- From the buggy studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, it is time for another squishy episode of chemical-free horticultural hijinks, You Bet Your Garden.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

You say squash, I say bug, but you say beetle.

On today's show, we won't call the whole thing off.

Instead, we'll try and help you protect your zucchini.

Whoa, are we still on the air?

Plus, it's another fabulous phone call show, cats and kittens, as potential guests are busy changing their phone number.

So we will take that heaping helping of your fabulous phone call questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and harrowingly hideous horrifications.

Whoa!

So keep your eyes and our ears right here, true believers, because we're going to learn you the difference between a bug and a beetle right after this.

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- Welcome to another thrilling episode of You Bet Your Garden from the studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA.

I am your host, Mike McGrath.

Coming up later, a Question of the Week that asks you to decide, what is killing your squash?

Is it a bug?

Is it a beetle?

It's so exciting.

And we'll get to it after your fabulous phone calls.

But a couple of weeks ago, we asked you to guess the inspiration for the title of the Question of the Week, which we called "Careful with That Garlic, Eugene".

Susan Higgins of Lewiston, Maine was technically the first to reply with "The Pink Floyd song."

And I said, "Yes, but what's the name of the song?"

Try as she might, she couldn't come up with it, which led to Jim Flanders in Abington, Pennsylvania, who correctly identified it as the Pink Floyd song Careful with That Axe, Eugene.

Congratulations, Jim.

Your no-prize won't be in the mail soon.

This was followed by another correct answer from Pat Cummings in Nashville, and then things got weird when Sylvia Pesek of Haynesville, Louisiana wrote, "The answer to Mike's reference to not crushing garlic, Eugene, "is the Firesign Theatre album "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers.

"I think.

I was sure until I checked it out.

"Hey, that was the early '70s, "the height of my gloriously misspent youth.

"I think Eugene may have moved to the West Coast."

Totally incorrect, but brilliant, Sylvia.

Made my day.

Sylvia corrected herself a few hours later, writing, "I've now had my coffee.

"The Eugene reference was to Pink Floyd's "Careful with That Axe, Eugene.

"I should know better than to wake up on a Saturday morning "after four hours' sleep and try to do anything, "anything before my coffee."

We got lots more guesses, including one that thought it was a reference to an episode of Bob's Burgers.

Not suspicious at all, Brian in State College.

Oh, you crazy kids!

All right, time to get back to work.

888-492-9444.

Michael, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi.

How are you doing, Mike?

- I am just ducky.

Thanks for asking, Michael.

How are you?

- I'm doing good.

- And where is Michael doing good?

- I'm doing good in Willingboro, New Jersey.

- Oh, OK, very good.

The Garden State.

What can we do you for, Michael?

- Bought some cheap grapes from...

Probably shouldn't say where I bought them from, but one of the box stores.

They were $5 apiece.

I think they are Thompsons and Valencias, seedless green and seedless red grapes.

- OK. And wondering, should I have even tried to plant them?

Because I think I'm in Zone 7 or 7a, and I don't know how conducive that is to grapes... And if I actually planted them right.

- Well, you can't plant them right.

They're seedless.

The great gods of gardening have no sense of humor when it comes from bearing fruit.

So here's the deal.

There are a number of eating grapes that grow very well in New Jersey.

The only wine grape that does very well there is Chardonnay, the red, really big red ones.

They all come from California or Australia or Washington State.

But there are many eating grapes, as you point out, that grow very well where you are, things like Concord and stuff like that.

But you would plant a rooted stock.

You would get a root stock, onto which has been grafted the variety of your choice.

And you would plant that, making sure to keep that graft, which is very visible, above the soil line.

Don't let it ever get covered by mulch or anything like that.

And then you do have to do some pruning every season.

And if you have great success, you'll need to remove leaves and grape clusters during the season because the plant can only support so much wealth, so to speak.

And I always think this is why there's so many recipes with grape leaves in Rome and Greek culture.

They knew to take a lot of the leaves off.

So, you know, you can eat the grape leaves.

Don't worry about any clusters you take off.

If you don't take them off, you won't get good grapes at the end of the season.

But it's very doable.

It's just one of those things where you have to pay attention.

Have there been any lanternfly sightings in New Jersey?

- Not that I have heard.

- Yeah, neither have I, which...

I'm surprised, because all they got to do is walk over the Ben Franklin Bridge, right?

So, yeah.

But they're known for attacking grapes, but they're not known in your area.

So I would say if you have the room and you want to do a little reading and learn about them, eating grapes are much easier to grow than wine grapes.

