Grow Your Own Magazine

The stem of my squash (sunburst F1) has been nibbled quite badly by slugs / snails. I noticed it yesterday morning, and checking this morning the growing tip still seems to be okay. My question is, should I bury the stem or not?

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Cheers
Marion
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A smile costs nothing but gives much
Gardening requires a lot of water... most of it in the form of perspiration.

Apparently not, one of mine is in the same situation, fingers crossed it will carry on growing.

Nope, burying the stem will introduce bacteria and moisture and it will probably rot.

Try and keep the stem dry and protect it from any more slug or snail damage. If it is a strong-growing plant it might be able to heal itself.

If the stem is severed, you're stuffed, but otherwise just keep an eye on it.

I had my squashes burned off by the frost last week (been offline for a while computer died on me) they had just started to grow back when all this rain came and it looks like the slugs have had a field day and eaten off the new growth and I cant give them blue sweeties with all the wet weather.

Thanks for that, I'll give it some protection and see how it goes.

Paul - sorry to hear about your squashes, and your computer! Sounds like you and I need to do some night time squishing round our squashes

__________________
Cheers
Marion
--------------------------------------------
A smile costs nothing but gives much
Gardening requires a lot of water... most of it in the form of perspiration.

Hi all, thought you might like to see the results of the supposed squash disaster. I had thought this one was a goner as the stem had been nibbled almost all the way through - it's the wimpy plant down on the left of the growbag by the tile...

Well, just look at it now; and it's still growing - I have to climb over it to get to the compost bins!

Now where are those squash recipes?!?

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
Cheers
Marion
--------------------------------------------
A smile costs nothing but gives much
Gardening requires a lot of water... most of it in the form of perspiration.