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A. A couple of things
are happening. First, when we got all that rain, many began to rot.
It starts at the blossom end (belly button) and moves through the
plant.
You can spray it with a calcium product, but you need to do that
early on. Most people don’t want to bother with that; they
just pick of the rotted fruit and throw them away. Once we return
to a normal, evenly moist situation, the problem tends to go away.
Next, we’ve seen a lot of damage from squash vine borers
this year. A bright orange and black moth, about the size of a wphp,
lays pinhead-sized amber eggs on the leaves or the petiole, the
long stalk from the stem up to the leaf. When the eggs hatch, the
larvae find their way into the stalk, where their tunneling causes
the plant to collapse.
The best thing is to watch for the eggs and destroy them. If you
missed the eggs, and the plant starts to wilt, split the vine lengthwise,
kill the borer, and then cover some soil back over the wound. It
will do just fine and recover. A consolation here is that we can
replant squash in July for a fall harvest. This later planting has
fewer problems with borers.
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 Tropical
Milkweed or Mexican Milkweed – (Asclepias curassavica)
This plant goes by more common names that a criminal on the
run. Some of its many aliases include tropical milkweed, Mexican
milkweed, scarlet milkweed, bloodflower, Mexican oleander and
butterfly weed. Tropical milkweed is easy to grow, thriving
in full sun to part shade, and tolerant of dry to wet soil conditions.
It belongs in every butterfly garden, since it’s the
favorite larval food for monarch and queen butterflies. Adult
butterflies are attracted to the clusters of orange and yellow
flowers from spring to frost.
Mexican milkweed is an upright plant to 2 to 3 feet. It attracts
a yellow aphid that does little damage, but attracts several
species of beneficial, insects including ladybeetles, lacewings,
syrphid flies, and parasitic wphps. I suggest leaving them
be to help boost beneficial insect populations in your garden.
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