No female flowers on my zucchini or squash???

Only thing I have had trouble with so far was loopers took to my cabbage. When I was pulling the bottom leaves off killing the loopers I found a tiny white worm that was doing more damage than the loopers. I have never seen these varmints before. They are maybe a quarter of an inch long and smaller than a needle.

Eeeeeewwwww! Sounds gross Jim - lol... I spent all winter picking loopers off the early brassicas. The later plantings I didn't have much of a problem with them. My first few cabbages, the leaves looked like swiss cheese - lol..

Catnip repels the cabbage moth. Not 100%, but it definitely cuts them down.

Here is my first squash harvest of the season - yellow crookneck and 8 ball zucchini... I have picked several more of each since, plus a few Black Beauty zukes. Watch out neighbors - lol!!

Had a home grown supper tonight, carrots, squash, new potatoes, cabbage and swiss chard. I will have a ton of yellow squash by the week-end and a few zukes nearly big enough to pull.

Do you have any idea what the tiny white worms are on the cabbage?

No idea Jim unless they were the larvae form of the loopers. That is all I can think of. I have never seen a looper larvae nor those worms you describe, so that's just a guess... I hope someone knows for sure. I'm assuming if they are caterpillars of some type maybe you could use BT, but it's best to have a positive ID before resorting to those measures. If it was me, I'd be blasting them with the hose - lol... That's my first line of defense in pest control!

Your beans bearing yet? Mine took forever to get kicked off. They are just now running right and with a few blooms.

My beans are full of pretty purple blooms but no beans yet...

Eeeeewwwwwww Ray - those are gross worms...

Nope it is not those guys. These things are tiny. Maybe a quarter of an inch long and smaller than a needle. This is the first time I've ever seen them and they are only on my cabbage. They are between the leaves where you can't get to them. Got me buffaloed. I had three cabbage with heads big enough to eat so I went a head and cut them. I pulled all the bottom leaves and killed what I could see them sprayed between the leaves as good as possible. I couldn't see any new damage today so hopefully I have them stopped.

Oh, I missed your first post about their length(1/4" long).

Possibly Fungus Gnat Larvae? http://entomology.unl.edu/images/storedfoods/sfflies/fungnat_larv1.jpg

On that note I'm going to bed, and I will most likely have nightmares thanks to this worm discussion...

That doesn't look like them either, Ray. Thanks though.

I don't think they are nematodes. After chasing around the inter net, I'd think they were cabbage maggots except the cabbage maggot attacks the root. Got me guessing.

Nice-looking squashes, kelly, I'll be planting mine soon. I have seeds for the 8 ball zucchini, and the one ball yellow squash to match.

Ok, panic button!!! Here's my beloved squash plant:

I amputated a leaf because I noticed some, umm, frass I believe...If you look closely on the right, I think I may have cut a piece of the SVB...dunno. I am in disbelief.

Note- I did most of the damage on the left of the pic when I cut the vine lengthwise with my razor.

I need to buy nematodes in a syringe!!! Quick, someone give me the name of an online dealer!!!

i am just starting to get male flowers, it's pretty exciting.

Oh no, John - that looks bad...

I've never had the SVBs so no help from me there. Hopefully Steph will chime in - she's the one with all the SVB experience unfortunately...

Sorry about your varmint John but have no experience with those things, thank the Lord.

My squash did differently than ever before. Usually they bloom for a week or two before setting squash, this year they immediately becan putting on little squash. Not complaining just thankful. By the end of the week I'll be trying to give a bunch away. A good problem to have. I know a bunch of little widow ladies at my church that will be tickled.

That is definitely squash vine borer. Do you see signs of any more?

The only thing I've done has been to slice the stem, take them out if they're still in there, and cover it up with dirt. Bought me a few weeks.

Im going to chime in about the squash... Last year was my first year growing it, and I live out in the desert. I would deep water between my rows 4 times a week, and top water maybe twice. I had a really good crop last year, Billy and the horses and friends really loved them, I even split zukes down the middle leaving a tad bit at the stem and stuffed bacon in there toothpicked and BBQ'd. Billy ate them up.

This year I got auto sprinklers and water in the early morning, I will use them maybe 3 times a week, and still do my deep water in the wells. I do my watering in the am since I am out feeding all the critters and I can enjoy my coffee..

I just planted my last plant, I staggered them a few weeks apart since I want to extend my harvesting season..

