Square Foot Gardening Thread

[Kassaundra]

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I don't tonight, but I can get some tomorrow.

I'm hoping in the coming years I will be in your shoes that my girls will eat all the bugs gone.

 

[NanaKat]

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I've got Stink bugs eating/ sucking the life out of my Zukes, Cukes, and Squash. I've replanted them twice now. I thought it was because they we getting too much sun (squash likes a bit of shade) so I made them some little shade tunnels. Lifted the tunnels up to check the plants, stink bugs everywhere!!! I've been trying to scoop up as many as I can find into a plastic container. Bang their little heads by shaking it up and then feeding them to the chickens!!!!! But I swear I've got more than the chickens can eat!!!

Are stink bugs the same as squash bugs, I know squash bugs stink?

I am having success in my battle w/ the squash bugs, I am drowning the adults, squishing the young, removing and squishing all eggs I find and spraying the base of the plants w/ tobacco tea. Plants are looking healthy and putting on more fruit, and there is a vast reduction in numbers of bugs.

Squash bugs are simply long stink bugs. There will be babies that are white with black legs and antennae...they are soft bodied at first and then develop the hard shell. Kassaundra has the natural method down pat.

In severe cases like with my 87 year old MIL's plants today we had to resort to an insect killer made by Spectracide. It is called triazicide. We don't like to use chemical sprays in our own garden because they are broad spectrum and kill beneficials as well as bad bugs. She doesn't have chickens and had squash plants that were covered in hundreds of baby bugs as well as thousands of eggs. Rather than lose all her plants she asked us to spray her garden. We sprayed mixing 6 tbs to 2 gallons of water following the directions on the container.
Triazicide is Gamma-cyhalothrin and there is a wait period on picking vegetables that are sprayed. We waited to spray until the bees had finished their pollinating and picked all squash 3 inches and longer. Since squash bugs also like cucumbers, we harvested those too. We picked off or cut out leaf sections containing eggs and killed as many parent bugs as could be found. Then we sprayed the plants throughly starting at the base of each plant and working up to the tops. Parent bugs come to the top where they can be picked off and killed. Within an hour there were hundreds of soft bodied baby bugs littering the ground under the plants.
The benefit of Triazicide is that the liquid dries on the stems and leaves and protect the plant from future infestations for up to six weeks. Bugs that suck juices from the plants will be killed, but bees coming to newly opened flowers are not harmed.
This is the only spray product that we have found that kills squash bugs and is the only chemical spray we would use.

Effective natural sprays include Neem oil, Bt, milkey spore, Pyloria and SoapShield....but these are not very effective with squash bugs.

 

[Kassaundra]

Here are the pics of the evil ones. squash bugs if you see anything like this in your garden act IMMEDIATELY they reproduce like madd!

a sub adult

sub adult they start very white and get darker, bigger and harder as they age

sub adult

egg cluster, I couldn't find any fresh ones, there should be perfect round like tiny bb's, but will give you an idea what your looking for.

adult, I couldn't find any alive ones so this is one I already drown last night. They are hard and have a very distinct smell when touched, not ness. bad just distinct. You will often see two joined at the very butt tip (like two breeding dogs)

These also were drowned yesterday, but a good side by side of an adult and a older sub adult.

Hope they help some who didn't know what they were looking at.

HAPPY HUNTING!!!!!

 

[krcote]

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All I can say is EEEWWWWW! I'm on the lookout!

 

[krcote]

Update on how things are looking around these parts. The sunflowers have made it up to the 7 foot roof! They hardly are showing any signs of flowers yet, so they still have more to go!

The rest of the boxes are coming along just fine too.

 

[wyoDreamer]

You guy's make me so jealous with your gardens. Look at that growth

Love the rustic timber raised beds!

I am having such a time trying to get things to grow, being almost a mile and a half high probably isn't helping. We have been so cold all spring, and now, suddenly, we are at 85+ degrees. My DH built me some mini-grow houses, kinda like a coldframes on steriods. They look great, but not sure if they are helping. I got a late start getting stuff in the ground since he didn't finish until last month, maybe next year will be better.
My lettuce never germinated, planted almost 3 weeks ago, and now I need to reseed. Out of the 6 squares that I planted into peas, I only got 3 sprouts coming up!

I'll have to post pictures this weekend and see what you think.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I just went out and check my gardens. Picked a few Roma 'maters and green beans. Zukes and Squash are gone. All shriveled up. Stink bugs got them again. I'm tempted to dump something in that bed and kill whatever bugs may be left in that bed and leave it until we can plant next year or later this summer. My beans are doing great!! as are the maters

 

[NanaKat]

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NanaKat you are filled with fun bits of gardening know-how!

Thank you, but I can't claim all the credit for what I learned from my Mother and Grandmother. My Mom was green before it was hip. She introduced me to Organic Gardening magazine and composting back in the early 70s. My Grandmother raised her children during the Depression and was as frugal as the day is long. She made sure every seed was given the best opportunity to sprout. She could weed her garden with her eyes closed in prayer...lived to be 100. Miss them both.

 

[ContessaKris]

We have raised bed gardens this year. Last year we only had one. This year we blossomed out to 6. We got smart and added a rabbit fence so they wouldn't eat everything this year! lol This is a picture from a few weeks ago. Now everything is huge. The squash has taken over its bed (3rd bed in, middle. It's now 3 1/2' tall!) so much so that other things are having a hard time growing. Oh well, you learn something new every year...

To see more pics and info about our gardens, you can always go to my homeschool blog:
http://thosecrazyhomeschoolers.blogspot.com/search/label/gardening

 

[ContessaKris]

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How do you keep the stink bugs from messing with your squash? I have huge beds of both and don't want to lose them and I swear I saw a stink bug or two yesterday...