And within a couple of years, you could be getting huge harvests.

- OK.

So I didn't waste my time doing it... - No, no, no, those grapes are for eating, not for planting.

- OK. - All right, Michael?

- I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

- Oh, you take care, sir.

Nice to talk to you.

Bye-bye.

- Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Number to call, 888-492-9444.

Vinayak, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, Mike.

How are you doing?

- I am just ducky.

Thanks for asking.

How much did I butcher your name there?

- Not a lot.

Pretty close.

- And where is Vinayak?

I'm in Stamford, Connecticut.

It's close to the Connecticut- New York City border.

- Yes, yes, I know it well.

What can we do you for, sir?

- So, Mike, I have a couple of cayenne pepper plants that I put in a 16-inch pot... - Excellent!

I - gave them some light, and they've since, you know, branched out, you know, right, in December last year, and they branched out really well.

They had leaf drops and blossom drops in the middle.

But then right now, I have over 40, 45 peppers on them, so I'm very happy with how that turned out.

But now with the weather getting better, I want to take them out.

And what I wanted to know from you is what sort of care should I, you know, take?

Should I pull them a bit?

- No, no, no!

What is this obsession?

What is this obsession with pruning?

Everything sounds perfect and you want to ruin it.

How many pepper plants do you have?

- Two plants in one 16-inch pot.

- Well, 16-inch is a pretty good-sized pot and peppers don't seem to mind other peppers growing with them the way tomatoes do.

So I would say you're going to keep it in... You're going to keep them, that is, in the pot.

And you say they're fruiting, they're flowering.

This sounds fabulous.

So let's say... What kind of pot?

What's the material?

- Plastic.

- OK, good, good, because that retains moisture better than terracotta.

Terracotta looks nice, but it's a bear to keep watered.

So what are the nighttime temperatures right now in Connecticut?

- It's all right.

So this last week, it's been, you know, in between 50 and 56, but the coming week, they're going to be, you know, right around 48.

I'm suspect on that, you know?

Should I keep them out?

Should I bring them in back?

- Yes.

You should bring them back in.

I've been taking my tomatoes and peppers out for a walk whenever the weather...

Sometimes it's been glorious, 65 at night.

And so I leave them out at night, and then if it's going to plummet, I bring them back in.

Keeps me out of serious trouble.

But you can keep doing the same thing.

I would... What do you give... What are you using to give them light?

- So right now, I have the daylight bulbs, you know, I got from Costco.

They are, I think, 5,000 K. And I have two of them on the plant, one on each side of the plant, you could say.

- OK, great.

Great.

So what will happen is when you're comfortable... and the fact that it's in a pot, you're in good shape, Because if we get a sudden chill, you can bring it right back in.

But by taking it out for short periods of time, you are "hardening it off", getting it ready to go outside.

Then when you take it outside, peppers want full sun.

Have you ever fed the plants anything?

- Yes.

So I have this fertilizer...

I think it's 224 or 235 or something...

It has low nitrogen, but, you know, high P and K. - Wow!

Perfect.

That is great.

You couldn't do better.

So when you take it outside, let the plant stabilize for a little bit, make sure it stays well watered.

The best way to tell if it's wet or dry is to rock the pot.

If it feels really heavy, even if the soil is dry on top, don't water.

But if it feels light, then it's time to give it a slow soaking.

The best way to water planted pots is... Let's say you go out with a quart of water.

You pour in about a third of it.

If the soil is very dry, a lot of it's going to leave the bottom and that's fine.

But now you're pre-saturating.

So 20 minutes later, you give it another third and probably nothing will come out then.

And then after that, give it another third.

And now the pot should be heavy.

It is better for the plants to dry out than to be watered all the time.

About two weeks after you're out and everybody's settled and everything, then you can replace one of the waterings with a gentle feeding.

And you could do that, say, every three weeks during the season.

- Perfect.

OK, great.

I'll do that.

- All right.

Good luck, sir.

Sounds like you're doing great.

- Thanks, Mike.

Thanks for your time.

- My pleasure.

You take care.

888-492-9444.

Jerry, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Thank you very much, Mike.

Thank you for taking my call.

Well, thank you for making it, sir.

How you doing?

- Very good, very good.

Hope you can help me with my problem.

- I will try to.

I'm not a trained physician, although I do play one on television, so we'll do our best.

And I'm going to go into the danger zone here.

Where does Jerry have this problem?

- This problem is at my property up in Clarence, New York, which is a suburb, a northern suburb, of Buffalo, New York.

