Growing Squash Plants Upside Down.

This year my garden has been raided by squash bugs. They’re usually bad, but this year has been exceptionally bad. They have taken over every squash plant I’m growing. It’s been so bad this year I’ve even spotted their eggs on my tomato and marigold plants!

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This infestation had me thinking about what I should do to get rid of them organically. I’ve tried all kinds of things to keep them at bay. I’ve tried sprinkling cinnamon on and around my plants, All Natural Soap Nut Cleaner, pulling out marigold flower petals and sprinkling it on and around the plants, and planting squash in containers. I have also tried not so organic ways of pest control out of desperation like dawn dish soap spray and Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew. Captain Jack’s is for organic gardening, but I still prefer not to use it. If my kids can’t safely pick a vegetable off the plant and eat it there’s a problem to me. That’s just my opinion, but like I said I was desperate!

Nothing worked not even the pesticide. I’ve read that Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew does not specify that it kills squash bugs, so it may work great for other bugs. But these bugs I believe would live through a nuclear attack.

Here are some pictures of squash bugs. The dark ones are adults and the white ones are nymphs or babies. The brown spots are the eggs.

See how they even took over my baby plants? I felt so discouraged and thought “if only I could get the plants off of the ground”…and then ah-ha! Upside down hanging squash plants! It felt genius! I didn’t hesitate. As soon as I could I had my husband cut the bottoms out of some hanging planters and put I my baby squash plants I had in containers in it. I even planted marigolds in the top of the hanging containers!

All we did was cut the drain hole out of the bottom of each planter. When that was done I pulled up a few plants out of my containers and held the roots in the hole while I filled the top side with miracle gro.

If you don’t have the tools and supplies or you just want to skip the work just get some of these upside down planters. They’ll work just the same!

Right now they are just babies, but I will be experimenting with these plants and keep you up to date on how they grow, how big the squash can get, and how I’ll figure out how to tie up the fruit.