Hi all,
I've got a problem with one of my zucchini plants and I can't figure it out. We've had a bit of rain the past week and my zucchini plant has fallen over and looks like it's wilting. It was doing great up until we got the rain. I first thought maybe the rain knocked it over, but it seems to be wilting. It looks like the root isn't broken or anything. Any ideas?
Follow the main stem and see if there is a lesion or point where the dieback started. Some squash bugs burrow into the stalk and you'll get die-off from that point out. If the squash reroots along the stem this can help avoid it. I lost one of the three I planted early on from bugs that burrowed in the stem. Otherwise I would expect it to be a bacterial/disease or somethign attacking the roots. DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,
Apparently it was something like that because I went out tonight and the whole stem was mushy. I just had to pull it up and throw it out. Very upsetting since it was my best one. I'm thinking maybe the stem rotted when we got all of that rain.
Pat
I think that's a general secondary problem... when something breaks the skin of the plant it invites more bugs and rotting at that point. BER on a tomato invites bugs as a second, bugs that burrow in invite rot and disease.
Hopefully your other ones will happily produce to make up for the loss. I've successfully harvested four human-sized zucchini so far, no two-pounders like last year. Oddly my yellow squash hasn't produced a single one yet.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,
Just found another one that had the same problem. I sure hope the last two are okay. Apparently something's going on.
Pat
Oddly enough I just checked my yellow squash and two of the three are rotted at the stalk. One just pulled away in a soggy mass. I should have know that something was happening, It just wasn't producing despite its size, and the leaves were showing yellow. Overnight almost every leaf is wilted. Doesn't help that we have sweltering thick weather. I've got one left, I didn't spot damage.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,
Oh no! I wonder if there's something going around? Maybe it's the excessively dry weather we've had for two months then all the rain?
Pat
Sounds like squash borers, a common culprit in rapid zucchini wilt. Slit a stem lengthwise and see if white grub-like worms are inside. At this point in the season, I don't know if there's much you can do. When I used to grow zucchini, I would try to fend off the borers by - earlier in the season - injecting the stems with BT in solution, using an equine hypodermic needle. I believe this usually added 2-3 weeks to the producing season, but it didn't completely stop the borers.
I've got another one dying so I'll look at it if it gives up the zucchini ghost.
Pat
Dust with Sevin or its replacement Eight. If you split open the stem to remove the borer, bury under several inches of soil and you might get roots at that point. [Or come over to my place and take away some of the zucchini squashs I'm getting. 4 of the 6 plants were supposed to be winter squashes but they all turned out to be zucchinis!]
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