This morning's picture.

Here is a link that might be useful: Click here for a larger image.

This post was edited by Dulahey on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 9:48

Was the plant on the right ever as large and as healthy as the one on the left?

It was always slightly smaller, but they were the same health-wise. The plant on the right produced a lot more squash earlier than the left. I would say they were equal though.

Well, as suspected, I came home from work today to find another completely wilted squash plant. And I don't mean a little wilted... the leaves were completely hanging straight down from the end of the stems. I immediately checked the soil and thanks to the mulch the soil was plenty moist.

Is something eating the roots maybe?

Well, as suspected, I came home from work today to find another completely wilted squash plant. And I don't mean a little wilted... the leaves were completely hanging straight down from the end of the stems. I immediately checked the soil and thanks to the mulch the soil was plenty moist.

Is something eating the roots maybe?

It likely is Squash Vine Borers. Read the link below for info. I am quite a bit south of you and they started hitting my summer squash plants 2 weeks ago. The first one did what your plant did---appeared to be ill and dying, then rebounded, then up and died a few days later. The later ones have wilted one day and been dead the next. SVBs are an issue in my garden about 8 years out of 10.

This year I've lost 75% of my summer squash to them, and all in the last two weeks, but I planted early and got a really good harvest before the SVBs arrived.

I generally sow more seeds of yellow squash in a different area a couple of weeks later, or some years I sow new seeds monthly. As the SVBs find and take out a plant, I have a new one coming along elsewhere. Sometimes they find the newer ones and sometimes they don't.

It also could be something tunneling near the roots---a mole, vole, gopher, ground squirrel etc.

I'd look for signs of SVBs first.

It could be a disease, but usually at this time of year it is SVBs.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Info on Squash Vine Borers

I lost 2 squash to a gopher a few weeks ago. I just quit growing squash a couple of years ago because I had the same problem as you. I think most of my problem was from cucumber beetles, plus squash bugs. I am completely paranoid now about my squash and pumpkins.

Larry

Thanks, it sounds like SVB's are exactly what I have. I've gotten a pretty good harvest off these plants already so I'll probably just remove them tomorrow to try and prevent the larva stage. I guess it would be very risky to plant some winter squash in the same spot huh?

Larry, Our cats periodically wipe out all the moles and gophers, but they don't seem able to keep the vole population manageable. I now believe that the reason we used to see bobcats in the veggie garden so often (back when the fence was only 4' high) was that they were hunting for voles. Ever since we raised the fence to 8' high, voles are more and more of an issue.

When we built the new back garden, we found an extensive network of gopher tunnels, but no gophers. We planted. The back garden has been lovely, bountiful and highly productive, but we lose a new plant to voles every 3 or 4 days. Tim wants to rent a trencher and put galvanized hardware cloth 2' deep below ground all along the fenceline this winter. I am not sure it is worth all that time and expense. I'd just as soon deal with the issue by planting fruit trees and berry brambles in gopher baskets, and build raised beds lined with hardware cloth. I think it would be more effective.

The back garden sits sort of on a mesa that has lower ground on three sides of it....and by lower, I mean 4' lower on one side, and that's why I think the hardware cloth underground along the fenceline won't work, at least on that side.

It has been interesting to watch and see what the voles will eat.....they love fennel, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, daylilies, dahlias, lantana, fig trees and blackberry plants. They eat off the roots, and in the morning, you just find a plant lying on its side on the ground with no roots.

However, at least so far, in the back garden the voles haven't bothered sweet corn, cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, watermelon plants (the melons themselves are up on the trellises so they are safe if the voles don't eat the roots), green beans, okra, winter squash, yellow crookneck or straightneck summer squash, tomato plants, pepper plants, zinnias, angelonia, echinacea, moss rose, nicotiana, scabiosa, wormwood, rattail radishes, parsley, borage, most comfey (they got 1 of 9 plants), Laura Bush petunias,cypress vine, or the annual fruit (cape gooseberries, ground cherries and garden huckleberries). However, Tim likes to point out to me that the season is young and those little rascals still have time to eat everything that they haven't bothered so far.

