Squash bugs and squash vine borers and vertical gardening

Just wondering if by any chance vertical gardening of zucchini makes them any more resistant to squash vine borers? I guess it's not likely since the eggs are laid in the soil and they tunnel into the vine at the base and can still do that whether the vine is growing up or sprawling on the ground. But a girl can hope, right?

I lose my squash plants every summer to the borer/squash bug team before I've had time to get sick of the produce. I would love to have the chance to be that obnoxious gardener who inflicts her overabundance of zucchini on friends, family and neighbors this year!

I just read an great article on Gardens Alive about borers which suggests wiping down vines w/ insecticidal soap every week (smothers the caterpillar) and another link said Neem oil is effective against the squash bugs. I just don't see myself either using row covers or injecting vines with anything, but I have gotten out the razor blade to extract the borer. Worked quite well -- until the inevitable squash bug infestation demolished the poor plant shortly thereafter.

Any practical wisdom?

I like to use gardens alive superlight insect barrier of corse you must either uncover when bees are present and recover, or be the bee to pollenate the squash but the squash bugs and other biglegged bugs never get a chance to invade.

So do you leave it on all season when the plants are huge? If so, does it have to be tucked in all around down to the base in order to prevent the buggies from getting in? I'm having a hard time picturing how it works. I'd like to try staking the vine to a green fence post like I saw in someone's photos on here.

I lost my battle with squash bugs last year due to a back injury that sidelined me for almost 4 months. Here is a post I shared on how I started out the season, and what I learned while on my back to help prevent them from getting ahead, although I've already killed a couple of cuke bugs.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t6023-how-to-keep-away-the-pests

Try here too.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t5677-pest-prevention

FarmerValerie wrote:I lost my battle with squash bugs last year due to a back injury that sidelined me for almost 4 months. ....snip

I had no idea that the battle was so heated! Be strong Val!

And to the OP, I'm from the NW and sorry to intrude on this important discussion. Welcome to the board (I think I did notice you were at 6 on the post count)

Deborah....who gives beer to slugs and shakes her head in shock at what southern gardeners must overcome.

Debs, I've had back "trouble" for as long as I can remember, add to that 4 babies and 25 years of hard work, last year just hit me hard. I'm taking it slow now, and keeping up with my work outs and yoga, I'm gonna hit those suckers hard this year. I also realized that with summer squash I can keep planting the stuff. I have 2 successsive plantings out there, and if I begin to see signs of them, I'll just do another planting. I still may yet do a seperate from the garden planting, leave it untreated, and torch it.

Yes I keep it on all season. I use hoops of PVC to support it (but you don't have to) and when I had my on the ground SFG I used discarded broom and mop handles gathered from friends held down by U pins. I did that because it is so windy here if I just used pins alone the cover would tear. So yes, tucked in all around if not they enemy will find a way in.

Here are what the U pins look like

8786 U-Shaped Pins Pkg of 25 1 - 2 $4.95 Qty 3+ $4.45 Other Useful Items: Turbo-Tomato!TM Mulch Floating Row Covers Escar-Go!® Slug & Snail Control Vegetables Alive!® Fertilizer Stay Organic Garden Club Quick-TiesTM Velcro® Tape Recently Viewed: Super-Light Insect Barrier

"U" Shaped Pins

Reusable year after year!

Anchor your row covers and Weed Barrier Mats with these heavy-duty, non-galvanized wire pins. These pins hold better in soil than plastic or galvanized pins do because they “bond” to the soil as they rust. Reuse year after year.
U pins are in most garden centers.

I did not cover my verticaly grown toms but sewed draw string pouches out of the SLIB cloth to cover toms so the stink and squash bugs did not make hard spots and ruin the fruit.

So someplace (maybe in one of the links one of you provided above? Or in one of the links from one of those sites?) someone recommended wrapping reemay around the vines to keep the borers from getting in in the first place; the source said to start out under the soil line. But then I thought, wait a minute -- zucchini vines start out little and spindly and end up being big and fat -- wouldn't the reemay just split like the shirt on the Hulk? Anyone ever tried this?

What's reemay?

Sorry, Reemay is a brand name for the floating row cover fabric.

Last year I had volunteer pumpkins and read that wrapping the vines with old pantyhose works to keep out the vine borers. I didn't have any problem with them last year and will do the menthod again this year. The hose stretches with the vine better than other materials so it worked really well. Good luck.

Maybe I'm going to have to start wearing pantyhose again.

elliephant wrote:Maybe I'm going to have to start wearing pantyhose again.

I bet acara is thinking the same thing!

Oops, I forgot, that would be just on weekends, according to him.

Boffer, you forgot what?