Growing squash is both a rewarding and frustrating feat in the garden. Most squash are very prolific and will reward the gardener with a bountiful harvest; however, squash are prone to squash vine borers. You can tell your squash is infected when all of sudden the whole plant is wilted and it is not due to lack of water. This is your signal to take action and to conduct a borer-ectomy. (Thanks to Catherine for coming up with the name:~)Here are instructions to help save the plant's life, or at the very least extend its life so you can harvest more squash. These instructions will work with all types of squash plants. Locate the base of the stem and look for a moist sawdust like pile. This is your clue there are borers present. I then get a sharp paring knife and cut the stem cleanly in both directions from where I found the hole. I gently split the stem and find the borers. If you are lucky they are still small and there are not too many of them. Pierce them with the knife and dispose of them. Be sure you have them all or you are wasting your time. I next squeeze the wound together and tape it up with any kind of tape. I used clear wrapping tape in the above procedure. It did not remain on the plant for long, but that is okay so long as the plant is stable. I then apply Sevin dust to the area and hope for the best. It is a wait and see approach at this point. Out of the two borer-ectomies I performed on my two yellow crookneck squash plants, only one made it. Is a 50% rate good for doctors in the garden? I hope so. At any rate this plant lived for another month and bore (no pun intended) many more squash. As of this posting it has finally met its demise and I am sad to see it go. I am not sure what caused the death as there were no new signs of borer activity. Maybe it was just all the stress of the borer-ectomy. Sigh.
in the garden....
