USU-Extension was eager to come into Castle Country Radio to talk about some gardening tips for growers. Agriculture Assistant Professor, Steve Price had some great advice about tomatoes, squash bugs and Greater Peachtree Borer.

“A lot of our early issues that come in with tomatoes are things like early bite or verticillium, they tend to not be noticed all that much, but now that people are really watching those to see those tomatoes ripen, they are paying attention now so people start noticing those issues at least,” said Price. Tomato fruits require 25 to 35 days to mature from flowering, depending on the temperature and variety. Generally, for our area it’s mid-July before you could start seeing tomatoes as they love the heat.

When the heat comes on growers have to start worrying about squash bugs that can cause problems in the plants. “So they do cause general wilting kind of symptoms, I call it unthrifty symptoms. Often if you go out early in the morning or late in the evening, you’ll actually see the adult bugs down, tucked around the crown of the plant by the soil service. Also check the underside of the leaves, if you’re seeing little red spots, like little red seed looking things, that’s the eggs so go ahead and take care of that issue right there,” explained Price. The plant squash varieties that are more tolerant of squash bug feeding than others are Butternut, Royal Acorn and moderately resistant are Sweet Cheese, and Green Striped Cushaw.

“Greater Peachtree Borer its mostly an issue that you have to be worried about with newly planted trees so for the first, up to three years, maybe five years those peach trees can be susceptible to borer so it’s worth a treating for those, especially if you have older trees that you know might have, may have been hit with that clear wing month. Go a head and treat for them, that way they don’t damage those new trees,” stated Price. Protection of host trees from Peachtree Borer is the most critical during the first three to five years of planting.