- From the squishy, squashy studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, P.A., it is time for another heartbreaking episode of chemical-free horticultural hijinks.

You Bet Your Garden.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

What's up when your squash plants just keel over and die midsummer?

On today's show, we'll reveal the weird-looking moth behind this personal tragedy and explain how you can prevent its boring your plans to death.

Otherwise, it's a phone call show, cats and kittens.

That's right.

We're going to take that heaping helping of your telecommunicated questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions, and memorably magnificent mortifications.

So keep your eyes and/or ears right here, true believers, because it's all coming up faster than you finally savoring that squash...

Right after this.

- Support for You Bet Your Garden is provided by the Espoma Company, offering a complete selection of natural organic plant foods and potting soils.

More information about Espoma and the Espoma natural gardening community can be found at Espoma.com.

- Welcome to another thrilling episode of You Bet Your Garden.

From the studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, P.A., I am your host, Mike McGrath, and those of you who are watching our television version of the show notice something a little bit different, don't you?

They tore apart my kitchen!

They're remodeling it.

So now, I'm here in the radio studio, where I look very professional, don't you think?

And those of you who listen to the podcast or a radio station, you won't notice any difference other than perhaps a slight improvement.

All right?

So coming up later, we're going to cure your squash vine borer problems.

But first, let's get to those phone calls at... Amy, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, Mike, how are you?

- I am just ducky, Amy!

And I want to assure everybody out there that Ducky remains my constant sidekick and companion despite the slight change of venue.

How is Amy doing?

- I am just great.

- Oh, OK, can we have, like, that certified and notarized by others, you know?

And where is... - Don't know if they'll agree.

- Yeah, where is Amy great?

- Indianapolis.

- All right, what can we do for Amy from Indy?

- I'm having trouble with my tomatoes.

Plants look beautiful, the tomatoes look beautiful.

It started out the first, we've had a ton of rain, the first batch had some blossom end rot, but that seems to clear up.

I sprayed them with that calcium chloride spray, I think it's organic.

It says it is.

And that seemed to clear up.

But now, they taste, particularly the plum tomatoes, the San Marzanos, taste mealy.

This really nasty, tasteless, disgusting texture.

- Don't hold back, Amy, how do you really feel about this?

You know?

- Well, I've been nursing them along since the middle of April... - And they don't appreciate it one bit, do they?

You work your fingers to the bone and... And they get mealy.

-The other ones, the delicious ones, more the beefsteak type, those are getting to be a little better, they're almost worth eating.

And the little sun golds are delicious.

- Sun golds are always delicious.

That's like the bulletproofed tomato, in my experience.

So, are you a flat-earther, or are you raised bed?

- I have raised beds and then, I have a couple in pots.

- Oh, OK. Any difference between the taste of the potted versus raised beds?

- Potted ones are not doing that well.

The San Marzanos are good, and then, I had dwarf tomatoes in the pot.

I forget what they... Rosella purple, I think they're called.

The one I got off of that bush was pretty good.

- San Marzano, for those who don't know it, is, to me, the perfect base tomato., Unless something goes wrong and they get mealy on you.

- So, what's your weather been like in Indianapolis?

Has it been really heavy rains for an extended period of time?

- You know, there was about a ten-day period where it rained over an inch every day.

- Mm-hmm.

- It hasn't rained as much the last couple of weeks.

- OK, but the plants are thankful for that now, right, that they finally get to dry out?

Now... - Oh, yeah, yeah, I've only watered once this year.

- Yeah.

I'm going to say, you know, I don't know how radical you want to be here, but since all the tomatoes on your vines right now have been subjected to this water world... And this is, like, not a slam dunk.

This is like the non-coward's way of gardening.

I would honestly pick all the tomatoes you have now and see if this next run that's not subjected to so much water tastes better for you.

- OK. - But I think, in your case, the calcium would have helped doubly, because not only do those egg shells in the planting hole totally prevent blossom end rot, but they give the tomatoes a fuller, richer flavor.

So, I think you're talking about a spray-on calcium that's, you know, for people who didn't put anything in the hole at planting time.

And I would keep up with that.

You can't you can't hurt the plants with calcium, calcium sprays, which I think are designed to prevent blossom end rot.

So, you know, maybe do half.

If you've got tomato plants that taste OK, let those be.

But the ones that are totally...gluck...

