July 7, 2016

Good morning, I figured this could very easily be a very buggy year. One of the first clues was when I first took off the summer squash covers. It seemed it wasn't even an hour and striped cucumber beetles were on the flowers. What with the rain I have noticed lots of very young grasshoppers. Not to forget squash bugs too. This combined with root knot nematodes (RKN) could make one pause,

It has been a couple years since I put in a drip system. This has worked beyond my wildest dreams.

Last fall I installed an injector on this drip system. I wanted to try a refined neem oil product to combat the RKN. With the drip system I can deliver this product down into the entire root system of my veggies. I will be curious to see what the root balls look like when I pull the plants at the end of the season. There have been a few plants that I have pulled and looked at their roots. So far I have not seen the massive galling that I have found in years past. I have only found one plant that has died from this infection. I am also curious to see what happens with the second year of Azaguard use.

Since starting to use Azaguard on a by-weekly basis, I have noticed that all of the above mentioned insects have been somewhat subdued but their populations are swelling. Albeit much slower than in years past. I do find a few adult squash bugs, some egg cases and a few colonies of nymphs. But not the invasion of years past.

A friend gave me some seeds for a Japanese winter squash. Normally I have no room to put “given” seeds so late in the year, because my garden is planned in October. I had a bed of lettuce bolt and thought what the heck so this squash was sown.

Funny when I took the covers off it when the squash started to bloom, every cucumber beetle in the garden flocked to it. I did not realize I had so many. You could barely see some of the leaves from the feasting. It is to be noted all of the feeding on any other cucurbit halted when the covers came off this squash. I was concerned. I used a pyrethrum spray on the plants because it is a very effective contact spray. This worked and the feeding was halted or at least slowed immensely. This pyrethrum is intended to be rotated with other sprays so that bugs do not build up an immunity to it. At this spraying I had not found another spray to use. So off to the internet.

I like how neem oil works where it is a contact and can also be ingested. Then within eight hours of sunlight is broken down. But neem oil alone will not touch cucumber beetles.

One of my frequented sustainable ag sites recommended the combination of cold pressed neem and karanja oil at a 50 / 50 mix. A note: last year I tried this combo and wither it was the time of evening or I had not made proper proportions, but I burned the foliage very badly. I did not like the results and stopped using the combo and went back to using just neem.

Because I had not found a secondary spray for cucumber beetles, I decided to try it again at much reduced mix levels. In a 3 gallon sprayer I used 2 Tbs each. I then sprayed at 4 o'clock in the morning. This was to let it dry before sunrise and hopefully not burn the leaves.

Well it worked and the two together do appear to work better together than just the neem oil. The pyrethrum spray collapsed the population and the mix is continuing the decline of the beetles. We still have a good amount of cucumber beetle “season” ahead of us.

My research also brought up the use of a natural soil born fungus that is a contact spray but acts very much like Bt works on caterpillars. It is recommended to be used on soft bodied insects and weevils. Johnny's Selected Seeds also lists it for use on cucumber beetles. I have not used it yet, but another insect that it is suggested to be used on are aphids. This spray supposedly will not harm beneficial insects and is not photo toxic to plants. This could be useful on spinach and brassicas in the winter along with my chili plants. Neem oil on chili's will make the flowers and fruit drop like rocks. This is why I have left my chili's uncovered to minimize aphid populations. There has been a steady increase if lady bugs but it has been slow. Uncovered chili's with the intense sun and heat mean sun scaled fruits. Ah yes this interconnectedness of everything. Trial and error and hopefully something works.

I do feel positive about the cold pressed neem oil / karanja oil mix. Time will tell.

This week I will harvest chard, kale, carrots, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, chilies, eggplant and summer squash. Please ask about quantities.