| Author |
Message |
    
Sheilakar
My Weather
| | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 04:55 pm EST : |   
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Hi you seem to be the vegie experts .(Charles I peeked in to your Garden and it looks great)Can you give me a lesson on How to grow Cukes and squash on a trellis or a lattice. Thanks Guys
Sheilakar
- CT,
Zone "6"
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Greg
My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 05:28 pm EST : |
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Cucumbers are simple . . they will climb up anything and they have very strong tendrils, so just plant them below your lattice and help guide the vines to find them. Squash may be a bit tricker as it will depend on what kind of squash. These plants tend to be sprawlers and grow along the grown. They do not have tendrils to grasp onto supports for climbing usually. If you want to grow them vertically, you can. You'll just have to work more to train them up your trellis, poking them through holes and perhaps tying them up. Some squash are very heavy, so as the fruit develops, you may need to also tie those up with a cloth hammock to prevent them from pulling the squash vines down. I would not try to grow summer squashes on a trellis.
Greg
- ND,
Zone "4"
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Charles
My Weather
My Time
| | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 11:25 pm EST : |
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Greg is right. I would only add that you can aid those tendrils with string and actually tell the vines where you want them to go and that placing a squash on a dry surface like a brick can save it from rotting in moist soil.
Charles
- Wisconsin,
Zone "4b"
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Sheilakar
My Weather
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 03:00 pm EST : |
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Thanks Greg & Charles. I have lost my Squash to Mildew/wilt the last two years. Thought maybe a trellis would Help. Any cures or prevention for Mildew?
Sheilakar
- CT,
Zone "6"
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Greg
My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 11:35 am EST : |
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Are you sure you lost it to Mildew? If the plants wilt and die, most likely you have squash vine borers. Look around the base of the plant and you'll see small holes in the stem and possibly stuff that looks a bit like sawdust. The squash vine borers grow int he stems killing the plants. It is a kind of moth that lays eggs on the stems early. Once you have that problem, it's hard to save the plant. Some people carefully slit open the stem with a knife, remove the grubs and then bury the stems in dirt. This works sometimes. The best way is to prevent them from being infested by covering the plants early in the season when you see the squash vine borer moths in the garden. It's a big problem with squash.
Here's more info about them:
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/veg/ef314.htm
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/squashbore.html
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/problems/squashvb.htm
From the first link:
"This insect overwinters as a full grown larva or a pupa one to two inches below the soil surface. If it has not already done so, the larva pupates in the spring. Adult moths begin to emerge about the time the plants begin to run, and moth flight continues through mid August.
The small brown eggs, laid individually on leaf stalks and vines, hatch in seven to 10 days. The newly hatched larva immediately bores into the stem. A larva feeds for 14 to 30 days before exiting the stem to pupate in the soil. There are 1 to 2 generations per year in Kentucky."
Greg
- ND,
Zone "4"
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