I would pull the tomatoes off and put down a big feeding of compost, and see if you can get a good run at the end.

- OK, will do.

- All right, good luck, Amy!

Fortune favors the bold - Thank you so much.

- Bye-bye.

- Bye-bye.

- All right, Joanne, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, Mike.

- Hello, Joanne, how are you?

- I'm good, how are you?

- I'm just ducky!

Thanks for asking.

We may have changed studios, but Ducky, it's in his contract to come along.

And where are you?

- I'm in Abbington, Pennsylvania.

- What can we do for you?

- Well, I'm having an issue with my tomatoes.

As they get bigger, they are developing these, sort of, depressed black...

I don't know, spots, lesions on them.

And when you cut them open, the black actually goes into the meat of the tomatoes.

I was wondering if maybe it was some kind of fungus, because we've had a lot of humidity and rain here lately.

Not to mention hail.

- We ought to have a duck on this show.

Not you, Ducky.

We need a duck on this show to drop down from the ceiling every time somebody says "fungus" like they used to on You Bet Your Life with Groucho.

I mean, that is, "Everything is a fungus.

"The handle fell off my shovel.

Was that a fungus?"

Now, when your tomatoes went bad, did they go bad at the blossom end on the bottom, or just... - It's more on the sides, actually, I sent a picture in my email, actually, so you could see them.

- Raised beds or flat ground?

- Raised beds.

- OK. And what varieties are you growing?

- Oh, God, everything.

It seems to be worse on the beefsteaks.

- Is it possible that the beefsteaks are splitting, and then, there's disease or insects getting in there?

No?

- No, no, they're not splitting this year.

- And you say it's black inside, not white?

- It's black inside, yeah.

It seems to come from the black lesions on the outside into the meat of the tomato.

Well, I would say then almost certainly something is attacking them.

There are certain types of insects like stinkbugs that, just by walking on the tomato, they cause these kind of lesions that go inside.

Have you cut...?

Is there any way you can cut away enough of the tomato to get enough to eat?

- Yeah, well, on the beefsteaks, I can do that, because they're big enough that you can cut the nasty part out and still have some tomato left.

- Right.

And how does that tomato taste?

- Tastes fine!

- And you're growing in raised beds, I presume you use compost.

Has there been any...?

- I make my own compost, yeah.

- And no artificial fertilizer of any kind?

- No.

- Oh, OK. All right.

Who screens these calls?

Come on.

Somebody has got to be doing it, you know.

- You mean I stumped you?

- What are you doing to me here?

You're making me look bad to the people out there.

And you crushed up a dozen egg shells in each planting hole?

- Yeah, put them in the plant holes, yeah, which made a big difference for the blossom end rot.

- OK, good.

- I used to... Yeah, but that's doing the trick.

- Yeah.

I still think it's cultural.

I think it's from all the rain.

And, as you said, now that the rain, at least at this point in time, when we're taping this call, has settled back a little bit.

I think you've got a chance.

Now, can you see the problem while the tomato is growing?

- It seems to be more on, as they get closer to turning red.

- Yeah, see, now we got... - But it could just be, with the little ones, you don't see it as much.

- Yeah.

And do you have any varieties that are doing better?

- Actually, the yellow cherry tomatoes are doing fabulously.

- That goes right along with what the other calls I've been getting.

You know, the yellow tomatoes of any size seem to be invulnerable to these meteorological disturbances.

- If something is... - That's good.

- Yeah, if something is out there that is blemished already that you can see it.

And as soon as it turns red, bring it in and make sauce with the good parts.

- Yeah, that's what I've been doing.

- Good, the more tomatoes you pull off, I think the more it'll allow the plant to reset and give you good tomatoes at the end of the season.

You know, some years, I can remember, I got tomatoes all the way through like August 15th, and everything went to Hades.

And then, I had other seasons where, you know, nothing was happening, watering too much, the tomatoes were leaning over, smoking cigarettes, complaining.

And then, at the end of the season, it got really nice, and we got a magnificent run of late tomatoes.

So, I would say, glean everything you got out there because you've still got plenty of time.

The plant will expend some moisture and energy, setting new flowers and fruits.

And this is, you know, this is a good time to do it.

You should still get a lot of fresh eating.

- Yeah, OK, Mike.

- All right, sorry I don't have better news.

All right, bye-bye.

