Healthy varieties

seedcorn

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Are there varieties of zucchini and slicing cucumbers that are resistant to most common diseases or stink bugs? Between bugs and diseases, my crops of these 2 vegetables is pathetic.
 

897tgigvib

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Vegetables that produce much, and early can beat the bugs and diseases, especially if they are vigorous. That new "Bragger Hybrid" Slicer Cucumber, which I've not yet tried, looks like a good one. Supposed to be so productive you can give the plants tons of room, which cuts back on bugs and diseases, and get plenty. The new snowflake organic probiotic fertilizers, which I have indeed tried and love, help get healthy plants. These come in recycled paper boxes about the size and shape of cereal boxes. They use organic dyes for the labeling.

For Zucchini, not sure if stink bugs, which I've never had, are slowed by those natural stem stickers, spine things on the stems, or not. If they do slow those stink bugs, or discourages them, then the old standard Black Beauty. Plant them in clean soil that has not had powdery or downy mildew growing in it a couple years. Get your early harvests, and at first sight of mildew, finish those plants.

If stink bugs are not deterred by sharp spines, then go with a fast heathy hybrid like "Burpee's Best" hybrid zucchini.

As a last resort, small amounts of copper based anti mildew might be used, followed by good preventative measures.
 

ninnymary

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Vegetables that produce much, and early can beat the bugs and diseases, especially if they are vigorous. That new "Bragger Hybrid" Slicer Cucumber, which I've not yet tried, looks like a good one. Supposed to be so productive you can give the plants tons of room, which cuts back on bugs and diseases, and get plenty. The new snowflake organic probiotic fertilizers, which I have indeed tried and love, help get healthy plants. These come in recycled paper boxes about the size and shape of cereal boxes. They use organic dyes for the labeling.

For Zucchini, not sure if stink bugs, which I've never had, are slowed by those natural stem stickers, spine things on the stems, or not. If they do slow those stink bugs, or discourages them, then the old standard Black Beauty. Plant them in clean soil that has not had powdery or downy mildew growing in it a couple years. Get your early harvests, and at first sight of mildew, finish those plants.

If stink bugs are not deterred by sharp spines, then go with a fast heathy hybrid like "Burpee's Best" hybrid zucchini.

As a last resort, small amounts of copper based anti mildew might be used, followed by good preventative measures.
Hi Marshall,
Can you post a pic of the box for the probiotic fertilizers? What is the brand name and where can you buy them?

Thanks,
Mary
 

Zeedman

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I have a few stink bugs in my garden every year, but they are most attracted to developing beans, which they penetrate through the hull with their long proboscis. I've never seen them on cucumbers or squash... but if present, they should - unless in large numbers - only be damaging if they carry disease. Squash bugs, on the other hand, can quickly get out of control & kill the plants.

One answer for both cucumbers & zucchini is to grow parthenocarpic varieties under floating row cover. Since those varieties do not need pollination, you can safely exclude all insects.

Cucumbers - quite a few out there:
parthenocarpic cucumbers
I have seed for a parthenocarpic variety, WI 5207. If grown under cover, the cucumbers will have no developed seeds. It also has strong resistance (but not immunity) to bacterial wilt, which is usually transmitted by insects. That resistance has been improving with every generation, I lost no plants last year.

Zucchini:
This is a good article, with a list of good links at the bottom:
Parthenocarpic zucchini
 

897tgigvib

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Hi Marshall,
Can you post a pic of the box for the probiotic fertilizers? What is the brand name and where can you buy them?

Thanks,
Mary

Hi Mary. I get it at Friedman's hardware, the one in santa rosa. Petaluma, Sonoma, and ukiah have friedman's too. shoot, can't remember the brand name, but it comes in different kinds, one for roses, one for rhododendrons, an all purpose one, and one that's all microbial, etcetera. For my beans I just used the microbial one. It had small npk numbers like 2-2-1. Beans don't much need fertilizing, but they seem to love microbes. For my melons I used the all purpose, something like 5-5-5. They are based on "meals" feather meal, bone meal, fish meal. oh...thank you for reminding me...last year the social distance lines outside the store was long
 

seedcorn

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@Zeedman thanks for link. From link, got link to zucchini butter-more motivation to try to successfully grow zucchini’s.
 

digitS'

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Seedcorn, I'm gonna drift off on "remedies" more than the varieties that you asked for so after a sentence or 2 on a cucumber variety that surprises and pleases me, you may want to discount the other paragraphs.

