Any vegetable gardeners out there?

The bugs are eating my eggplants and ate all the cukes. Friday I noticed the eggplant were under attack from a yellowish insect and sprayed the entire garden. This morning I noticed another insect, hard shell white and black, was all over everything. Had to spray the garden again. Must be the hot weather.
how does everyone protect their veggys'

Many do not like my Sevin Dust, but it works.

My purslane AKA pigweed is doing even better this year than last. Wonder if I can convince some chefs around here to buy it. Never saw it on the property until I carved a veggie garden out of the lawn. Birds must have carried it. Or maybe the seeds are from decades ago. Not a bad weed to have actually. Didn't pull it all up last year and the tomatoes did well with purslane as a mulch.

If there is not a t-storm tonight i'll nuke them again tonight and tomorrow morning.

When you have a big garden it is hard not to take things into control. Sometimes quicker is better for some people.

Bill I went to the Walpole NH Agway several times. The Shirazz never made it there.

I am thinking row covers might be a worthy investment for some things. I used deer fencing cut in half over the cabbage and did not have worms or need to spray for the first time ever! The cabbage moths flew into the netting until they were tattered. Flea beetles have been a battle. We alternate Neem Oil (at Lowes) with Spinosad (harder to find, but very effective) for beetles. Now, if someone has a cure for grasshoppers, I'd appreciate knowing.

The Shirazz had very limited distribution. They have three left at Mahoney's in Winchester, MA as of last week. If you are going to the RU grab one on the way there and bring it with you for Victor to lust over. that alone might be worth the price of the tree.

There was a link somewhere that had where the Shirazz was going and the Walpole Agway was on the list. Oh well bummer, I wanted to see it. DH said if I bought a 250 buck tree I would have a permanent home next to it. He was referring to a bed, clothes and all. eeks............

I got thinking.

Not sure he has the $$ after the patio work. I never told my wife how much the tree cost - and I made sure the tag come off before even putting it in the car:)

wha - check the backside of the eggplant's leaves and see if you see what appear to be orange spots.

i'll do that pirl - what would they be. some of them have holes from the bug attack. hoping for new growth.

I'm going by memory of our devoured eggplant from years ago and talk at the local coffee shop patrons who own farms. We went back home that day and checked and had holes in the leaves as well as the orange eggs from either a potato beetle or a cucumber beetle - can't remember which one it was but it was a striped beetle. Now I'll probably find out they're all striped! Anyhow the farmers were telling us not to try eggplant if there are potato fields anywhere nearby. That must mean within ten miles!

We did rip them all out and now we buy our eggplants.

i just have to keep an eye on them - like everyday. i will check the undersides. there is only 8 eggplants so it should not be to hard.

If the holes look like they've been sprayed with buckshot and you see tiny black bugs hopping on the leaves or onto the ground, it would be flea beetles. They are usually the biggest headache for eggplants (most of all), tomatoes, peppers and even squashes early on. If you stay on them with a spray program, the plants will recover. Mine look terrible right now, but have young fruit and newer leaves look better. You have to be diligent about spraying flea beetles because they hatch out new generations every few days for many weeks before they start to slow down. Colorado potato beetles lay orange eggs, as Pirl said, on the undersides of eggplant leaves. Cucumber beetles lay eggs in the soil.

L

We haven't experienced the flea beetles (yet) but it is, indeed, the Colorado potato beetles that can skeletonize eggplant leaves quickly.

Just when everything is looking so green and beautiful, and you have such high hopes for baskets brimming over with fresh produce, the spoilers show up. There are certainly more varieties of bad bugs in my garden than veggies and we are not even into Japanese beetle, cucumber beetle (striped and spotted), squash vine borer and tomato horn worm season yet.
L

ohhh come on don't tease me.

Our radio guy said not to plant squash until very late June/early July in order to avoid the squash borer. If they are planted earlier he recommends the row covers but pinned down and not exactly floating.

Pirl, I finally beat the borer years ago. We will start picking squash this week. The photo is from the 8th. I take a syringe filled with BT and inject it into the squash stems in early June and mid June. It kills the borers (and I just assume they are there).

L