- All right.

What can we do?

OK, now, are you Clarence from Jerry or Jerry from Clarence?

What can we do...?

- Definitely Jerry from Clarence.

- There you go.

- We've got a rather large ash tree by the road and very close to electric lines.

And we had a contractor come out from one of the electric companies and say that the tree needs to be taken down.

And we got a few second opinions and they said it was dead.

And the second opinions were some said it was dead, some said they could treat it.

And I was looking for your advice as to whether it's a goner or there's some hope for it.

- Well, this is the perfect time of year to ask the question.

How is it leafing out this season?

- Well, it's not leafing out except for near the top, which has some buds, but pretty much it's not leaking out.

- I call them teasers.

We had an ash tree taken down for the same reason I'm going to explain that you, unfortunately, have to do the same thing.

And the year afterwards, we got these sprouts up at top, and I'm going, "Oh, my God, I jumped the gun!

"I jumped the gun!"

But I didn't.

The tree was infested with the emerald ash borer, which is one of the most notorious invasive insects we have to deal with.

You know, what happens is the larva, larval form, of the borer, where they get their name, because they bore into stuff, gets underneath the bark of the tree and then just goes to town.

I mean, these look like...

When you take the bark off, it looks like a map of the London subway system.

It's crazy.

They're all over the place.

And they do so much damage that, eventually, the tree can't take up nutrition and they become a breeding ground for more emerald ash borers.

So you say this guy is from the power company?

- Well, he's contracted from the power company to go up and down the street and probably looking at these trees and giving their opinion as to whether they're worth saving or pruning or taking down.

- He'll take it down for free?

- Yes.

- Oh, my goodness!

You will be...

If that tree had been in a different position and not a threat to the power lines, you'd be looking at three grand easy.

- Well, unfortunately, I have other ash trees that are in the same condition that are closer to the house, that that might be something that we're going to have to pay for.

But at least this one, you're right, the power company will take care of this one.

- So...

Boy, I'm trying not to say anything wrong here.

So you got no ash, right?

Nothing's doing good?

- Well, there's one that is a smaller one that is... You know, looks like it can be with some injection.

But the bigger ones, you know, they just have a little leaves on the top and, you know, it's just too bad.

- OK.

So when you get this guy back on your property, have him check the small tree.

He can look for signs of borer infestation.

I think they go for mature trees more.

So ask him about bark injection, not into the root system.

And then, you know, because this is the deal, it always is.

He's already on your property.

He's already got the crane or whatever they're going to use to take this thing down.

See if he'll give you a deal on taking the others down.

Try to save the little guy and see what kind of a price you can get on... You know, because, again, they're already there with the equipment.

So the one, they would charge to the electric company, the others, they would charge to you.

But you might... Again, you might get a deal because so much of the work is the set-up and everything else.

And if you keep the little guy alive, stay in touch with us, because this is just a terribly serious problem.

And you didn't do anything wrong.

- I appreciate the information.

Thanks very much, Mike.

- My pleasure.

Thank you.

Take care.

All right.

It is time for the Question of the Week, which we're calling "Squash Beetles?

"Squash Bugs?"

"What is Squashing my Zucchini?"

Abbey writes, "I'm originally from Northeastern PA "but moved to middle Tennessee a few years ago.

"My garden was doing great until last year, "when squash beetles killed all my zucchini.

"I pulled out the plants and tried to get rid of the beetles, "but I'm wondering if I should dig up "and replace my soil this year.

"What do you suggest?"

First, let's do an ID check, especially because there is no such thing as a "squash beetles".

Adult squash bugs are around half an inch long, brownish-black, elongated and covered with fine hairs.

If Abbey's creatures are less elongated and more shield-shaped, she may have stinkbugs instead.

They look remarkably alike and both pests are known to attack squash.

But if the pest doesn't look anything like a stinkbug, she might mean cucumber beetles, which come in two varieties, striped and spotted.

Striped cucumber beetles are a quarter inch long, yellow with black stripes down their backs.

They mostly feed on cucumbers but occasionally make mischief on melons and squash.

The adults overwinter under plant debris, emerging in spring to feed on your veggies, mate, and then the females lay tiny little yellow-orange eggs at the base of the plants.

Around mid-June, the eggs are going to hatch and the larvae dig down and nibble away at the roots of your plants for about six weeks.

That's when they can be controlled by beneficial nematodes.

Water these microscopic "good guy" predators into the soil at the base of the plants early on a July evening and the larvae should be devoured.