I guess I'll keep watching to see what they do eat. Most of my winter squash plants are back there in that back garden and that is what I am most worried about. To make up for it, as I was harvesting potatoes from the front garden ,(including the two beds on the north end of the garden where the voles got most of the potatoes) I sowed winter squash in some of the areas where the potatoes came out. Maybe I'll have enough plants in the front garden that if the voles get the ones in the back garden, the plants in the front garden will survive. Normally I don't have voles in the front garden, but this year they got some of the potatoes, so who knows what to expect.

I tried to ensure the survival of my winter squash and pumpkins by planting some of them in each of the 4 big garden areas, and in multiple places within each garden. Some years it works to spread them around that way, and sometimes it doesn't. For winter squash and pumpkins, I normally plant C. moschata types because at least the squash vine borers rarely kill them. One thing that sometimes works for me with yellow straightneck and crookneck squash is to sow new seeds in July and August literally in the shadow of C. moschata plants. Often, the SVBs don't find them, and those plants flourish and produce a fall harvest.

You have to really stay on your toes to outwit all the pests, and some years you can do it successfully and some years you cannot.

I really wanted to grow a lot of pickling cukes this year and make a lot of pickles. I have a lot of trouble doing that because of cucumber beetles but decided to try anyway. I planted oodles of cucumber plants (Eureka, County Fair and H-19 Littleleaf, as well as green Armenian and green striped Armenian) and have been paranoid about the cucumber beetles ever since. I saw the first cucumber beetles way back in early March and saw a lot in April before I put the cucumber plants in the ground. How has it worked out? I've canned at least 80 jars of pickles so far. However, this week's heat combined with the spider mites and grasshoppers are starting to affect the cucumber plants and they look pretty ratty, but they still are producing a good harvest. I do think that Eureka and Littleleaf have really started to go downhill the last two or three days, and I imagine County Fair will start going downhill soon. Those cucumber beetles I was so worried about? I haven't seen a single one since I put the cucumber plants in the ground. Usually I see cucumber beetles on literally every flower of every kind that I grow. So, hmmmm, I wonder where they are this year? (Not that I am complaining.)

I was looking at the SVB-killed squash plants yesterday and just said "oh well, we had a good run" and picked the rest of the squash on the healthy plants since the SVBs are likely to hit them any day now. I love yellow squash, so usually just wait a few weeks for it to get late enough that the SVBs are done laying their eggs for the year, and then I plant more.

I think that being paranoid about all the pests is just part of gardening.

I wish I knew what had happened to the cucumber beetles this year, so that I could make it happen again next year.

At least we don't have pickle worms. I've never seen a pickle worm in my entire life on any plant I've grown or on any plant anyone that I know has grown. Now that I said that, they'll probably show up on my cucurbits tomorrow.

Dulahey, I'm going to link the TAMU Cucurbit Problem Solver for you. If you cannot find any signs of a tunneling beast like moles, voles or gophers, and if you cannot find any SVBs, you might go through the problem-solver. When you go to the problem solver, click on the problem area, like "leaf" or "stem" or whatever and it will bring up photos of different problems that affect that part of the plant. Click on any photo that interests you to read about what is causing the issue shown in the photo.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Cucurbit Problem Solver

Dulahey, It would be risky if you sow any cucurbit in that same spot, except for a C. moschata type. The C. moschata types of winter squash have solid stems/vines instead of hollow ones, so the SVBs generally don't mess with them. This year the C. moschata types I'm growing haven't been bothered at all. I've got Musquee de Provence, Seminole, Old-Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, and a couple of others growing in the same area where the yellow crookneck and yellow straightneck squash plants already have been hit by SVBs. Butternut is a C. moschata type and it usually withstands the onslaught of the SVBs pretty well. You might not find any of the ones I'm growing on the seed rack unless you have a seed rack from Baker Creek in a store near you, but seeds of butternut types still should be easy enough to find on the seed racks.

Dawn