The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[flyladyrocks]

Okay I have a natural gardening question. Anyone have problems with squash bugs and how do you overcome it?

My first year gardening I had a bumper crop of squash, cucumbers, pumpkin, watermelon. My second year my neighbors planted and they squash bugs were all over there crop and started to head our way. I still got some but I did not have a bumper crop. It has been years since I have been able to grow anything the squash bugs attack. I just stopped trying but I really want to plant all those things. I read that DE helps, but it did nothing for me - but i was not exactly sure how to use it to help. If I am going to try again I really need to get it in the ground this week before we go out of town. But if the squash bugs attack right away the neighbor girl who tends the garden while we are gone will be devastated (as she has been in the past b/c she is fastidious but there is nothing to be done about those horrible buggers. They just suck the life out of the plants!)

I will have to tackle how to keep the chickens from devouring my garden at another time. My are still little so I won't worry about it yet!

If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Check this out. Haven't tried it but it might work...

 

[potagergirl]

Okay I have a natural gardening question. Anyone have problems with squash bugs and how do you overcome it?

My first year gardening I had a bumper crop of squash, cucumbers, pumpkin, watermelon. My second year my neighbors planted and they squash bugs were all over there crop and started to head our way. I still got some but I did not have a bumper crop. It has been years since I have been able to grow anything the squash bugs attack. I just stopped trying but I really want to plant all those things. I read that DE helps, but it did nothing for me - but i was not exactly sure how to use it to help. If I am going to try again I really need to get it in the ground this week before we go out of town. But if the squash bugs attack right away the neighbor girl who tends the garden while we are gone will be devastated (as she has been in the past b/c she is fastidious but there is nothing to be done about those horrible buggers. They just suck the life out of the plants!)

I will have to tackle how to keep the chickens from devouring my garden at another time. My are still little so I won't worry about it yet!

If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it!

There are several things you can try.
Firstly putting all your squash plants together is like calling to the bugs with their very own buffet. Choose different areas for each squash/squash related plant.

I had a severe problem 2 years in a row. Somewhere I read radishes are a big detourant so I planted an entire row of radish seeds along one side of the bed last year and the squash plants
next to the radishes did not get any squash bugs, where the squash plants 2 rows down did.

Another thing I am trying this year that one of the ladies in my garden class has done for 2 years is plant onion bulbs in the same hole on two sides of the squash plant. Gene said
she hasn't had a squash bug since she started doing this.

I don't know if you are buying the squash plants or planting seeds, but another thing I do is grow my plants and where I plant my zucchini and summer squash I come back through the first week
of June and push another side close to the plant. This way I get a few more squash in the season.

When using DE you have to make sure it is dry and stays on the base of the plant. You will still get them but as the DE works slicing through the bugs there will be fewer and fewer making it easier for you to pick them off the plants in the future. You have to keep up with the DE though making sure you have some on the base after each rain and if you top water this doesn't work so well. I have soaker hoses that are nestled into the straw of my beds.

Now how do I keep watermelon and pumpkins separate from butternut and zucchini? Well they don't all go in my beds. On Mother Earth News there is an article I read sometime back about poking holes in composted manure bags and using them to grow your veggies in. So, I poke a few holes in the bottom stand them up right, cut open the top and plant my vine growers in them that way. They have plenty of room to run long roots and more then enough room at the top for 2 plants to grow. This year I am trying sweet potatoes this way for the first time.
I have the bags lining the fence area around my garden bed. The fence will make it easier for me trellis the vines (the fence is new for me this year). In past I have grown a sunflower or two in the middle of the squash plants and used the heavy stock for wrapping the squash vines around.

Okay, hope something I've said helps.
Good luck with your squash,

 

[Kassaundra]

There are two big squash bug problems, the video deals w/ the vine borer, it hatches as a worm and burrows into the hollow vine stem and pupates in there killing the plant by blocking the water, her suggestions would be very good, especially if you find out when they emerge in your area. Vine borers emerge at a specific time of year and only that time, so if you protect the stems by blocking during that several week time frame you are golden from that pest.

