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gardening for beginners

Vine Borers- Squash plants

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posted 10 months ago

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Hello,
About to plant some squash in my raised beds here in central Texas. Last time I had squash I had a serious problem with vine borers. I am wondering if anyone has any tips as to how to avoid them or keep them away, or what plants would possibly deter them? Thanks in advance!

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 16099

Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 10 months ago

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I have never had squash bugs.

I don't know if that is because I plant French Marigolds and Sweet Alyssum.

I am sure other folks have some remedies and will chime in.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Jake Esselstyn

pollinator

Posts: 120

Location: South Louisiana, 9a

posted 10 months ago

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Grow moschata varieties. Their solid stems are resistant. The other varieties never survive vine borers here.

Amy Jurek

Posts: 36

Location: Central New York, zone 6a

posted 10 months ago

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Borers always attack our summer squash, but we rarely lose plants to them. Do a cursory inspection of the plants every other day until you see tell tale wilting occur. Then check daily. Follow the stem down until you see the frass, usually near the junction, sometimes on the underside. Once located take a pocket knife and make a small slit through the opening cutting along the length of the stem (not across) and move the tip of the knife until you impale/squish the grub (the plant will heal). Be vigilant after you catch your first borer. For us, there's usually one outbreak and rarely anything after, the key is to catch them early.

George Booth

Posts: 56

posted 10 months ago

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I'm trying something I was inspired by a grower on youtube was doing. He didn't set up anything fancy, he just took a blanket of mesh screen fabric and covered his plants with it. He didn't know what bugs were doing the pollinating under there but somehow he was getting pollinated fruits. I'm doing it slightly differently where I hand pollinate the first few fruits on the vine and then leave the cover on full time after, I'll get a few fruits at least and if any little bugs end up pollinating more fruits then they will be a welcomed bonus. So far I've never been able to harvest a big squash successfully, I got a few patty pans last year before the squash borers wrecked it. I've got some HoneyNut squash seeds in the mail and hopefully this trick works and I can finally start enjoying some squashes.

craig howard

pollinator

Posts: 423

Location: zone 5-5

148

posted 10 months ago

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I had this problem but followed some advice I found on here.
Now I don't actually put them into the ground until June.
The borers are done laying their eggs by then.
You might try to figure out their life cycle where you live.

Start them in pots under screen/mesh to get them going early.

S Victoria

Posts: 9

posted 9 months ago

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Thank you guys for all the great advice!

Denise Skidmore

Posts: 12

posted 9 months ago

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Amy Jurek wrote:Borers always attack our summer squash, but we rarely lose plants to them. Do a cursory inspection of the plants every other day until you see tell tale wilting occur. Then check daily. Follow the stem down until you see the frass, usually near the junction, sometimes on the underside. Once located take a pocket knife and make a small slit through the opening cutting along the length of the stem (not across) and move the tip of the knife until you impale/squish the grub (the plant will heal). Be vigilant after you catch your first borer. For us, there's usually one outbreak and rarely anything after, the key is to catch them early.

This was my father's method, he grew butternut annually. In addition he would heap up dirt over the stem above the wound, so the plant would be encouraged to produce more roots above the compromised nutrient route.

Amy Jurek

Posts: 36

Location: Central New York, zone 6a

posted 9 months ago

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Denise Skidmore wrote:This was my father's method, he grew butternut annually. In addition he would heap up dirt over the stem above the wound, so the plant would be encouraged to produce more roots above the compromised nutrient route.

Great idea to mound up soil on your winter squash! I never really thought about it but it always seems as if our summer squash is plagued by borers, rarely the winter squash. We grow all different types of winter squash, Kabochas & Sugar Hubbard's being my favorite. I think that the summer squash has become our trap plant for borers, since the plants tend to be established weeks before the winter squash. It's certainly easier to find them in the plants because of their bush habit, our winter squash field always becomes a jungle and would definitely be more difficult to find borers (pic is last years winter squash field).

PXL_20230824_173717017.jpg

Cujo Liva

Posts: 94

Location: Indiana

posted 9 months ago

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Check into tromboncino squash. It isn't for everyone, but I've stopped growing all other squashes.

Pluses:
-Resistant to vine borers.
-Very disease resistant.
-Can be eaten as a summer squash when young or allowed to fully mature, grow a thicker skin and used as a winter squash (including being excellent for storage).

