From

Location

Message

Date Posted

South Hadley, MA

To quote what I posted in my grower diary today:

"I woke up this morning to see some difficult sights. I walked out to the patch and saw that the end of one of my primaries looked as though it had been sawed off. On closer inspection there were pairs of cuke beetles all over it. Well, after they had met their demise, I realized I hadn't looked out at the main vine yet. I looked up and what I saw is pictured below. They ravaged the growing tip and the 2 leaves behind it. Once all the casualties were counted, I lost the ends of the main vine, two primary vines amd two secondary vines. This leaves me with one primary and about three significant sized secondaries. So much for methoxychlor and rotenone, I might as well have been using salad dressing."

So my question is what do I do from here? Is my only real hope the one primary vine? Or is there a way to coax one of the new secondary vines forming near where the growing tip was into taking over? I don't know if pumpkins work that way. My idea is to maybe snip one or two of the new secondaries near the tip off and leave the strongest one. Hoping that because of its prime location it would be able to gather some steam. Trouble I have right now is that I still have no pumpkins and I think this is all going to slow me down quite a bit more. Any thoughts welcome. Thanks.

7/3/2000 8:48:59 AM

PA

How long are your main vines and do you have any female blossoms or fruit set?
Amy

7/3/2000 5:09:56 PM

Western Pa.

I have been plagued with cucumber beetles since 6/6, you can never eliminate them, only control them. I was told that only a small percentage of cucumber beetles carry bacterial wilt, like 10%. Bacterial wilt is spread through their feces, so it only takes one beetle that is infected to make your vine wilt and stop growing in about six weeks. Don't give up hope but you should be spraying every 7-10 days, and more often when beetles are present.Also the healthier the plant, via fertilizer and fungus control, the better your chances of finishing with a big one.Never, and I mean NEVER give up hope!

7/7/2000 2:46:28 PM

Western Pa.

Gromit, After viewing the photo of your damage, cucumber beetles are not the cause of your damage! It was either rabbits, groundhogs, or deer! Sprinkle your leaves with a little cayenne pepper powder, what ever is eating them will stop soon! You will have to re-apply after rain washes it off, but believe me those critters will find someplace else to eat. If you have access to dog fur, put that around your garden or hang soap in a stocking if you suspect deer. Also, if you lay chicken wire flat on the ground, the deer don't like to walk on it. You may have cucumber beetles,but deer or rabbits can do a lot more damage quickly than any beetle. I put a motion alarm this year in my patch to scare them off. Your plant had a setback, but should recover. Good luck!

7/8/2000 11:01:18 AM

South Hadley, MA

On further reflection about what zapped my plant, I do have to agree that something else came along with an appetite for tender shoots. Even though I had sprayed tabasco sauce on! Anyway, I think why the cuke beetles took my initial wraith is that for some reason they were massively attracted to the newly damaged shoots. Has anyone else seen this? Pumpkins do sort of bleed a little right? Do cuke beetles figure out where this is happening and swarm to it? I ask this because during the 2 days that most of my damage happened I must have seen 10 times as many cuke beetles as usual. On a happier note, whatever it was seems to have moved along and the cuke beetles seem a little worse for the wear...there was afterall methoxychlor on the plant.

7/8/2000 6:02:07 PM