Yeah!

Spotted cucumber beetles are about the same size, but they have black spots instead of stripes, which may be why they're called spotted beetles.

Anyway, they're more of a greenish-yellow and they lay their eggs earlier in the season.

Their underground larvae feed and pupate much faster, often leading to multiple generations in a typical year, which makes the timing of nematode applications more critical.

These beetles also pestiferize a much wider range of plants, including corn, in which case their underground pest self is known as the corn rootworm.

Control measures are the same for both types of beetles.

Promptly remove and destroy any infested plants, including any corn stalks, at the end of the season to reduce the following year's numbers.

In spring, position new plants as far away as possible from the previous year's problem areas.

Back to squash bugs, which attack plants like winter squash, zucchini and pumpkins, sometimes cucumbers and melons.

These bugs are nasty, bad actors that infect the plants with the virus.

Once they start feeding aggressively, the leaves droop, blacken and fall off.

The plant itself often dies, and even if it doesn't, it rarely produces any more fruit.

These pests also overwinter in the adult stage, under mulch and other debris.

So one tactic is to remove all of the mulch in your garden about a month after you shut things down.

Burn or hot compost the mulch and replace it with a cover crop or a nice fresh mulch of shredded leaves, which should be in abundance at that time of year, or hold off on that new mulch, place boards on the ground near where infested plants were growing.

Check them every morning for adults looking for a place to spend the winter and destroy them.

That's the adults, not the boards.

The following season, be sure not to plant in the same spot as squash grew the previous year, remove any protective winter mulch and don't replace it, as it could still harbor the pests.

Instead, spread an inch of rich finished compost on top of the soil to keep weeds down and feed the plants perfectly.

Now, numerous studies have shown spun polyester row covers applied early in the season to be the single most effective squash bug tactic.

Make sure those covers are tight to the ground and check them frequently.

Yeah, you'll have to remove the covers when the first female flowers appear, but that's fine.

You're off to a great start.

As soon as you remove your row covers, place boards loosely on the soil alongside your plants.

Like we said before, the adults will hide under these boards at night, much like slugs.

Go out early in the morning and scrape any squash bugs and/or slugs off the bottoms of the boards into a bucket with some soapy water in the bottom, and/or dust diatomaceous earth, a really cool, prehistoric mined natural product, around the base of your plants.

Incredibly sharp on a microscopic level, it will dehydrate and desiccate any squash bugs and slugs that try to cross over the white powder.

Handpick and destroy any adults you see, especially early in the season.

You'll greatly minimize problems if you prevent egg-laying by those codgers from last year.

Any eggs you miss will hatch into nymphs, the wingless, immature stage of the squash bug.

They start out a pale green, darken as they get older, and look a little like smaller, dumpier versions of the adults.

Handpick or vacuum up these evil children or spray them with insecticidal soap, a light summer spray horticultural oil or a Spinosad product.

Call them vile names and insult their ancestors.

And finally, plant things like alyssum, calendula, daisies, dill, fennel and mustard greens near your squash and cucumbers.

The small pollen and nectar-rich flowers that adorn those plants will attract the tachinid bug, an especially beneficial insect that preys on bugs.

Well, that sure was some potentially confusing information about the many enemies of your zucchini, now, wasn't it?

Luckily for yous, one, we did not include squash vine borers in this article, for fear your tiny little head could explode, and, two, this Question of the Week and many more about squash family pests appears in print at the Gardens Alive website.

To read all of these things over at your leisure or your leisure, 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 will always find the latest Question of the Week where, kids?

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, PA. 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 an entity from another world had him spin two giant carnival wheels, each with a marking for half a superpower that would be combined.

All right, let's spin those wheels.

Wheel number one... X-ray.

Excellent, excellent!

Wheel number two...

Hearing?

I got X-ray hearing?

What good is that?!

Yikes!

My producer is threatening to squish my squash if I don't get it out of the studio.

We must be out of time.

But you can call us any time at our brand-new number, 888-492-9444.

Or send us your e-mail, your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse teeming towards our garden shore at ybyg@wlvt.org.

Please include your location, like city and state.

You'll find all of this contact information at our website, youbetyourgarden.org, where you'll also find the answers to all of your garden questions, hundreds of them, I'm telling you, audio of this show, video of this show, audio and video of old shows, and, of course, our internationally renowned podcast.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

I'd like to say something funny here, but I'm too busy planting potatoes, hardening off tomatoes and worrying about my squash.

And I want to hear that you've been doing the same thing next week.