Potential minuses:
-It grows as a large vine (up to 40' long). I have a smaller garden, so I actually grow mine up a fruit tree in my mini-orchard. It expands through the canopy and I end up getting two harvests each year from the trees- first fruit and later squash.

Matthew Nistico

pollinator

Posts: 728

Location: Clemson, SC ("new" Zone 8a)

162

posted 5 months ago

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Cujo Liva wrote:Check into tromboncino squash. It isn't for everyone, but I've stopped growing all other squashes.

Pluses:
-Resistant to vine borers.
-Very disease resistant.
-Can be eaten as a summer squash when young or allowed to fully mature, grow a thicker skin and used as a winter squash (including being excellent for storage).

Potential minuses:
-It grows as a large vine (up to 40' long). I have a smaller garden, so I actually grow mine up a fruit tree in my mini-orchard. It expands through the canopy and I end up getting two harvests each year from the trees- first fruit and later squash.

Absolutely, this is my solution as well. I have similarly stopped growing anything but tromboncino (also called rampicante), though someday I also wish to experiment with Seminole pumpkin. I have considered the whole growing-squash-up-a-tree concept. Glad to hear that somebody has actually done this with some success.

I have seen these squash take over an entire garden before. They are indeed that voracious. Consider "centercut squash," a supposedly-improved variety of tromboncino sold by Row 7 Seed Co., probably among other seed outlets - https://www.row7seeds.com/products/centercut-squash-seeds

In addition to improved taste and texture, it is marketed as a slightly more compact plant than classic tromboncino, though still large.

Blazing trails in disabled homesteading

Mary Cook

Posts: 294

Location: rural West Virginia

posted 5 months ago

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I'm in West Virginia. I state that at the outset because I think this is very much a regional issue. Carol Deppe says she grows various maxima squash (Cucurbita maxima--most seed companies will tell you which of the four species your seeds are) and pepos and doesn't grow moschatas because in Oregon she doesn't get enough heat for them. Here, i just can't grow maximas--the vine borers get them. But I don't have problems with the moschatas, or the pepos (summer squash). I think all squash are troubled by squash bugs, and my usual solution is to look under every leaf every other day once they're really rolling, to remove the egg clusters and squash any hatched bugs I see. And secondly, dispose of the plants in the chicken yard, and the mulch somewhere outside the garden--the first year i left it and the next spring the squash bugs were so voracious I could grow cucurbits. This year for some reason--perhaps the heat and drought--the squash bugs never became a problem. But my summer squash have been lush and productive--the winter squash slower than usual and I see few fruits, but when we get more rain and cooler temps maybe they'll take off. Incidentally, I tried the Seminole pumpkin twice, and both times they made long- vines but didn't flower until September, then flowered like mad so I had to pick off baby fruits daily to try to get enough energy to the first fruits to mature before frost in October--unsuccessfully. If you want bigger fruits than butternuts, grow the Tahitian melon squash--they are similar and also very long keeping, but tice the size with a long curved neck.

Melissa Kirsten

Posts: 2

posted 5 months ago

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S Victoria wrote:Hello,
About to plant some squash in my raised beds here in central Texas. Last time I had squash I had a serious problem with vine borers. I am wondering if anyone has any tips as to how to avoid them or keep them away, or what plants would possibly deter them? Thanks in advance!

David the good on you tube suggests to bury vines in different places like halfway mark on a vine so it puts roots and if something happens to the main plant it will not affect from where you buried it and beyond. It made sense to me. I hope it helps someone. I have never tried it as I have never encountered the vine borer.
Minnesota.

Thom Bri

pollinator

Posts: 500

Location: Illinois

108

posted 5 months ago

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Melissa Kirsten wrote:

S Victoria wrote:
David the good on you tube suggests to bury vines in different places like halfway mark on a vine so it puts roots and if something happens to the main plant it will not affect from where you buried it and beyond. It made sense to me. I hope it helps someone. I have never tried it as I have never encountered the vine borer.
Minnesota.

I have done this. I also pile dirt up into a mound over and around the original stem and sometimes all along the stem as far as I can. I did it because it was a very dry year, but I think it helped keep the stem borers off too. This year I did not do it and am losing lots of plants to stem borers.

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