Pilgrim
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Joined: Feb 28 2007
Location: Wisconsin
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: June 07 2013 at 7:57am | IP Logged
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Zucchini and any vining plants in particular get very wilty looking when they need water. Glad you tried that before ripping out your plants! We have had the wilting thing with our's, too, esp. as we have very sandy soil, and we have to water more frequently than most gardeners. Diagnosing what's wrong with plants can be a trial sometimes! 
We had vine borers for the first time last year, also, Jenn! It was so frustrating as we had planted 200 vine plants in one area(zucchini, cukes, squash) to feed our pigs, and we lost them all.  It was soooo disappointing, as we were trying to feed them entirely from our own garden. We hurried and planted more in another spot, and got a meager crop there. 
So anyway, on to solutions.
First I'll give the recipe for some natural stuff you can brush on the plants to get rid of the borer larvae once they are already there. A customer told us about this last year, sadly it was too late to save our plants, but we were grateful for the info to help others and for if we get them again. BTW, if you use this concoction be careful of getting it on the skin, as the cayenne will burn pretty good. If anyone ever gets hot pepper on the skin or it's burning your lips or mouth, try putting sour cream on it right away. I discovered this idea while researching for our seeds, but it would work great if using this mixture below and got it on the skin.
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"This is the second year in a row we've done this. This year I mixed it up thicker so it'd last longer and used a $1 paint brush from wal-mart to paint this stuff on the stems. It even stays on after it rains/after watering the plants many times for a while…at least three weeks once allowed to dry I'd say. Ratio = around 1 bottle of murphy's soap oil, one large container of cayenne pepper from Sam's, one little bottle of onion powder and garlic powder from wal-mart and about 3 gallons of hot water (I actually half this recipe and it covers all our squash plants which is a massive amount… you know, just mix it up however it looks good to you.) Let it dry on the vines and don't water until at least 24 hours probably.
I promise, last year I waited until the pests were way up in the stems of plants and sprayed it on, and about 90% of the squash plants perked back up and started fruiting again. I truly even harvested one squash by breaking it off (I understand cutting is better) and there was actually a larva crawling up into the squash stem trying to run from the repellent (never saw that before). He did a straight narrow, speedy, line of boring all the way up the vine trying to escape, and the plant lived because he didn't eat out the entire insides of the vine from wall to wall. After getting this stuff on my skin I noticed it feels similar to an extreme "icy hot/flex all 454" on my arms. I'd even notice it more when I ran water over my arms trying to get it off… though it actually felt pretty nice on the muscles…. but it was really making my skin tingle for days and the soap didn't take it off until a half week of showering. It must just soak straight throughout the vines and straight through their skin making them miserable. It worked really well again this year after they were in the plant. The plants again recovered pretty much fully and bore fruit for months. Vine Bores are a massive problem in Arkansas and my parents have been gardening for years and keep saying, "I've never seen squash plants last this long." |
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Below is also a natural method for preventing squash vine borers, if done early enough in the season, before they enter the plants, but late enough not to damage the young tender plants and leaves.
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| This year I realized from an old farmer that actually sprinkling cheap flour on the vines, keeps the vine bores away if you get it on the stalks before the moths lay their eggs. The flour gets hard after drying… after you water the plants a little…. giving the vines a thicker/hard covering similar to what Waltham Butternut has naturally. (However if the flour hardens on the leaves of young plants it will bind and destroy the little leaves making them unable to grow, although the young vine keeps growing sometimes through the hard flour… no need for the repellent measures anyway until the plants are past baby size). Flour only seemed to work though if you got it on first and kept it on around every 2 weeks, but it did work well as a preventative. |
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Hope this helps!
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: squash vine borer. . .
& ds1 
'03 & ds2 
'07
