My Connecticut field pumpkins ripen ed well but when I went to harvest them most of them had been bored into and one had turned to mush. The base of the vines were mushy. What has caused this and how can I succeed next year?

Sounds like a Squash Vine Borer (SVB). Were you plants doing great and then all of a sudden got droopy and died? Did you open up the stems to see if there were any worms in there? You can do a web search for "squash vine borer" and look at the pictures to see if they match what happened to your squash. Of if you took pics you can post them here.

Unfortunately SVBs are hard to control. If you want to use insecticides you have to catch them at a very specific time and the window for control is only a few hours to a couple of days. Basically you have to hang around your garden full time until you see the flying SVBs, then spray them. If you're not there at just the right time you won't get a second chance.

If you notice the entry wounds in the vines early enough you can try digging the worm out of the stem, but there's no guarantee that won't kill your plants anyway.

You can also try not growing any squash, pumpkin, cucumbers or similar vegetables for a couple of years. But again there is no guarantee that will work. The problem is that they can fly quite a ways and are only vulnerable to intervention for a short period of time. So even if you manage to control them in your garden, they can easily migrate from another nearby garden or field.

I've heard of people wrapping the vines in aluminum foil but I've never tried that myself.

I had a SVB problem when I lived in my previous home. After a few years of failing to control the SVBs I just gave up trying to grow anything in that family.

Sorry, I wish I had a good solution.

Thank you for your reply. How discouraging! I planted winter squash and pumpkins to spread out my harvest. Perhaps I should try the tin foil suggestion. Can't have bees any longer because some neighbors are spraying insecticides to control ticks...

If my neighbors were killing bees I would have a serious talk with them

My neighbor doesn't care about bees. She says her grandkids come first.

beckylord6 said: My Connecticut field pumpkins ripen ed well but when I went to harvest them most of them had been bored into and one had turned to mush. The base of the vines were mushy. What has caused this and how can I succeed next year?

This could be SVB or pickle worm. If SVB you can reduce the problem by growing C. moschata types. SVB likes hollow vines. C. moschata has hard solid vines and usually are left alone. Pickle worms on the other hand are fruit borers that attack the fruit in its immature state. Any cucurbit is fair game especially cucumbers and melons as well as squash. Timing is an effective way to deal with them as the moths migrate up from deep south
Some C. moschata varieties. Dickerson may be your best substitute for Connecticut Field. https://www.missouribotanicalg...

Tried a new winter squash this year. They were supposed to get "big", but I didn't realize how BIG!
There were 10 of the the really large ones, and a bunch of smaller ones that were only 25-30 lbs.



next to a 5-gal bucket

They look yummy!

Hey Deryll, What kind of squash are they? That's astounding!