Can you pretreat the soil?

All of my cucumbers, melons and squash are being eaten by something and it came on suddenly. In reading other posts I'm guessing it's a cucumber beetle or something of the sort. I have a new sfg to plant and I would like to try these things again. Is there a way to pretreat the soil to protect against future infestations?

No, bugs are Mother Natures way of putting us in our place! A picture would help. Jo

littlejo wrote:No, bugs are Mother Natures way of putting us in our place!

Well-said!
GG

littlejo wrote:No, bugs are Mother Natures way of putting us in our place! ... Jo

...and she will, count on it!

songstriss wrote: Is there a way to pretreat the soil to protect against future infestations?

You probably do not have chickens? I pre-treat my soil by setting my chicken tractor on the box (made to fit). They eat an amazing amount of grubs, bug eggs and bugs as well as weeds. They stir up the soil and work in their own special magic. When the nuggets are working a garden I add a tote of home-grown compost. They clean it up of slugs and bugs (worms too I am sorry to say), spread it in and seem to love their job. New bugs will find their way in as the season progresses but my girls give me an awesome start.

Debs.....who has never met mother nature and has never heard anything good about her. I will stick with the Creator.

Here are pics of the leaves on my cukes, squash, cantaloupe & even tomatoes:









And this is a bug I found on one of the leaves last night.



I killed it and sprayed everything with Orchard spray which, according to the Garden employee at HD is supposed to be and organic solution that controls fungus & kills bugs. Any thoughts? It has been extremely hot (116) and windy here except for the last two days. These are all fairly young plants; only about a month old.

I became so impatient with the cucumber beetles and stink bugs (the grass was borw with moving in hordes) I bombed one garden with 5% sSevin. I quickly repented after all my worms freinds apeared on top the soil dead as door nails.The bugs did return and my worms frind either departed this life or went to other sfg hopefully.I could see at least a couple of them with each trowelful turned over. Friends...friends ((it is late for me after all). I also might have killed off beneficial insects too. God made provisions for everybody and everything......That is what I learned. Plant three heads of cabbage for every one fexpected to harvest and be free with salt and etc.(organic helps) and prerpare yourselves for surprises!

james lujack wrote: I became so impatient with the cucumber beetles and stink bugs (the grass was borw with moving in hordes) I bombed one garden with 5% sSevin. I quickly repented after all my worms freinds apeared on top the soil dead as door nails.The bugs did return and my worms frind either departed this life or went to other sfg hopefully.I could see at least a couple of them with each trowelful turned over. Friends...friends ((it is late for me after all). I also might have killed off beneficial insects too. God made provisions for everybody and everything......That is what I learned. Plant three heads of cabbage for every one fexpected to harvest and be free with salt and etc.(organic helps) and prerpare yourselves for surprises!

In every spoonful of soil are four billion micro-organisms. We don't fully understand all their roles, but we are sure that many of them are vital to life - and we don't know what our colossal experiments with pesticides are doing to all of them...

from here on out i will not use pestisides on those bugs,iam retired therefore i will water plants then wait patiently for them to expose themselves to me and I will pluck them out..............but what do i do with root crops????

James, for root crops, I've heard you can "fumigate" the soil by burying some broccoli before you plant. As it decomposes the gases it gives off are supposed to be toxic to things like root knot nematodes. I can't speak to how successful it is as I've never had that problem (knock on wood).

Another thing to remember is that insect pests are food for beneficial insects. You will have to be patient while the number of beneficials build up. Just be sure to include flowers with nectar and open sources of water for the beneficials.

Last year I was very godd to the beneficials. I left some long grass around the sqgs and when the bad insects were eaten they left town. even the toads and lizards/salamandrs/chameleons. Then the hordes of cucmber beetles came in a second wave and my picking did not make a didderence in their numbers. I even crushed them in front of their hungry faces. picking off bad insects is a full time job!........water.........wait........pick........crush.

I Planted my squash and cucumbers later than usual in an effort to foil the nasty stripped cucumber beetle, squash bugs and SVB. I was hoping to avoid the early part of their life cycle. For the most part right now it is working to a degree. I have had less damage than I did last year. The down side is I am still waiting for squash.

