My friend Wendy sent me some Blue Hubbard squash seeds in the mail.
We’ll see if I can pull them off despite the vine borers. Maybe I’ll soak everything with neem oil this time.
OR DDT!
Just kidding. I can’t get DDT here. Besides, I am reliably informed that the application of said pesticide would be akin to paving paradise.
But I’m tempted. I really want Hubbards.
Yet am I so shallow as to abandon my principles for the sake of an heirloom squash with “huge, teardrop-shaped fruit (that) weigh 15-40 lbs and have sweet, fine-grained, golden flesh”?(1)
I mean…
And I am a thought leader now, so I shouldn’t even JOKE about DDT!
Shame on you, David The BAD!
But –
No, I must resist.
And I will resist the urge to nuke the vine borers from orbit. Even if that means the vine borers win.
The public demands it, and I am a humble servant of the masses.
(1) Baker Creek’s description.
Hubbard squash image by Jamain – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
2 comments
At an IPM presentation I went to, the entomology prof said hubbards are highly attractive to borers (I’ve forgotten the chemical in them). He even suggesting putting a handful of hubbards around the perimeter of the garden planted three weeks before the main crop to draw in vine borers who could be burned, poisoned, etc to knock down the population before the main squash crop started to be vulnerable.
Just last week I heard a new-to-me control method. Go out to the garden with a length of wire and a flashlight. Shine the flashlight through the stem from the back to find the borer. Use the wire to impale and kill the larva while causing minimal damage.