Started in PT: cucumber, watermelon, cantalope summer squash, winter squash (forgot to buy butternut)

Started a bunch of seeds in PT today -- some of these will be for the yard, some will be for gaga:

- Cucumber:  Eureka

- Zucchini:  8-Ball

- Zucchini:  Golden Glory

- Zucchini:  Dark Green

- Summer squash:  Golden Scallopini

- Watermelon:  Blacktail Mountain

- Cantalope:  Hales Best Jumbo (from the foil packet collection)

- Winter squash:  Jumbo Pink Banana (used up the last of the foil packet seeds)

- Winter squash:  Cushaw White

I forgot that I didn't have any butternut squash seeds, so I will buy some and definitely grow that too.

Still many beets, potatoes, and squash (and a few carrots) from last year

Last year's harvest still here:

- beets (quite a few)
- potatoes
- carrots (only a few left now)
- butternut squash (5, including 2 biggg ones...  slowly getting through them)
- jumbo pink banana squash (the 2 ginormous first harvested ones, and one relatively reasonable size)


The freezer meals are getting eaten, but still lots left.

Borers in a butternut and banana!!

Argh, a borer got into the top of one of the nice butternuts, right near the stem.  Removed him/her; provided I eat the squash soon I think it will be fine.

And, a borer got into the stem of one of the banana squash (the stem close to the fruit).  I think it was only one (removed).  Will have to eat this one too sooner than later.

All zucchini and almost all squash plants pulled

Pulled the two remaining zucchini because they were clearly not going to produce anything else.

Pulled the squash except for the vertical vine.  The vines were dead in a lot of spots, including the butternut, not sure if because of the cold, or borers, or something else.

Harvested second pink banana squash, but underside has holes

I was sad to see on the second pink banana squash that I harvested, that the underside has some holes in it.

The smallest hole/damage was clearly a SVB -- it was sort of frassy, and featured a tiny dead SVB caterpillar, I guess starved to death after not being able to bore all the way in.

Two larger holes are a mystery, not sure what caused them.

All of the holes are in the section closer to the stem.  So, I will try cutting into it half-way, to see if the other half is usable.

Powdery mildew: Applied a more-diluted baking soda mixture

Today's application:

8 cups water
2 Tbsps baking soda
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Let's see if this works... or, if it's again too strong...

The remaining zucchinis are really starting to get hit with the mildew.

Powdery mildew: Oops -- too strong of a baking soda mixture -- leaves burnt!!

Last night I applied the following baking soda mixture since the apple cider thing hasn't been working.

Well!

Today after work I came home to find the leaves burnt through!  OMG!  On the bright side, it certainly addressed the powdery mildew in those spots! 

This is what I used --
DON'T USE THIS RECIPE BEC IT'S TOO STRONG.
- 4 cups water
- 6 Tbsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil


NEXT TIME, try putting at least twice as much water as this, see if that works better:
- 8 cups water
- 6 Tbsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Harvested 13 pound jumbo pink banana squash!

Finally decided to harvest the first of the jumbos that had set, in the NW corner.  Weighs in at 13 pounds!

Hoping it will store well since zuke/tomato harvest continues strongly and freezer is verrrry rapidly filling up!

Powdery mildew persists despite repeated apple cider vinegar treatments and cutting leaves

As the title says. 

Occasionally removing the worst-affected leaves, and, repeating apple cider vinegar solution applications.  But then a few days later, more leaves look terrible.

Powdery mildew worsening... applied cider mixture yesterday and today

Powdery mildew worsening... Applied cider mixture yesterday (fresh batch) but today it still seems worse, so re-applied.

The central winter squash have it the worst by far, but some of the zucchinis are also starting.

Powdery mildew has returned and spread

The powdery mildew in the central patch of squash has returned, and is in more leaves, as well as a few zucchini leaves.  So, sprayed more apple cider vinegar solution.  (left-over from original batch)

It rained hard a few minutes after I applied it, so may need to re-apply tomorrow.

Have been injecting btk in central squash vines where suspecting borers

As title says.

So far the central patch, and the vertical butternut, look good except for that one jumbo pink banana vinelet that died August 4th.

