Fertilizer and Cucumber Beetles

Today was the second day that I added fish emulsion fertilizer to my patch. I use Lilly Miller Alaska® Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1. I added about 1/4 of a cup to each watering can which holds about 2 gallons of water. Over the course of the two days, I spread about 8 watering cans worth over the entire plot. Mathematically that would equal out to about 2 cups of fertilizer, but since I didn’t take exact measurements, I want to say it was more like one and a half cups of fertilizer. I’ll start taking more precise measurements moving forward!

While photographing the plants today, I noticed that I had a cucumber beetle on one of them and I immediately called Greg. He said it was really early in the season to see them, but it was REALLY hot the last few days so he’s not surprised.  I’ve read about some natural ways to prevent them from eating your plants, so I’ll have to revisit those articles and get ready to protect my plants. Last year they came and went and my plants were okay, but I could have just been lucky. More on cucumber beetles in the next post as I prepare to do battle with the Cucurbitaceae eaters!