Taladaga, that's a place in Alabama! How is it that I have had season after season of good production with that cucumber variety in the northern part of the Wild West? There's a good bet that I was influenced to try this one because of it's photo. Very typical appearance for what I think of as a good American slicer. Flavor hasn't disappointed, at all. I'm a fan of Beit Alpha but not all of those varieties do well for me and that means that they don't seem so "trouble-free," which you are what you are looking for.

I like the quote by the California author of that article @Zeedman links to, "...my conditions are extreme out here at the edge of the Volcanic Tableland." Yeah, there's the rub: stress. You give those cukes and zuks some stress and the bugs and disease moves in on them. I have some stress-like arid conditions (which I don't associate with Alabama ;)). And wind 🌬️ ... so row covers - I don't know. They might work just because they allow some of that troublesome air to pass thru rather than, probably, blow them into the next county.

So, I spray - not so much for the mildew that can devastate the plants some seasons, but for bugs like the stinkers. (And, I know I could be taken to task by some for my organic sprays but, at least, they are not the persistent kinds and, I hope, aren't lasting to harvest.)

The article author suggests a problem, "Leaving home for even a few days can throw momentum back to the bugs." For me, that bug problem in the squash & cukes would be not attending to soil moisture. What sometimes happens is that a sprinkler plugs and the neighbor turns on the sprinklers a couple times over a few days. I rely on that but neither of us realize that one of my sprinklers is plugged. Blam! The squash & stink bugs move in on those stressed plants.

Spinosad can kill those beetles but the bugs have to eat it. They not only can fly around but they are very good at scurrying around to hide under the leaves. If they find it comfortable under there they may well stay for a day or 2 and the Spinosad deteriorates away to ineffective ... So, I'm back to look for them and if'n they are still on the plants, it's time for a Pyrethrum spray. That doesn't have to be eaten but will paralyze their respiratory system with time enough, hopefully, for them to die - while hiding down there under a leaf.

Steve
 

ninnymary

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Vegetables that produce much, and early can beat the bugs and diseases, especially if they are vigorous. That new "Bragger Hybrid" Slicer Cucumber, which I've not yet tried, looks like a good one. Supposed to be so productive you can give the plants tons of room, which cuts back on bugs and diseases, and get plenty. The new snowflake organic probiotic fertilizers, which I have indeed tried and love, help get healthy plants. These come in recycled paper boxes about the size and shape of cereal boxes. They use organic dyes for the labeling.

For Zucchini, not sure if stink bugs, which I've never had, are slowed by those natural stem stickers, spine things on the stems, or not. If they do slow those stink bugs, or discourages them, then the old standard Black Beauty. Plant them in clean soil that has not had powdery or downy mildew growing in it a couple years. Get your early harvests, and at first sight of mildew, finish those plants.

If stink bugs are not deterred by sharp spines, then go with a fast heathy hybrid like "Burpee's Best" hybrid zucchini.

As a last resort, small amounts of copper based anti mildew might be used, followed by good preventative measures.
I've done a google search and I didn't find any probiotic fertilizers that came in a cereal looking box. They were all pouches. I was just in Petaluma Friday getting chicken feed. I'll have to check out that store next time I'm there.

Could it be Down to Earth? Their stuff comes in boxes that kind of have an old fashion design to them.

Mary
 
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897tgigvib

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Well, I hope they have it this year, and have not discontinued them.
 

897tgigvib

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Hi Marshall,
Can you post a pic of the box for the probiotic fertilizers? What is the brand name and where can you buy them?

Thanks,
Mary

Howdy Mary, I went to Friedman's hardware today, the Santa Rosa store about a mile south of where I live. Short of a picture, this is a description of the fertilizer I bought today. A box truly the size of corn flakes cereal. Net wt. 5 pounds, sort of heavy for its size. It's called Bio-Live 5-4-2 has a picture of a growing carrot on the front of the box. Made by a company called Down To Earth, all natural fertilizers. It cost less this year than last year, 11.97 Mostly made from fishing by products, but it has a lot of beneficial micros. shoot, forgot what aisle number it was in, but it was the main fertilizers aisle.
 

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