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Woodstock, GA

This happened last year as well. Can't describe it any better than the following pictures.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/?action=view&current=CIMG9807.jpg

<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/?action=view&current=CIMG9807.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/CIMG9807.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

6/22/2008 11:59:06 AM

Woodstock, GA

Couldn't remember so that was a test, here are the close ups....

This one isn't as bad as the other two, yet.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/CIMG9805.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/CIMG9806.jpg

These two are worse....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/CIMG9800.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/CIMG9799.jpg

As you can see still flagging with the new shade so I'm guessing the mains are not providing enough and I'll be relying on secondaries and rooted vine for pumpkins again this year FTL.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/harleysilo/Zee%20Garden/CIMG9798.jpg

6/22/2008 12:02:02 PM

Woodstock, GA

Well, I scrapped off the mush and started carving away at the vine and discovered all these grubs just eating away. I'll go ahead and assume we've been a victim of vine borers. I pulled all I could see out of them, and am getting ready to go spray the vines where i operated with some light bleach solutions, and then put a fan on them to dry out. I wonder what else can be done and what I can do next year to fight against vine boreers.

6/22/2008 1:10:27 PM

Somers, CT

You may want to bury your main and use systemic insect killer. Ortho has a good product and it comes in a concentrate. If you manage things from the beginning, you will have a better chance. I lost a year to SVB infestation.

6/22/2008 4:11:38 PM

Woodstock, GA

So i've been doing a little reading on the prevention, for next year. If i had only known with correctly timed chemical application and plain old picking eggs, squashing moths and covering stems this could have been avoided or lessened. I also like the idea of planting a trap crop of very early planted hubbard squash. I will be burying them tonight and hope for new root growth.

6/23/2008 8:32:35 AM

Woodstock, GA

Well I buried my mains, and all of the nodes/vine. Tonight I'll be cutting off all the blooming males and dusting with 7 to kill all the bugs I'm seeing. The cut and remove SVB lavre and treat with bleach didn't kill them yet, so that's good. I bought some more seeds and for the heck of it i'm going to plant them.....

6/24/2008 12:59:17 PM

Woodstock, GA

IRL I don't talk to myself this much.

6/24/2008 12:59:31 PM

Woodstock, GA

Yet anyways, i'm getting older so who knows...

6/24/2008 12:59:47 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

It's okay, you're worried about your vines, it's normal (talking and posting to self and fretting)

I got warned barely in time and managed to get Merit and Talstar just in time. VTJohn replied to a message I posted and suggested 1/8 teaspoon Merit (75%) and 1/2 oz Talstar (or the generic) per gallon, USE A PAINT VAPOR RESPIRATOR during all handling. Spray no earlier than two hours before dark, after the heat and sun are dropping. Spray top and bottom of leaves, use your rubber chemical glove to protect the last 5" of growing tips, then drench the soil especially around stump.

Next morning very early, water to get the Merit into the ground and the plant to take it up. It will burn growing tips and maybe add the slightest yellow edge to your leaves but. You can protect those tips. With our very hot temps here and brutal sun, we have not been losing leaves to this.

The one I'm not happy about is every ten days from the onset of SVB (here it is the 10th of June) until you harvest the vines off.

I also suggest dedicated safety glasses, gloves, and spayer to this (so there's NO chance you can get 2,4-D in it) It is DEADLY to anything water (fish and ponds) so be extremely careful in spraying. We've sighted and squashed SVB's here and plants are looking good with this. AND as Rob says, bury vines. Scrape off any eggs you find carefully and bury. Talstar is a contact killer, the Merit is a 'they taste and it kills them'. Do note, if you do this you can't eat the pumpkins, blooms, or seeds. I also don't have much other buggie problems with this spraying, and I've sworn off Sevin-5 and -10 on my AG's...

You can treat the ground with a granular Merit too to help kill the SVB larvae in fall...look for a 'grub killer' with Merit in it. Once you have them you always will, once you know what your appearance date is you can spray a couple days before that to kill them and keep at it.

6/27/2008 9:22:05 AM

Cduross1@rochester.rr.com

I had vine borers last year and it wasn't fun. It's ok to worry, all the work and worry you've put into the season now, it's hard to go out there and find that. You've been given some excellent advice. I'd be reading up ahead to plan ahead and react to some things to help the season.

My vine borer mess last year healed itself over, and I did get a 200 pounder out of it before the pumpkin did go down.

Good luck!

6/27/2008 9:32:37 AM

Woodstock, GA

Well the stuff I've done so far has paid off. They are continuing to grow and the couple pumpkins that are set are looking okay. I've got a few pumpkins that didn't set and are now rotting.

Disappointing news that there is not a permanent way to get rid of SVB.

3 Days ago i went ahead and planted two more hills near the two already growing, once they take off I'll have to decide if I want to scrap the one growing now.

Question, will I have to worry about SVB on these new ones since we are way past the date when the emerge? If so i'll follow the spray routine outlined above. Thanks for everyones help.

6/29/2008 2:11:49 PM

Long Island,New York

Yes you have to worry...especially in Georgia. There can be two or more "waves" of borers...you need to prepare for the whole season prettymuch.

Merit claims to not translocate to the fruit...so apparently the fruit won't have the chemical and can be eaten. Plus....you might want to check if its a problem at all....see if pumpkins or squash are acceptable plants in the pesticide label if so then they should be ok to eat after the "days til harvest" has passed.

6/29/2008 5:28:48 PM

Woodstock, GA

Well yesterday evening i decided it was time to clean up the patch as we were on a vacation for a week. I let 3 plants grow in one hill (to see which would survive the SVB attack), one plant has a pumpkin that has grown significantly while we were gone so I removed the other two plants. I notice that the SVB grubs were back in the vines those fucking bastards. I also noticed the Squash bugs everywhere so tonight it looks like i'll be dusting with seven again.

Here is a pick of the one pumpkin...

http://www.pictureshoster.com/files/nd5hyweixqmnk24z5hhl.jpg

7/15/2008 8:53:04 AM

Woodstock, GA

http://www.pictureshoster.com/files/snzjyf873myn9z6x27f5.jpg

http://www.pictureshoster.com/files/1wmj7fghcgnevmxn936.jpg

http://www.pictureshoster.com/files/kw05wppe27k00smccmx8.jpg

http://www.pictureshoster.com/files/x4ki2rv38azonvcyvs6n.jpg

7/16/2008 10:16:33 AM