However when I read the post I was thinking she was talking about the squash bug, the one that stinks when you squish it. Those are an all summer problem. Are hard to kill even w/ "icides" I do not know how well DE would work, but if it does it would probably be in the young instars. They are very hydrophobic and if you water at the base of the plant it will cause them to clime the stems for easier catch and kill. I am growing mine in the same area the chickens have access to this year hoping they will eat them, don't know if it is working yet, to early in the season. My chickens do eat them, and have never bothered either the squash plant or the fruit.

I also read this but haven't tried it yet (but am planning on trying it) if you catch a few, blend them up w/ water, allow the water to set a day or two then add small amount of dish soap and spray it will either kill them, repel them, or draw natural preditors.

 

[Kassaundra]

Next year I am soooo trying the onion thing!

 

[LindaB220]

Check this out. Haven't tried it but it might work...

A very neat tip Thanks

 

[LindaB220]

There are several things you can try.
Firstly putting all your squash plants together is like calling to the bugs with their very own buffet. Choose different areas for each squash/squash related plant.

I had a severe problem 2 years in a row. Somewhere I read radishes are a big detourant so I planted an entire row of radish seeds along one side of the bed last year and the squash plants
next to the radishes did not get any squash bugs, where the squash plants 2 rows down did.

Another thing I am trying this year that one of the ladies in my garden class has done for 2 years is plant onion bulbs in the same hole on two sides of the squash plant. Gene said
she hasn't had a squash bug since she started doing this.

I don't know if you are buying the squash plants or planting seeds, but another thing I do is grow my plants and where I plant my zucchini and summer squash I come back through the first week
of June and push another side close to the plant. This way I get a few more squash in the season.

When using DE you have to make sure it is dry and stays on the base of the plant. You will still get them but as the DE works slicing through the bugs there will be fewer and fewer making it easier for you to pick them off the plants in the future. You have to keep up with the DE though making sure you have some on the base after each rain and if you top water this doesn't work so well. I have soaker hoses that are nestled into the straw of my beds.

Now how do I keep watermelon and pumpkins separate from butternut and zucchini? Well they don't all go in my beds. On Mother Earth News there is an article I read sometime back about poking holes in composted manure bags and using them to grow your veggies in. So, I poke a few holes in the bottom stand them up right, cut open the top and plant my vine growers in them that way. They have plenty of room to run long roots and more then enough room at the top for 2 plants to grow. This year I am trying sweet potatoes this way for the first time.
I have the bags lining the fence area around my garden bed. The fence will make it easier for me trellis the vines (the fence is new for me this year). In past I have grown a sunflower or two in the middle of the squash plants and used the heavy stock for wrapping the squash vines around.

Okay, hope something I've said helps.
Good luck with your squash,

I bookmarked this because it has several good tips on different veggies. Thank you.

 

[LindaB220]

There are two big squash bug problems, the video deals w/ the vine borer, it hatches as a worm and burrows into the hollow vine stem and pupates in there killing the plant by blocking the water, her suggestions would be very good, especially if you find out when they emerge in your area. Vine borers emerge at a specific time of year and only that time, so if you protect the stems by blocking during that several week time frame you are golden from that pest.

However when I read the post I was thinking she was talking about the squash bug, the one that stinks when you squish it. Those are an all summer problem. Are hard to kill even w/ "icides" I do not know how well DE would work, but if it does it would probably be in the young instars. They are very hydrophobic and if you water at the base of the plant it will cause them to clime the stems for easier catch and kill. I am growing mine in the same area the chickens have access to this year hoping they will eat them, don't know if it is working yet, to early in the season. My chickens do eat them, and have never bothered either the squash plant or the fruit.

I also read this but haven't tried it yet (but am planning on trying it) if you catch a few, blend them up w/ water, allow the water to set a day or two then add small amount of dish soap and spray it will either kill them, repel them, or draw natural preditors.

I saw a video on youtube about this. And sure enough, they all climbed to the top. I thought my chicks would love them.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Thanks so much, I feel like i have several things in my squash bug arsenal, including the chickens!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I also found this article that has some ideas further down about different companion crops that are supposed to repel among other things. Planting time seems like it can make a difference also.

http://www.life123.com/home-garden/...ts/top-five-ways-to-control-squash-bugs.shtml