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Hendersonville, NC

Tough year for my garden in general: tomato blight, black spot, powerdery mildew and today I confirmed borers in my pumpkins.

I don't have any experience with borers. I noticed the plants were wilting so I took a few cuttings to the nursery for help. One of the clippings, a secondary vine near the crown, had the classic sawdust symptom of a borer. I was clinging to hope that it wasn't, but the nursery confirmed it.

When I got home, I inspected all my plants hoping it was isolated. NOPE! It looks like the dreaded pests are in ALL my pumpkin plants. ARGH! !@#$*((*)@#$%!@#$%&**&(
It acutally made me feel sick to my stomach when I realized all is lost.

I simply wasn't diligent enough with pest control. This newbie pumpkin grower flunked her rookie year, but you can be darn sure I WILL be more diligent next year.

So, since I was growing jack-o-lantern type pumpkins this year and not AGs, is there anyway to salvage the 4 pumpkins this early? Two are them are starting to change color.

Thanks for listening to my whining. I'm gonna go have a very strong margarita and lick my wounds. :-(

8/22/2004 3:44:05 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Have one for me too. It has been a tough season for me too but at least we don't have vine borers to deal with. There is always next year.....

8/22/2004 4:04:49 PM

Sparta, NC

Cindy I had the same problem last year which was my first. My stump also rotted and I ended up with a 177 lb. pumpkin. This year I used Merit 75 wp for the borers and haven't had any problems. I did get some powdery mildew but it wasn't too bad. I have learned so much in a year and most of it from this site. Chaulk this up as a learning experience. Best of luck.

8/22/2004 4:11:43 PM

Www.extremepumpkinstore.com

Sorry to hear it Cindy.

8/22/2004 4:48:41 PM

Aldie, VA

Cindy,
I know how you feel, girl! I found 3-4 borers in each of my Big Max vines. I removed them all with an Exact-o knife, tied the wound shut with yarn, sprayed with Bonide Fungicide and buried the vines. Then I sprayed with Bonide Bug Beater (Bonide is all I can get at the moment). All my vines and pumpkins are doing fine! One of my main vine stumps rotted where the borer went it and broke off. I buried everything I could up to the first female flower. That was DAYS ago and and it's still alive and growing! No stump and it set three fruits in the last two days.

Don't give up hope! Keep trying!

Hugs!
Roan

8/22/2004 8:48:44 PM

Wilmington,NC

Sorry to hear that I know eactly how you feel--same thing happened to my first fruit of the season only after it had just takin off and I had to cut it from the vine. Its heartbreaking to have that after so much work!!!!!!!!
If you ever find out the best preventative care before and
if they hit let me know

good luck

8/22/2004 10:12:10 PM

Long Island,New York

Put a shovel-full of dirt at every convenient leaf/vine juncture to promote rooting if you havent already...this will allow the plant to feed the fruits even with the losses due to borers. You should still get pumpkins....just not as big or perhaps not as many....next year use a warrior T/ triazide type insecticide to chase them away before they lay eggs, and a systemic backup like Merit,Admire, etc as a backup in case a couple get past the warrior......G

8/23/2004 9:29:03 AM

Hendersonville, NC

Hey everyone,
Thanks for the words of encouragement and tips to keep the plants going. I feel much better about ti all today! I've covered the vine/leaf juctures and I'm watering those. Now I just have to perform surgery on those chewed up sections of vines to find and destroy the borers.

8/23/2004 5:33:20 PM

Tipp City, Ohio

Like G said use both! I only used Admire at first and it was great on the cucumber beetles and I assumed the same fate for the SVB. I was wrong, and the Dosage I used of Admire was not enough for the SVB. I lost three plants due to my neglect and now the fourth plant has only about 1/3 left of the original vines.

8/23/2004 9:01:41 PM

[email protected]

Don't be afraid to reinforce the Merit or Admire even after the young SVB's have entered the plant. I have personally witnessed 100% mortality even after they've entered the plant despite the fact it isn't labeled for this use.

See the related post just a few posts above this one on the same board.

8/23/2004 9:53:58 PM

Hendersonville, NC

Update:
Vines are recovering nicely in the ICU. LOL
Highly invasive vine surgery occured today at 2pm.
FIVE borers located and violently SQUOOSHED into bug juice. 4 vines: 2 borers, 2 borers, 1 borer, 0 borer (I couldn't find the darn thing - maybe I cut him in the surgery)

Surgery: I located the areas and damanaged vines and looked for the most recent area of discoloration. It looks like they feasted on about 1-2 feet of each main vine. Took a blade and cut vertically... looking for the darn white, fat, ugly borers. They were pretty big... about 3/4 inch. NASTY! I continued down the vine until I reached healthy vine which had not been invaded yet. I hope I got them all.

TLC in the ICU: Sprayed again. Covered the remaining healthy vines will good soil to encourage root development. Plants are not wilting as badly today because it was overcast. Used a weak "root stimulator" fert on the junctions.

Prognoses: My goal is to keep the plants alive so I can still harvest the pumpkins for my kids.

8/24/2004 5:03:11 PM