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Last year I grew buttercup squash. My plants really started to take off later in the summer. But all my fruit kept getting disease or insect damage. I also did have a bit of a problem with the squash borer worm. So This year, I am growing pumpkins. Any suggestions? Especially with keeping the squash borer from eating my plants? Maybe some companion ideas or etc. Thanks! I got only a few squash that survived last year. I am hoping to get a nice pumpkin patch. Mind you that I plan on eating these pumpkins and I am not growing them exclusively for decoration.

As an organic gardener, I have kind of given up on growing most squashes because they are so susceptible to squash vine borer and squash bug. The squash bug you can kind of control if you are very diligent - checking the underside of leaves all the time for the egg clusters, and washing the plants down to get the adults off. The trouble with the squash bugs is that they carry a wilt disease.

The squash vine borer is the worst pest in my garden, the only thing that absolutely kills a big healthy vine almost overnight. It helps if you keep the stem of your plants buried, so the borer can't get to them as easily. And/or you can coat the stems with kaolin clay, which makes a protective barrier to keep the borer out. Keeping plant and soil dusted with diatomaceous earth should help against both the borer and the bug.

Pumpkins and butternut squash are supposed to be the most resistant to the SVB, so if you were still having problems with it, that is not good news. SVBs can attack your melons and cukes as well, though I think they are not as frequent targets.

It is said that radishes and marigolds repel squash bugs and onions and garlic repel the vine borer. So consider planting some of your onions close to the cucurbits.

Actually it's specific species -- butternut squash is a Cucurbita moschata and has solid (not hollow) stems. Other squash in this family are also said to be resistant to squash vine borers (SVBs), though my Tromboncino eventually did get 2 or 3 infestations (non fatal on secondary vines) later in the season. There are many others including ones with shape of pumpkins -- squat lobed round (and sometimes much better flavored than the fall decoration pumpkins) -- and my preferred seed catalogs identify the cucurbita species. So look for seed sources that ID them or ask.

"Pumpkins" are usually C. pepo or C. maxima and have the hollow vines. So far any of those grown in my garden have bit the dust due to SVBs.

I have heard that C. mixta like Green Striped Cushaw are also resistant. I was going to plant a trial of several moschatas and mixtas with sacrificial maxima and pepo or two last year, but I ended up growing 100+ tomatoes instead. I intend to cut down the number of tomatoes this year -- I have to rotate them out anyway -- and dedicate the larger space to the squash trial this year.

SVB may not like butternut, but squash bugs prefer them! I grew butternut 2 years in a row and I just could not pick the squash bugs fast enough! I got zero crop both years and I'm a fairly vigilant picker.

No matter what I do, by the end of July, I'm pulling the plants that didn't succumb to SVB. ALL the squash and cucumber plants...

Having said that... We had a REALLY harsh winter, and our last freeze was said to have wiped out 90% of the stink bugs here in upstate, SC... So they say. They look so similar to squash bugs! So I'm hoping the same is true for them!

OH! And sprinkle your plants with fresh snipped dill, plant nasturtium, and radishes (icicle radishes in particular). I use neem oil, too.

I get something boring into my kabocha's every year. I never found out what it was. They only go about 1/4 inch deep, the squash is still edible.

Only way to protect squash here is to cover them with nylon stockings or cover the small ones with newspaper tubes to keep them from getting stung by fruit flies. I have never seen a squash vine borer so I guess I am lucky.

My vines usually succumb instead to mildew. I try to get them up a trellis as much as possible.

What kind of trellis for pumpkins and larger squash? ...or do you grow smaller size fruit varieties?