Know your enemy, then use your knowledge wisely to defeat it.

camprn wrote:...snip...Know your enemy, then use your knowledge wisely to defeat it.

+1

jdwheeler42 wrote:James, for root crops, I've heard you can "fumigate" the soil by burying some broccoli before you plant. As it decomposes the gases it gives off are supposed to be toxic to things like root knot nematodes. I can't speak to how successful it is as I've never had that problem (knock on wood).

Another thing to remember is that insect pests are food for beneficial insects. You will have to be patient while the number of beneficials build up. Just be sure to include flowers with nectar and open sources of water for the beneficials.

Right! It takes a couple or three years to build up beneficial insect levels, even with a good plan. One good help in controlling root knot is dwarf French marigolds. They give off a toxin which suppresses them.

Pollinator wrote:

jdwheeler42 wrote:James, for root crops, I've heard you can "fumigate" the soil by burying some broccoli before you plant. As it decomposes the gases it gives off are supposed to be toxic to things like root knot nematodes. I can't speak to how successful it is as I've never had that problem (knock on wood).

Another thing to remember is that insect pests are food for beneficial insects. You will have to be patient while the number of beneficials build up. Just be sure to include flowers with nectar and open sources of water for the beneficials.

Right! It takes a couple or three years to build up beneficial insect levels, even with a good plan. One good help in controlling root knot is dwarf French marigolds. They give off a toxin which suppresses them.

Dwarf French Marigolds
What about pot marigolds?

French marigolds(Tagetes patula) do indeed fumigate soil against nematodes, and it can take several seasons to do the work too.

In my opinion, spraying any kind of chemical in your garden is a waste of money and time. Most chemicals don't really care what they kill(good and bad bugs) and pest species tend to reproduce faster than predator species. When you kill off all the insects, the pest species are left to quickly repopulate, while the predator species slowly build numbers back up.

So if you notice next summer, you'll probably see a lot more pest insects since the beneficials have been killed off too. Your garden will be out of whack for a few years and most people's instinct is to spray more, but don't. Either hand pick them, or plant an insectary. My personal choice(and easiest) is to plant an insectary, but don't forget a source of water(small pond or bird bath with a ledge so they can't drown). Here is a good primer on starting your own.

Some insects don't have many predator species, stink bugs are one of them. Timing your harvests with the emergence of such insects(along with the use of trap crops if need be) is a great way to not even worry about certain insects.

songstriss wrote:Here are pics of the leaves on my cukes, squash, cantaloupe & even tomatoes:









And this is a bug I found on one of the leaves last night.



I killed it and sprayed everything with Orchard spray which, according to the Garden employee at HD is supposed to be and organic solution that controls fungus & kills bugs. Any thoughts? It has been extremely hot (116) and windy here except for the last two days. These are all fairly young plants; only about a month old.

Songstriss it looks like you have some "leaf miner" problems going on. You can tell by the greenish/grey lines going through the leaf in your second photo. Then those lines turn white because that area of the leaf has died, as you can see on your leaf. Some insect's larvae in burrowing through that leaf. I don't know enough about insects to help you more than that, sorry. I would think that if it is only on the one leaf you should pick it off and throw it in the garbage or better yet, burn that creature that is inside, lol!

Is there an organic insecticide and funguside that I can add to my soil to prevent such bugs as Squash Vine Borers and Early and Late Blite before I sow any seeds? I've been using "worm tea" and been advised that this is a pretty good preventative. Is there anything better?

Here is a link to a recent discussion about this!

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13300-can-you-pretreat-the-soil

cheyannarach wrote:Here is a link to a recent discussion about this!

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13300-can-you-pretreat-the-soil

Cheyanne,
I hate to tell ya, but, your link is to this thread!
Jo

Because this thread has now been combined.

French Marigolds do fumigate the soil against rootknot nematodes, but I was told to plant them heavily, then chop the plants and turn them under, like a cover crop. It seems to have worked, but, part of the marigold seeds i bought were marked 'French' but were the giant ones, maybe 3 ft. tall.. So in my beds this yr I have some short marigolds and some that are very tall.
Jo