Squash growing experience

Good tip, May! I don’t have squash bugs, but do have squash vine borer.

Today as luck would have it I actually saw the moth laying eggs when I was out in the garden at lunch. I swatted her, and then checked my plants. I’ve never managed to get the eggs before they hatch, because I did not really know *when* to look for them. Today I scraped dozens of eggs off my maxima (Navaho Green) and Pepo (striped maycock). Borer ignored or didn’t find my mixta squash (Illinois cushaw) or moschata (Myaamia tan).

I noted this in the garden calendar I am keeping this year, so next year I can be reminded to look for the eggs at end of June when currants are ripe.

Mk Neal wrote:Good tip, May! I don’t have squash bugs, but do have squash vine borer.

Today as luck would have it I actually saw the moth laying eggs when I was out in the garden at lunch. I swatted her, and then checked my plants. I’ve never managed to get the eggs before they hatch, because I did not really know *when* to look for them. Today I scraped dozens of eggs off my maxima (Navaho Green) and Pepo (striped maycock). Borer ignored or didn’t find my mixta squash (Illinois cushaw) or moschata (Myaamia tan).

I noted this in the garden calendar I am keeping this year, so next year I can be reminded to look for the eggs at end of June when currants are ripe.

Squash Vine borers arrive around the same time here and so far I haven't seen any eggs. Maybe I get lucky this year.

You have so many interesting squashes. I've never grown any of them.

May Lotito wrote:

Squash Vine borers arrive around the same time here and so far I haven't seen any eggs. Maybe I get lucky this year.

You have so many interesting squashes. I've never grown any of them.

Thanks! The Navaho green is the only one I’ve grown before. The other seeds I got from Blake Lenoir. They are heirloom varieties from the lower Great Lakes First Nations.

Now that my squash plants are tall and lush, it's not practical to check every leaf for bug eggs. Instead I come out at night with a portable work light and shine underneath the leaves. That gives me the x-ray vision to find any hidden eggs quickly.

More squash vine borer woes! The adults are still at it, and my plants are too big and rambling to check thoroughly. So, inevitably some vines got bored. ☹️.  Some larger critter (a robin, maybe?) came to eat the borer-maggots and ripped up and severed half my squash vines😣.  I reburied  the vines, and some have rerooted  but others are a loss.

Sorry to hear that. I saw my plants dying right in front of my eyes before. It just happened so quickly.

This year I also lost at least a dozen cucumbers to cucumber beetles. Luckily I planted a lot more and still have some left.

My harvest is starting to come in for winter squashes.

May Lotito wrote:Now that my squash plants are tall and lush, it's not practical to check every leaf for bug eggs. Instead I come out at night with a portable work light and shine underneath the leaves.

Thanks May! I just fount out that it works on heavily overcast days too.

Glad it helps.
We had a really bizarre weather this year and the squash bugs keep coming from somewhere. I am killing over 100 adults per week. Now the plants have long vines and they like to hide underneath. I spray water at night and get them out quite effectively. And the shop light is a game changer.
Not very permie but my plants are just beginning to produce. I do have some garden invertebrate friends to help with pest control though.

Mystery squashes I have this year.
Cushaw and delicata?

did you plant mixta/cushaw? that first one looks more moschata/longneck butternut than cushaw to me.

I have regular butternut and it is shorter than this.
Pearl gave me some seeds say unknown squash, maybe that's where it came from. That squash is 16 inches long right now.
The second one is probably f2 of hybrid stripetti. Bushy, thorny and seems to be self incompatible.

agreed, normal butternut is shorter, but ‘tahitian’ butternut and others like it are longer. i’ve never grown the specific longer varieties myself, but squash that look like that (or like that, only green and spotted like a ‘long of naples’) regularly show up in my moschata landrace. got some pushing past 2 feet long right now.

If I recall correctly, the "unknown" ones were either Blue Jarrahdale/Queensland Blue or Butternut, the label came off, but that's what I had going at that time. Someone else who got some definitely grew the Blue off of them.

Not sure what kind you got there. If it turns blue, I'll say it came from me :D

I have been growing squashes for a few years now from seeds I saved. Almost all heirlooms lost the characteristic traits after just one generation: Cinderella pumpkin no longer flat, peanut pumpkin getting smoother and the Halloween pumpkin getting smaller and smaller. Due to limited space I usually just grow two for each kind. Looks like I need to plant a lot more to avoid degeneration.

On the other hand, hybrid seeds from store bought squashes are fun to grow with all the surprises in the offsprings. I have something new this year: huge 5-lbs acorn and bright orange spaghetti squashes.

I cross-pollinated an apple gourd and a bottle gourd. I couldn't find information about the resulting hybrid. Will the F1 be any shape in between and the F2s segregate into apple and bottle shapes again?  Any idea?

I wanted to summarize some observations on the squash bugs. I planted different squashes in different soil conditions and the degrees of infestation and damages were different.

Maxima(kabocha) in poor soil: most easily attacked and I spent a lot of time picking bugs off these plants till the squashes reached maturity. Most plants directly killed after just bearing one fruit.

Maxima(red kuri,  in rich soil: modestly affected. Adult bugs sucked on the vines and created wounds for microbes infection and killed the plants indirectly.

Butternut in poor soil(right next to maxima): not affected until all maximas were gone. Older leaves were attacked by the nymphs first but the whole plants were not killed.

Butternut in rich soil: some infestation early in the season. After picking the adults I saw very few nymphs and the plants are still healthy till the end of the season.

Long island cheese: no damage
Acorn squash/summer squash: some infestation, yield unaffected


I stopped handling with squash bugs since mid August and let the predators in the garden area to take care of the remaining adults and nymphs. They did a great job, for the first time, I have squashes growing all the way till frost and there are only a few bugs spotted occasionally.

I am going to keep on improving the soil and try more maxima squashes next year.

Round up the majority of my harvest to take a group picture.
I also bought a 3oz pack of winter squash collection from True Leaf Market. I am really excited for some surprise squashes next year.

I crossed apple gourd with birdhouse gourd and got a...

BARBAPAPA!

I got little harvest from squash seeds I intentionally planted compared to the volunteers. And they are not even grown on a compost pile. It was the site I made compost though and I removed most of the compost for the garden, only leaving a thin layer to cover the ground. Even so the fertility left behind was still able to feed the massive plants.