Let's get to another phone call at... Marge, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, Mike.

Thanks for having me.

- Well, thank you for being had, Marge, how are you doing?

- I'm doing pretty good, except for my poor tree.

- OK, and where is Marge's poor tree?

And don't say "the backyard" or anything like that.

- Lake Wynona, Pennsylvania.

So, not far from Bethlehem.

- All right, what can we do for Marge?

- Yeah, I wonder if you had any ideas what would cause a pine tree that would be dead in three weeks?

And it was a huge pine tree in my yard.

Literally in three weeks, it turned brown.

And we're going to have to take it down, I think, because it's totally dead.

And it happened so quickly.

So, this tree was out there for years before?

- It was.

One of the things that we did put in was a septic system, and we put that septic system a year ago.

We're trying to figure out what happened.

Maybe it was the septic system?

We just don't know.

We thought maybe you had some good ideas.

- OK, do you have a mound or do you have a drain field for your septic?

- It's a drain field, so, you know, we did have a septic tank, and then we had to replace it with a drain field.

- OK, and where is the tree in relation to the drain field?

- You know, it's actually only about 50 feet, 100 feet from the tree.

But it looks great for a year, up until three weeks ago, since that septic system.

And then we thought they're spotted lantern flies.

I mean, what could have caused it?

- No, no, no.

When people get the spotted lantern fly, the tree is just covered with them.

You really can't see the tree anymore.

When did the coroner come by to check on this tree?

When was it apparently dead?

OK, so probably about four weeks ago, we noticed that it was just not looking great.

And then, we went away actually for about ten days.

We came back and we looked at it, and we're like, oh, my gosh, it's totally dead.

So, literally within a four-week period.

Yeah, it's just... ...turned brown.

- And were there heavy rains during that time when you were away?

- There was quite a bit of rain, they did have some good thunderstorms and things like that, but it's...

I mean, this tree's been in that spot for so long, and it's so big.

But yes, they did have some rain.

- It's unusual.

Again, I you know, I concur that your tree is not merely dead.

It's really most sincerely dead.

So, you know, you're going to have to take it down.

But I also noticed a lot of healthy plantings right around the thing.

It might just have been accidentally in the path of one of the drain pipes, and just got watered to death, which is very common.

And a lot of the close-ups of the bark lead me to believe that it sat in water for a long time, that it wasn't in a good draining spot.

So, you know... - OK. - This is not a game where everything wins, where everything makes it, you know, that's the heartbreak and joy of gardening.

You know, you roll the dice every time you put something in the ground.

So, I would get rid of it, and I would replace it with something, and this is just wild speculation on my part, but I would replace it with something that's not sensitive to overwatering.

- All righty.

- OK?

- Sounds great.

- Good luck to you.

- Thank you so much.

- My pleasure.

- I love the show.

Thank you!

I love doing it.

- All right.

- Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Yes, it's inevitable, and it always happens.

It is time for the Question of the Week, which we're calling "squash vine borer prevention".

Sandy in Villas, New Jersey, writes... Well, thanks, Sandy, but I doubt your timing trick would work against this evil insect.

According to the Pennsylvania state extension system, the moth that causes this terrible problem over winters in your soil in a larval state, which they specify is really a pupa.

Can you say pupa?

Anyway, the adult typically emerges mid-to-late-June and lays her eggs in July and August.

Although local and weather can dramatically change those parameters.

An unusually warm season could move the egg-laying into June in our area.

And, of course, they're up and out of the ground earlier the further south you garden.

In the really deep south, they can even have more than one generation.

So, let's go through their life cycle.

Adults emerge from the soil, they mate, and then, the females go looking to deposit their eggs on squash family plants that have hollow stems like zucchini and pumpkins right at the soil line.

They don't lay their eggs on squash with solid stems, but they will also sometimes lay those eggs on the stems of cucumber plants.

The female that causes this damage is a day flying insect that looks a lot more like a weird wasp than any kind of moth, with translucent wings and an orange-and-black body.

Pretty easy to spot, especially since they fly by day.

Now, once she has sniffed out a good home for her children, she lays a cluster of eggs on the stem of the vine right where it enters the soil.

In a week to ten days, the eggs hatch, teeny-tiny caterpillars emerge, immediately eat their way inside the vine and, once they are inside, feed and grow unseen.

