too late. So, Future Saul 1.0 will be more proactive next year:

… maybe it will bounce back?

STOP THE EGGS: adult moths (they look like red-bellied wasps) lay TINY eggs at the base of the stem in the spring. One way to prevent this is to “cut little pieces of row cover and use them to just wrap the vine itself. Do this before you plant, so that the covered section of the vine extends below the soil line; add more wrapping as the vine grows larger”.
KILL THE EGGS: You may not be able to see them, but a weekly spray of the vine with insecticidal soap should smother them.
BTK: “one of the oldest organic pest controls… Sold under brand names like Dipel, Thuricide and Green Step, this form of Bt ONLY kills caterpillars that munch on the sprayed plant part; it affects nothing else. So spray the vines once a week… Or just wipe the stems every five days vigorously with a damp cloth.”
CHECK YOUR SOIL: If you’ve already noticed the borers, chances are that even MORE of them will be waiting in the soil there for next year’s crop. Make sure you hoe up the area before you plant next, and kill and cocoons you spot- they should be about an inch deep.

So, my friends, I shall keep you updated. Keep your fingers crossed- not just for me, but for Gabe, too. He has been sulking since I gave all of our ripe zucchinis to our landlord last week. I was able to stop his pouting by promising him that soon enough, we’ll have more zucchini than we’ll know what to do with. Just wait ’till I break this news to him tonight. Hopefully these zucs are as resilient as they are delicious, and hopefully I managed to find all of those little buggers…