I'm Here, But Busy

Okay, so I've been gone too long, and I'm sorry about that. Well, not really because instead of sitting inside at my computer, I've been busy with the garden, and all that it offers. A lot of that requires work, but it's all worth it. I've got stacks of pies and applesauce, for instance.I've also been on vacation to the east coast. But it's time to get back in here before you all disappear.

My one zucchini plant produced 17 zucchini before the vine bores managed to completely kill it off.   Do you know about vine borers?  I didn't.  I was out watering the garden just before supper one afternoon, but when I went back out after we ate the plant had drooped so badly it looked like it was dying. I stormed into the house and demanded to know which of my men, my hubby or my son, had decided to do away with that zucchini plant. I mean, not only did they have a zucchini blueberry snacking cake with lemon butter cream icing for dessert but I had also fed them pasta with a zesty zucchini spaghetti sauce for the main course. I figured they had gotten desperate and tried to put an end to this sort of food. They both claimed to be innocent and had no idea what I was fuming about so I marched them out there and pointed at the poor plant. It had been so healthy just an hour or two ago!  Nobody would fess up so I hit the internet and googled "zucchini AND wilted leaves" and that's when I got my education on vine borers.

It seems a moth with clear wings lays it's eggs on the bottom of the leaves and when they hatch the larvae bore into the base of the stocks and eat the inside of the vine. Eventually the leaves will suddenly die, and I do mean suddenly!

A bit of further investigation taught me to do a little surgery on the vine and dig the nasty grubs out. After I did that, the remaining plant started growing again, and I got a few more zucchini off it before it was obvious that there must have been more critters in there than those I managed to remove. I was amazed at how such a big plant could survive when more than 3/4 of the part of the stem attached to the ground was gone. But when it finally wilted again, I gave it up as a lost cause. There was so little of the actual base of the stem left by then that I figured if I dug around in that I'd break it off anyway.

On closer inspection of my pumpkin plant, I see

that the darn borers have invaded it too,  But the pumpkin stem is a much more solid thing and the leaves stayed healthy until the plant got no water for the week I was away. The leaves are dying off now, but that's okay as the pumpkin is ready to be picked anyway.

If the vine borer in the pumpkin had been causing a problem and it had actually grown in or at least near a garden, I could have rescued it by just burying any junction part of the stem and it would grow new roots instead of doing surgery on the stem. After the new roots had established I would have been able to cut away the original stem and remove the borers completely. But this is a plant the squirrels gifted me with, and it's just growing in the grass near the house.

It's been interesting to learn about vine borers but I'd just as soon not have to experience them again.

Right now it's tomato season, and there is no shortage of those either.

I'll try to get back to you sooner next time, but my busy season isn't over yet, so I can make no promises.