I’ve been eating mini cucumbers from the grocery store all winter long. But I ate my very first homegrown cucumber of the season the other day, and it stopped me in my tracks. Standing there in my kitchen, I thought, “Now that’s what a cucumber is supposed to taste like.” It was so crunchy, with that classic cucumber flavor – sweet, almost melon-like.
And I want to keep eating cucumbers that are fresh and flavorful all summer long. So, I’m going to grab my aluminum foil and head out to the garden right now.
That’s because I learned my lesson two seasons ago. I had the most gorgeous Persian cucumbers that summer. I had eight plants with dreams of dozens of jars of pickles later that summer, and they were cranking out cukes toward my goal.
Then, out of nowhere, I noticed one of the plants was wilting.
Naturally, I assumed it needed water. (I neglected to note that the other plants weren’t wilted, which would have been my first clue that water wasn’t the problem.) So, I watered the plant and checked on it the next day, and not only did it not improve, but now two more plants were wilting.
It wasn’t long before every cucumber plant I had looked like the only kid at the birthday party who didn’t get a goodie bag – sad.
Okay, so not water, then.
I desperately searched for the answer. Oh wait, I see squash bugs. That must be it!
Nope.
It turns out they were only a front for the true culprit, and by the time I found it, I was too late. My cucumbers were doomed.
Frass.
Gesundheit.
No, I mean frass, as in bug poop. Tiny little piles of yellow-green sawdust.
They were everywhere the vines touched the ground. When I started looking closer, I noticed holes in the vines, as though something had chewed through them. Which, of course, it had. It was squash vine borers.
The silent cucurbit killer. Dun, Dun, Dunn!
By the time I figured out what it was, I knew it was far too late. The only thing I could do was to pull up all my cucumbers immediately, burn them and hope for a better season next year. In preparation, I picked up this brilliant tip from an elderly gentleman gardener – tin foil.
Yup. Wrap your cucumber stems (and all your other squash, too) in aluminum foil.
Once you know the life cycle of the squash borer, you’ll see why this cheap and easy trick works flawlessly.
The Life Cycle of the Cucurbit Munching Jerk, aka – the Squash Borer
In late spring or early summer (depending on where you live), you may notice a funny insect flying around your garden. It has clear wings and almost looks like a wasp, but it’s not. That’s just a clever ruse to keep you from getting too close. This is the adult female squash borer moth. And she’s on the hunt for cucurbits.
She’ll lay her eggs on the stem at the base of the plant or beneath leaves that are low to the ground and close to the stem.
The eggs are reddish brown, and about the size of a pinhead, so they are not easy to detect. Once these eggs hatch, that’s when the real trouble begins.
The tiny cream-colored larva will gnaw its way into the stem of the cucumber plant it hatched on and slowly and silently start eating. That’s what larvae do. They eat and poop and grow. And all that eating and pooping and growing slowly ravages the host plant, preventing water and nutrients from traveling up through the stems to the leaves and fruit – hence the drooping leaves.
Oh, your plant needs water, all right, but the roots aren’t the problem.
Have you ever tried to drink from a straw with a crack in the side? Then you know the problem.
About the time your poor cucumber plant has had enough, the leaves will start to wilt. That’s also about the time when the larva will be big and fat and ready to vacate the premises (late summer into early fall). At this point, it will chew another hole in the stem and beat a hasty retreat into the soil, where it will pupate over the winter.
In the spring, when the soil warms and you plant your cucumbers, a few weeks later, a fully grown moth will emerge from the soil.
Cue the music from The Lion King – It’s the cirrrcle of liiiiife, and it moves us alllll…
And it means you don’t get cucumbers for another season.
That is, unless you head out to the garden with your aluminum foil at the right time. So, let’s get into that.
What Exactly Am I Doing with the Aluminum Foil, Tracey
Ah, good question.
We’re using the aluminum foil as a barrier by wrapping it around the base of your cucumber seedlings. This keeps tiny, hungry larvae out of the stems of our cucumbers. Now, when you do this will depend on a few things.
If you started your cucumbers indoors or you’ve bought seedlings from the nursery, you’ll want to do this shortly after you plant them in the garden. Give the seedlings a week or two to overcome their transplant shock and start growing a bit.
If you’ve sown cucumber seeds, then you’ll need to wait until the plant is between 8 and 12 inches tall.
In either case, you don’t want to wait too long past late spring to wrap the stems.
You want to have your aluminum armor in place before the moths start emerging to lay eggs in early summer.
Because the moths only lay eggs close to the ground, you only need to cover the base of the stems. About 4” high is good.
How to Wrap Your Cucumber Stems with Foil
- Tear off a foot-long length of foil. Then, either tear or cut the tin foil into 2-3” wide strips the length of the sheet foil. (Bonus points if you’re recycling foil you’ve already used.)
- Move the soil away from the base of the plant a little, and starting as far down the stem as you can go (into the dirt a little), wrap the strip around the base of the plant, moving up the stem.
- You want it snug enough so that it doesn’t fall down but not so snug as to constrict growth.
- Ensure you overlap the foil as you move up the stem so there are no gaps.
- Keep going until you’ve covered the bottom 4 to 6 inches of the stem.
- Gently pack the soil back around the foil and base of the plant.
This shiny foil collar is the easiest and most effective way I’ve found to combat squash vine borers.
A Few Final Tips
- Don’t stop with your cucumbers. Squash borers are so named because they mainly attack squash. Wrap your summer and winter squash stems as well as your pumpkins.
- For extra protection, you can also cover your cucumbers and squash with row covers while the moths are active. (These ones are great because they also come with bendy poles to keep the covers up off your plants.)
- To find out when squash vine borer moths show up in your area, contact your local agriculture extension office.
- Don’t forget to remove the aluminum at the end of the season.
May your cukes be cool, refreshing, and plentiful!
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