I needed a way to fight squash borers and found that you can use stockings to keep them from boring into the stem. They leave this nasty stuff called frass and if you see it you might as well pull the offending plant. The one thing I learned from getting the squash plants to try on their stockings, it would be best to plant the stocking and leave it folded over newly seeded areas.
The stocking can be pulled up along the stem and held with these nifty clips I bought at the Home Depot last year. The clips have been very useful to hold a broken squash stem end together.
The other thing we have used this year is sticky yellow paper with pheromone sacks that attract detrimental bugs away from the plants. They really work and you should see what is stuck to them. We have flies, moths, small squash bugs and house flies stuck to those sticky devils.
I love growing organically and I have beautiful heirloom tomatoes, heavy hybrid vines think with tomatoes and some of the wickest marigolds anywhere. The marigolds went wild and I have had to weed them back. Next year I will grow them from seeds and only put one plant per grow box.
Every year we try new things, some work, some don't. Every year is a science project.
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