I've got the best and prettiest organic garden I've ever had. Maybe that's why the bugs are rushing to get here. The broccoli has not 1 but 2 kinds of worms and the thing is, I bought floating row cover and forgot all about it. Is it too late to use it and when should I cover the squash to prevent squash bugs from feasting? I've taken Grant Eversoll's advice and planted radishes around all the squash and melons etc. I've got to be one of the few people around here that doesn't get enough zucchini, the joke is, why do people in Southern Indiana lock their cars; so people won't put zucchini in them. We also bought neem and pyola(a new organic spray) and we often use rotonone. Also is it true that cold winters kill off bugs, if so let's all pray for a cold winter, haven't had one in a while. Thanks for your help.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 18, 2000

Answers

My garden is also the most beautiful this year (KS). I think it is too late for the broccoli if you already have worms. Maybe for the squash, you will have to check really close to see if there are any there yet. But once they start blooming you have to remove it anyway because they need bees for pollination.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), June 18, 2000.

Go ahead and use Bt on your broccoli a time or two to kill all the caterpillars. It won't do any good on the adults should there be any in the pupa stage. I covered mine once without spraying the Bt first and the newly hatched adults had a feast until I removed the cover, let the adults I didn't kill escape and sprayed a time or two before replacing the cover. I would cover the squash now to protect it. You need to remove it when the plants start blooming so the insect pollinators can do their work. It's hard to keep ahead of them, but I have had reasonably good success destroying masses of eggs on the leaves. Eventually they will get ahead of you but hopefully not before you have enough squash. With winter squash, I let the plant set as many fruits as I think it can support to maturity then pinch the growing tips and replace the cover until harvest.

Congratulations on your success gardening organically. You, your family and the planet will be the better for it. Just remember even the organic pesticides will kill bees and other beneficials so chose your application times carefully.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), June 19, 2000.

We don't use ANY chemicals, "organic" or not. Can't seem to get our act together with row cover either! We just manually pick the bugs. We lose some battles, but we plant much more than we need and sell surplus to farmers market, often keeping the slightly damaged produce for ourselves and selling the first quality stuff. It works great to pay the kids a nickel a bug to keep them busy! Good luck.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), June 21, 2000.

If you haven't tried guinea fowl yet, it is worth considering. We have had guineas now for over a year, and they have eliminated bugs of all kinds, including ticks, ants, grasshoppers, grubs, etc. They patrol our vegetable garden and do not damage any of the plants; they are there looking for bugs only. Needless to say, we are now big fans of guineas! - Liz

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), June 24, 2000.