Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Your plans for dealing with squash bugs and vine borers

joseph · April 21, 2014

Once upon a time there was a squash breeding program at a land-grant university. The proprietors of the program decided that all squash eating bugs would be eliminated from the fields by application of poisons. The plant breeders continued this strategy for many decades, applying pesticides every few weeks during the growing season so that no bug would ever molest the squash plants. The plants grew for many generations without a care in the world for bugs. The genetic memory of how to deal with bugs got diluted and mostly lost amidst genes for pretty colors and uniform sized and shaped fruit. Bugs were never a problem for the squash because there was always plenty of poison to go around.

Then the plant breeders sent the squash seeds out into the world, and they fell into the hands of bumpkins who felt that it was not wise to apply poisons to their food. The bugs, and the beetles, and the worms found the plants -- which had lost their memory -- and cried out "Party Time!" The plants were essentially defenseless against the bugs because they had grown for time immemorial in an environment without bugs. Nevertheless, an occasional plant in an occasional garden managed to eek out a frugal existence and produce a fruit in spite of the bugs. A few shrewd bumpkins noticed the production of fruit against-all-odds, and gathered together the seeds from the survivors and replanted them. After a few generations of promiscuous-pollination and survival-of-the-fittest selection the genetics of the squash got realigned so that the plants survived the bugs more often than not, and even began to thrive in the presence of bugs. Then once a crop could be reliably harvested the shrewd bumpkins started doing farmer-directed selection for other desired traits.
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Once upon a time there was a squash breeding program at a land-grant university. The proprietors of the program decided that liberal amounts of fertilizer would be applied to the plants...
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Once upon a time there was a squash breeding program at a land-grant university. The proprietors of the program decided that liberal amounts of fungicides would be applied to the plants...

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I lost something like 3 Maxima squash plants out of 300 to squash bugs last summer. That's great odds as far as I'm concerned. Didn't lose any butternuts to bugs.

April 21, 2014	#17
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	Once upon a time there was a squash breeding program at a land-grant university. The proprietors of the program decided that all squash eating bugs would be eliminated from the fields by application of poisons. The plant breeders continued this strategy for many decades, applying pesticides every few weeks during the growing season so that no bug would ever molest the squash plants. The plants grew for many generations without a care in the world for bugs. The genetic memory of how to deal with bugs got diluted and mostly lost amidst genes for pretty colors and uniform sized and shaped fruit. Bugs were never a problem for the squash because there was always plenty of poison to go around. Then the plant breeders sent the squash seeds out into the world, and they fell into the hands of bumpkins who felt that it was not wise to apply poisons to their food. The bugs, and the beetles, and the worms found the plants -- which had lost their memory -- and cried out "Party Time!" The plants were essentially defenseless against the bugs because they had grown for time immemorial in an environment without bugs. Nevertheless, an occasional plant in an occasional garden managed to eek out a frugal existence and produce a fruit in spite of the bugs. A few shrewd bumpkins noticed the production of fruit against-all-odds, and gathered together the seeds from the survivors and replanted them. After a few generations of promiscuous-pollination and survival-of-the-fittest selection the genetics of the squash got realigned so that the plants survived the bugs more often than not, and even began to thrive in the presence of bugs. Then once a crop could be reliably harvested the shrewd bumpkins started doing farmer-directed selection for other desired traits. . . . Once upon a time there was a squash breeding program at a land-grant university. The proprietors of the program decided that liberal amounts of fertilizer would be applied to the plants... . . . Once upon a time there was a squash breeding program at a land-grant university. The proprietors of the program decided that liberal amounts of fungicides would be applied to the plants... --- I lost something like 3 Maxima squash plants out of 300 to squash bugs last summer. That's great odds as far as I'm concerned. Didn't lose any butternuts to bugs. Last edited by joseph; April 22, 2014 at 12:39 AM.