I've tried row covers on squash, and it didn't work for me either.

Hi liv2learn -
I have an acre in production and use row covers extensively. You are right, they can be a pain. To solve the problem of plants pushing up against the cover, I buy the row cover that is 83" wide and then bend over PVC pipes to form hoops. The potatoes do just find, but at some point you have to take the covers off the squash for them to get pollinated. So I use them mostly as a way to slow down the onslaught of squash bugs and stripped cucumber beetles. Eventually, both insects find their way to the squash, cukes and melons, but by then the plants have set a few fruit and I am able to get some harvested. I also keep planting zuchinni so the newer plants can take over once the first plantings bite the dust.

IMO, row covers are part of an ill-fated strategy: thinking that one can physically win against insects. One can't. If a crop can't produce without row-covers or pesticides, then the heck with it. Organic vegetable producers are addicted to row-covers because they are skewed too far toward mono-cropping for the most part, and are over using pelletized ferts and under using real compost. But IME crops can deal with insects on their own. They can deal with a lot of onerous stuff - insects, drought, fungi and bacteria given a more balanced environment. We've got a better chance at physically controlling pests more our own size - other mammals.

Well I just decided to take off the covers and throw caution to the wind. The squashes need more room to expand. The row cover is pretty wide (at least the 83") but still not wide enough to accommodate the potatoes which have grown huge.

Perhaps more of a strategy would be trying to plant a second crop of fast-growing squash after the influx of the bugs. I do interplant, rotate crops, and use composts extensively, but I only have a small home garden, so a loss of a few plants is pretty big to me. Growers that have a lot more plants can survive a certain percentage of loss from insects and disease.

If I only grew what didn't require help in my yard, then I think I would be reduced to eating only mint and sage. ;-)

You need to take the covers off the squash anyway, unless you're planning to hand-pollinate the flowers. If not, you would have great plants, no squash.

Wayne

I will say, again, that the Costata Romanesca zucchini that I started growing after MaryMd7 recommended it to me does not seem to be bothered by squash vine borers -- or rather, by the time the squash vine borers kill the zucchini, we are so sick of zucchini that I almost want to run out and say thank you to the squash vine borers. Costata Romanesca also tastes good. The stem juice does have some bizarre viscous properties, and the plant gets b-i-g, so it's not good for small gardens.

Zucchetta rampicante/Tromboncino is a moschata squash, so it doesn't have any problems with squash vine borers at all, but, while it was extremely productive, neither Mr. Alfie nor I liked the flavor at all.

PNBrown grows Costata Romanesca too, and he's in Massachusetts, so I know the variety works in Massachusetts -- although not necessarily your part of Massachusetts :-).

Oh I guess I tried the wrong variety in terms of taste this year then; I planted rampicante and not Romanesca in an effort to thwart the SVBs. Oh well...

No, no, you might like rampicante! Before I planted it, I read all over the Internet about how people love it. Just Mr. Alfie and I didn't. Watch out -- when I grew it in Baltimore, it climbed up the fence, into a tree, onto the garage roof, and practically over to the other side.