Thanks TRG.

I did spot the bugs in the picture and squished 'em.  I've since found maybe another six, checking daily.  I googled what their eggs look like so I'll look for those as well.  Found one in the tomato bed today so I'm sure there are more yet to find.

I can appreciate that you might be a wee bit busy these days!

I looked the cukes over when they went kaput recalling how you said your squash got wiped out over night before but didn't find any of then... but did find a couple a day or two after, so you're probably right.

I don't have that many plants to patrol so hopefully I can get and stay ahead of them.  My biggest concern is visibility into my tangle of over planted tomatoes... easy to hide in that mess.  Next year a lot lower density and better training.

Look under every leaf.  The eggs looks like brown grains of pepper.  Clusters or single. Mr. Clean kills them, but, this is because of hte surfactant effect.  A soapy water solution should work, but, zukes are susceptible to sunburning if you use a home made solution.  Be careful.  You can do a lot of harm if you get too much soap on those leaves.

They do not like sun.  Look under the base of the vines.  Once you start spraying you will probably spook them out in to the light.  

Around here they hang out at ground level most of the day, ground level sucking on vines.  At night they appear to be most active.

Watermelon
Squash (zukes)
Cucumbers
pumpkin

All of those suffered major damage here, even AFTER I knew what was doing it.  They can really explode in the garden.

The will even go after gourd vines eventually.

TRG

TRG

Since I don't have that many plants, a thorough search didn't take very long.  

I didn't spot any adults but did find 8 clusters like this one:


I just excised the portion of the leaf with the eggs and crush it.  Figured a few small holes in a couple leaves might be less impacting than spraying.

Brought in a nice set of squash and zucchini and some peas as well:


Will need to give the peas better structure next time, they are collapsing in on themselves in places and trapping too much moisture.

Quick update, not many pics.

Regarding the chicken coop raid - two raccoons down so far.

Garden is still doing well for its first year...

A doe 'discovered' the garden this week and has browsed down much of my strawberry and some of the carrot tops.  I'm not going to get too worked up over it, since there isn't much to do about it until I put up a real fence.  Besides, she'll be in my freezer in another few months so I'm just trading one crop for another.

- Starting to harvest some pole beans now, same w/carrots.  The kids love picking them.
- Peas are done... ended up with a few pounds after shelling.  Tasted great.  Next year will support better to prolong their production - and a much bigger patch.
- Cukes are developing now... hopefully can harvest some in another week or so.  
- Squash and zukes are mostly doing well - one squash plant was favored more than the others the squash/stink bugs and it lost several leaves before the battle turned.  The remainder are producing nicely after the calcium spray.
- A few gourd vines are starting to fruit - hopefully it produces and we can make some bird houses from them
- The kale made a great comeback once I got the flea beetles under control
- Chard, black-seeded and red oak leaf lettuce continue to be pest free high producers with near zero effort
- getting a few cherry tomatoes a day now... the deluge of all varieties looks to be maybe a week or two away...
- the very late planted peppers have delivered a few now too
- hoping the late eggplant will produce - bushing up big but no blooms yet
- some of my onions were overshadowed by the booming greens and folded over... will have to plan their location better next year

These are volunteer vines that I mentioned were growing in the back yard... starting to show fruit and now I think they might be watermellon... but damn if I remember feeding any to the chickens this spring.
Picture doesn't really do their size justice... they are booming.

Watermellon or ???



Bees are doing well...



Raccoon not so much.

Good to see that you found the eggs on the leave.  You can smash those eggs with you finger and thumb without harming the leaves.

Stay vigilant.

I've found that Liquid Sevin is not palatable to deer.  On your non-flowering plants you can spray  the leaves liberally with Sevin and the deer avoid it.

TRG

Those don't look like any watermelons that I know of.

Mine all form in line with the runners.

From the pic, it looks like a Zuke or Squash.

TRG

That was what I thought initially too, but scale wise they are larger plants than any squash or cukes I've grown.

This fruit is fist sized now:


If not watermelon maybe cantelope?

Its the plant version of "what's in the box?".

Pumpkin?

TRG

Accepting all bets at this point!

What the squash beetles didn't get:


In foil on the grill:

Chard prepared like spinach,  delicious!


Fresh steamed string beans w/soy:

Looks good.

Possibly and 8-ball zucchini?

I am going to double down on pumpkin and make it my official bet.

TRG

Given that my wife saves any fruit/veggie trimmings for the chicks, most anything is possible...  we've probably had a little of every variety over the last several months.

I just assumed initially it was cucumber, since that was the last thing I gave them before I noticed the sprouts and at the two leaf phase they all look very similar.

Your slot has been reserved!

Largest fruit I could find today:



Early fruit formation:


A few days old (and about the size of the watch face in the earlier pic):


Unrelated - hungry bees getting some sugar water:

Managed to crush the main stem on one of the bagged potatoes so I decided to open it early and see how it was doing.

This bag had the least development of the three.  You can also see how I "hilled" it with whatever material was at hand... I found no tubers outside of the dirt band, so no straw filler next time.



There were about 20 tubers total but only about a dozen "new" size to small baked.  Had I left it another month it would have been a descent bunch for such little effort.  Curious how the remaining two yield.

I pulled one of my 'regular' potato plants a week ago.  Granted, this is around the 60 day mark, but, no potatoes on it.

My streak remains unbroken.

TRG

you know i hilled my potatoes last year with straw and i had the same issue, no tubers above the dirt hill that i planted the "seeds" in.  So i'm not going to use straw to hill in the future as well...

Yup.  I think straw might be of use if you have tubers near or at the surface to act as a sunscreen for them, but agreed that it doesn't seem to be effective as a grow medium.

Winner.

The largest is about a foot across now and is undeniably a pumpkin.

The patch is doing fantastic - with runners taking off and a lot fruit developing.

Couldn't have done a better pumpkin patch if I tried... which I did... and the one I intentionally planted is anemic in comparison.

What really threw me off was that this volunteer variety has leaves over 18" across, while the varieties I planted are barely a hand's span.

Where is my fabulous prize?

TRG

Dang it - we are plum out of the fabulous prizes.  

However, we do have a few each of cheap, cheesy and WTF if you would like to make another selection.

Progress on the intended pumpkin patch:


Compared to the 15 foot long volunteer patch:


It's flowers are bigger than the leaves on the variety I planted.  That's a honey bee lost in the base of the one middle left - to give an idea of scale.


Pumpkin!


Many wee sized ones too:


I'm going to try something I read about a while back - writing my kid's names in ball point pen on a young pumpkin... supposed to scar up as the pumpkin grows and the end result is a surprise for the kids when they help harvest and find one with their name grown into it...

BigPumpkins told me that you need to feed them regularly, and also cut the runners to prevent the vine from putting on too many fruit.

TRG

Noted - thanks!

Tomatoes are doing well, especially the cherries.  

Have a few Big/Better Boy varieties that are splitting - it's been wet here for a bit.

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Biggest disappointment right now are the cucumbers - or near total lack thereof.

A few maters, taters, pepper and squash:





And a late attempt at watermelon:

The volunteer pumpkins are kicking butt.

Pulled the first one in today... not very big, but otherwise picture perfect:

Patch continues to deliver...