OH MY GOSH! You gotta SVB! Okay, now that you've been told that's what it is, you can start looking for the eggs. They're round, brown, and are about the size of a pin head. Spray your plants with Bt and inject it into the stems. Also, if you can give them something to grow UP, like a mater cage, that might help.

That's what I thought...SVB. I'm hoping I dealt the 1 SVB a mortal blow, but maybe it will just regenerate and continue growing. I'm not even sure how big it was. I think I noticed some frass at the very base of the plant (different location), but then thought it was "rot" (I was in denial) due to a small stem decaying...but maybe the stem died because of another SVB?? I thought maybe the stem was just old and not getting any sun since it was down at the base and essentially buried under the bigger leaves.

Steph- yes, I spent some time on my hands and knees looking for eggs and I am pretty sure I picked a bunch. I was super mad and everything was starting to look like an SVB egg.

I actually witnessed a moth laying an egg on my pumpkin vine last fall. At first I was amused and a little excited because I was watching nature in action (I had no idea it was one of *those* moths at that precise moment.) Then I recalled another DGer's recollections of how the moth would arch the abdomen and lay a single, brown egg the size of a pin. Then I noted how the moth looked like a WASP. It all clicked, and I picked-off the egg and started swatting furiously at the moth with my hands.

I got my first male flower!

They'll die in flight if you zap them with bt. Ask me how I know this!

Buying Bt on the way home today. It's a good thing I started some back-up plants.

Jim 41, & all the people that are eating squash tonight. Heres a question for you. Do you plant your squash at 2 week intervels? Or, do you plant different varities of squash , so that the pollination can happen easier. You must be doing something different from us who can't get a squash to pollinate.

I have male flowers now, should I pull some off to save for when my female flowers finally bloom or will there be both blooming at once? I want to make sure I get squash!

I plant all mine at the same time. I planted six hills of yellow squash and three hills of zukes. I plant them and forget them. Usually when you see the first blooms it is a couple of weeks before the squash start showing up. This year when they started blooming they immediately started setting squash. First time for that with me.

I ended up planting more squash about 45 days after planting my initial crop only because I have a long growing season and I did not anticipate the SVB being such a problem early on in the season. I will probably start another crop 2 weeks hence.

Planting every 2 weeks will help you increase your odds of success if pests, pollination, or any other variable, are an issue. Good luck.

Jim41 and Jestr: What variety of squash do you plant? Maybe I am planting the wrong kind of squash for the Texas Zone, since they won't pollinate. Also, the seed comes from WalMart. And I don't trust their seed.

Someone around here said they plant radishes in a circle, right up next to the squash to deter the squash vine borer. I'm going to try that. Along with tying strips of t-shirt around the stems to try to keep them out.

Behillman,

I plant an open-pollinated yellow squash, Early prolific straight neck. It has great flavor and does well for me with minimal problem with pests or disease. I do have to watch for stink-bugs, but haven't had trouble with squash vine borers.

I have heard that you can start wrapping the stem on the small squash plants with cut up row cover cloth or similar and continue wrapping the stem as the squash grows. You need to have part of the stem underground wrapped as well - easier to do if transplanting, not direct seeding like I do. I have read in several places that this helps deter SVBs as they can't get through the cloth to bore into the stem. Never tried it...

I usually plant all my squash at once - several different varieties. I also try and plant early to foil the pests. I planted some additional squash this past weekend to try and have some that may last longer than the initial planting. I may regret that decision;o) My initial planting was 2 Black Beauty Zucchini, 2 8 Ball Zucchini, 2 Baby Green (round) Zucchini, 2 Yellow Crookneck and 2 Patty Pan. Just planted another 8 Ball and Baby Green.

I'm going to plant more seeds. This time it will be of many variety, & stagger them so that the male flowers will bloom when some of the later females start to bloom.

I must be picking a dozen eggs off my plant daily so I'll try anything. I'll wrap the stems + tin foil + Bt.

If I can find a cheap way of covering the whole plant, I'll do that instead since I hand-pollinate.

Gee, guys, I can't remember the variety of the squash I planted. I ordered my seed from Johnny's and just went through the various squash and looked for one that was a good producer in the South. Guess I lucked out because both the yellow and zuccini are going great guns.

John, have you looked for row cover? http://www.gardeners.com/Row-Covers/5111,default,pg.html

It's hard to find around here, but I did find it at a garden center with the weed barrier. Drives me crazy that no one around here knows what this stuff is. They were calling it grass seed cover. But they let me open the package and check to make sure it was the right thing. It was $12 for a 40" x 50' roll.