JPB sub-vine lost to SVB!!!! 3 worms found in vines/stems including one with 2 biggest bananas!!! Started BTK. Another moth.

Despite all my vigilance, I missed the damage on one sub-vine until it was too late.  Fortunately, that sub-vine (W side) didn't have any fruit on it.  Removed it.

Unfortunately, that sub-vine joins up to the main vine that leads to the two biggest/oldest banana squash!!!!!!!!  And one of the worms was right in the crook/joint of that sub-vine, so I really had to dig him/her out (which I did -- positive i.d.).  Covered this wound with a bunch of wet soil which I tried to "wrap" onto the area.

Hopefully the fact that the vine has rooted at many places will keep those squash going enough to ripen at least.

Caved and finally went to the store for BTK.  Injected some inside the vines at today's location as well as others that had been issues (SE corner, and SW north of the big squash).

Just as I was finishing up with all of this...  Saw another moth flying around.  Sighhhhhh

Powedery mildew on central squash patch (butternut and jumbo pink banana)

This morning, noticed large patches of powdery mildew (I assume that's what it is) on a few leaves.

Will apply apple cider vinegar solution, using my old pump sprayer from misting down Walter many years ago.

Recipe for the powdery mildew brew:

- 5 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 gallon water

Don't make it too strong!  And, apply AFTER sun, not before/during, because burns the leaves!


Here are some other recipes I found, but I didn't try these:

Potassium bicarbonate recipe:

- 3 Tbsp potassium bicarbonate (where does one get this?)
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp soap
- 1 gallon water


Neem oil recipe:

- 3 Tbsp neem oil
- 1 gallone water

The jumbo pink banana fruit on the south edge west side seems to have died

The jumbo pink banana fruit on the south edge west side, which I thought had set and had taken off a fair bit, seems to have died -- the end feels hollow.

The only reason I can think of is this is along the same vine that I had to dig into the other day (and again tonight).  I thought it would be ok though, since the plant roots along the vine.

Hmmm...

SVB: Finding more eggs, but haven't found worms yesterday/today

SVB:  Finding more eggs, but haven't found worms yesterday/today.

Yesterday was a cursory inspection but today was nice and detailed.  The only possible thing was there might have been frass/tiny hole right at the junction of a vine at the SE corner.  But it's on the underside of the vine, so very hard to see.  So, didn't do anything about it.  Will check it out in the coming days to see if it progresses.

Few females opened this morning

Only two females opened this morning, both zucchinis.

Hopefully it's only because there was a rash of females recently, not because the plants have started to die.......... augh

SVB update: Found WORMS in some stems, and in some vines!!!

Oh boy.......... despite all that egg monitoring in recent weeks, some escaped my gaze!

Removed about 5-6 worms today in total.

This includes the following locations (not a comprehensive list):

- central patch:  NW quadrant (base of stem)
- central patch:  SE corner (vine -- two entry points fairly close to each other -- suspected, no visual confirmation)
- air conditioner south side zucchini:  leaf stems (two I think)
- kitchen door zucchini north-most one:  suspected in base of leaf, might have already gone inside (and after inspecting the plant so closely!!)

And others...........

Feeling anxious that all of this will have been for nothing as I'm sure to miss some of them, and I'm not sure how many SVBs it takes to kill a plant...  Wondering if continued vigilance will suffice to save the growing squashes...  If the zucchini goes kaput, oh well, at least I already harvested a relatively decent amount, but the winter squashes, would be so sad to lose them all before any of them are harvestable...

SVB: Found a worm inside bruised leaf stem (central patch)! and removed more eggs

Found a worm inside bruised leaf stem (central patch, so either butternut or pink banana)!  Took photos of the stem to remember what it looks like.  The stem of the leaf looked bruised -- pale green / light brownish/orangish, with frass right there, and the stem was "dented" at that location.  Took the whole stem off but next time should probably just do it as an intact dissection.

Also removed more eggs from various stems -- all in the central patch I believe. 

Saw a SVB moth laying eggs today :-(((((

Saw a SVB moth laying eggs this morning during the morning rounds.  Witnessed her laying eggs (i.e. she wasn't just flying around for the fun of it).