What's happening to my Zucchini?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessica Soulliere on July 2, 2008 at 2:18pm

it looks to me like the flowers are just falling off and withering ... but I don't know for sure.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kristin W. on July 2, 2008 at 2:29pm

I would agree. The flowers attached to the zucchini fall off and the zucchini will keep on growing. Looks like a nice healthy zucchini plant.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Walker on July 2, 2008 at 3:32pm

Once they've been pollinated, I guess the flowers fade and die.
Of greater concern will be if you see the leaves wilt. Which could be due to squash borer.
Look for what seems to be sawdust around the base of the stem. If you see it look for a hole. Cut open the stem and pull the little bu%^#$r out. Then mound up more soil around the stem to heal the plant.
Enjoy the harvest but don't leave any on my doorstep.
pax
John

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leah on July 9, 2008 at 6:48am

Hi John,
It looks like I will certainly not be leaving any zukes on your doorstep. After producing only 4 zukes, my plants are being decimated by the dread vine borer. I've tried your solution, but I can't get to the worm -- I think that by the time I realized what they'd done, they had become: this red flying bug.

This bug has also gotten some of my yellow squash and cukes. I don't know how to keep this from happening again.

I am pretty sad about it all.

Leah

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by CornerGardener on July 2, 2008 at 5:42pm

Patty, I've had the same problem this year with my first squash. The flower wilted and died, and they slight yellowing of the fruit itself proceeded to take over the whole zucchini and I pulled it. I had this last year, and I'm not sure if it's from too little water or what, but I did get other mature zukes after that. From time to time it seems that one will either not get fully pollenated or just dies off for some reason. Good luck with the rest of them, it looks like an overall healthy plant.

P~
http://apaetoday.blogspot.com

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lakeecha Murrell on July 2, 2008 at 6:13pm

That happened to me last year with my pumpkins so this year i am growing butternut squash and pumpkins again. Here is my opinion after much reading around i figure in my area where the growing season is just about 4 to 5 months i have to decide how big of a plant i want my theory is that the plant has to choices grow as far and wide as possible or fruit on what is available so I let my plant grow and cover a set space and then I stop the spreading by pruning the ends so right now the flowers that are there and now growing and much bigger than last year so I am hoping my theory is correct. I did leave a couple of plant still spreading around the garden I will stop them if this works. So far so good 

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Plumtreed on July 2, 2008 at 6:24pm

The leaves indicate, especially in the first photo, a white substance developing from the 'veins' of the leaves. I don't know what your soil is like but can you tell us something about the PH.

The photo suggests to me that there is a 'mildew' problem. The plant can continue to develop and grow 'fruit' but when you have a short growing season a mildew problem doesn't help. Avoid watering the leaves but rather water around the base of the plant. Cut off the leaves that are infected or at least the worst affected. Apply a suitable fungicide depending upon your growing regime.

I have grown cucurbits with this sort of problem and have harvested from the plants. You will find that some flowers don't pollinate and wither and fall away. Just continue to water at the base and remove infected leaves. Use a liquid fertiliser.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leah on July 2, 2008 at 8:40pm

Hey there,
My zuke leaves look like that, too -- all 8 plants. I worried at first, but found out that the particular zuke I'm growing has that as a normal pattern on the leaves.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kyle Gassman on July 2, 2008 at 6:29pm

Just a guess but have you been having cool or damp weather or both? It seems squash love heat to be at their best. If it's been cool and rainy they are producing blooms but don't have the heat to grow a good squash. Be patient. Your plants look in good health. Hopefully in a couple of weeks you're in the high production mode that we know and love zucchini's for. I've seen the same of mine in the past and with heat they snapped out of it.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kyle Gassman on July 2, 2008 at 6:33pm

On another zucchini note. Have you ever eaten fried blossoms? They batter and fry them! I saw it on the Food Network. Looked yummy.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by CornerGardener on July 8, 2008 at 1:45pm

So has your problem resolved itself yet? I did a little research ans found that this is a pretty consistant symptom of incomplete or insufficient pollenation. As I said before I have been having this same problem so I will be trying my hand at manual pollenation this week to see if it helps. The best way I have read about doing this is to go out in the morning when the blossoms are at full bloom and physically remove one of the male flowers. (These are the ones with longer slender stems. The female flowers stems are shorter and have a small bulbous shape at the base of the flower that will eventually become the fruit.) Remove the outer petals from the male flower exposing the stamens. Dust this male stamen around the female flowers pistels (now's the time to humm some soft music if it gets you more in the mood ;-) This will ensure effective pollenation and will rule that out as a cause.
Hope this helps us both. I'm curious to hear from you if you try it as well
P~

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Patty on July 10, 2008 at 6:58pm

Thank you all for your replies. The zucchini started growing all on its own but, I have tried some hand pollination. We are now starting to reap an abundance of zucchini even though there is powdery mildew. My mom came by a few days ago to spray the leaves and today I removed the dying/dead ones. I may also pull out the back 2 plants as they are smaller and seem to only be shooting up male flowers. Thanks again :-)

Attachments:

• IMG_3782.JPG, 3.4 MB

▶ Reply to This

• 1
• 2