Soon your plant starts wilting, so if your squash plants look like they need water, but your other plants don't, get down and look for a hole at the base of the stem and lots of catter-poop around it.

Catter-poop.

I made up a new word.

I made up a new word!

We're keeping it.

Caterpillar poop.

Slit the vine open with a single-edge razor blade, or even better, use an Exacto knife, a small, sharp, and very precise artist's blade that's positioned at the end of a sturdy metal rod.

Great for this kind of close-up work.

When you reach the caterpillar inside, well... You've got a sharp object in your hand now, don't you?

It's get-even time!

Then carefully heap soil around the damaged part of the vine.

If you caught the problem quick enough, it may recover and keep growing.

Now, experienced gardeners typically try and prevent the initial incursion by wrapping medical tape or aluminum foil around the base of their transplants, so that the protective covering is half underground and half above.

Ha!

Just think about them little caterpillars trying to bite their way through foil.

We all love that feeling on our teeth, don't we?

A lovely image, if ever there was one.

Now, if Sandy - remember Sandy?

Were to start her own seeds indoors, she could likewise protect her plants at the time of installation.

Otherwise, two good options would be to spray the growing vine at ground level with a weekly dose of B.T., the old original organic caterpillar killer.

As soon as these miniature munchers bite into a vine that has been sprayed with B.T., they lose the ability to eat and soon die.

And yes, as we have been ensuring you for decades B.T.

is safe for everything, that is not a caterpillar chewing on your plants.

Although in controlled studies, simply wiping that part of the plant with a clean cloth twice a week worked as well or better than any pesticide, chemical or organic, as the object was to simply wash the eggs off the vine before they could hatch.

Now, the researchers did this with water on a simple cotton cloth.

But I'm thinking that a high-powered water pistol would also work here, and be much more entertaining.

Kind of like a game of Whac-A-Mole with caterpillar eggs taking the place in the moles.

Fun for the entire family!

I was also thinking of a version of a popular form of cut worm protection.

Take an empty soup can with both ends removed, and push it a few inches into the soil around the sprout when it emerges.

So, the emerging leaves will then cover the opening.

But, no matter what you do, don't plant squash or you've had vine bore issues in the past, because if undetected, the borers inside your vines will grow fat and strong, and drop onto the soil at the end of the season where they will quickly burrow down to pupate and spend the winter just waiting for nature's cue to begin the process once again.

So, interrupt this cycle!

As soon as a squash plant comes down with advanced symptoms, rip it out and destroy the nasties inside the vine before they can escape, then cultivate the soil in that spot to uncover any pests you missed before they can get down deep.

Hungry birds should then be more than happy to show up and finish the job.

You might also want to repeat that cultivation in the spring just before planting, because that's when birds are extra hungry for such worm-like treats.

Well, that sure was some important advice for those of us who never get to actually enjoy the pumpkins and zucchini we planted, now wasn't it?

Luckily, you can read this vital information over at your leisure or your leisure, because the Question of the Week always appears in print at the Gardens Alive website.

Just click the link for the Question of the Week at our website, which is still and will forever be YouBetYourGarden.org.

Gardens Alive supports the You Bet Your Garden Question of the Week, and you'll always find the latest Question of the Week at the Gardens Alive website.

You Bet Your Garden is a half hour public television show, an hour-long public radio show and podcast, all produced and delivered to you weekly by Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, P.A.

Our radio show is distributed by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

You Bet Your Garden was created by Mike McGrath.

Mike McGrath was created when he discovered that the eels he was catching every summer in Philadelphia's Pennypacker Park Creek were actually spawned in the far-distant Sargasso Sea, and had to take the 56 trolley all the way to get back to Northeast Philly.

Yikes!

My producer is threatening to place neon signs that say "Eat at Mike's" above my squash if I don't get out of the studio!

Where are they getting the electricity?

Ah!

But we are out of time, and you can call us any time at... Or send us your e-mail, your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse teeming towards our garden shore at...

Please, please, please include your location.

You will find all of this contact information, plus answers to hundreds, hundreds of your garden questions, audio of this show, video of this show, audio and video of all the shows, oy!

And links to our internationally-renowned podcast.

It is all at our website...

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

And, despite the odds, weird weather, and escalating attacks of mutated cryptonian stinkbugs, I'll put on my special lead-lined garden gloves.

And that way, I'll be able to see you again next week.