Root rot or SVB? Zucchini dying

[OrganicTexasMama]

I am really struggling with my little, organic container garden. Can someone tell me what's wrong with my zucchini?

These plants were abused a bit to begin with (left much too long in a six pack), but thrived beautifully when potted. I have two plants in a 20"x18" or so wooden barrel container. The soil is a mix of leaf mold compost and potting soil (about 50/50, maybe a little more compost).

Pictures here:
https://gallery.me.com/hvbarrett#100558&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=0

I first noticed the yellow veining on one leaf, then by the end of the day that was brown and it was curling (pictured). Some other leaves started with gray/black spots which quickly expanded. A number of leaves ended up with this on half the leaf. On some, the other half then developed small holes, green and yellow in appearance.

Still other leaves ended up with white spots, which are visible from both sides and appear to be a removal of some of the leaf tissue - as though it's *almost* a hole. Those leaves haven't declined beyond that.

While applying a beneficial organism/bacteria spray, I noticed smal slits (not holes, just slits) at the base of one of the plants. Could this be SVB? The "sawdust" one is told to look for is not present, but I did notice a second, similar slit in the picture that I didn't see while out there. I didn't find anything of the sort on the other picture.

I finally had one female flower developing. Now, that, and other leaflets and new growth, are also turning brown. The leaflets are brown on the edge. There's a picture of what I believe is a female flower bud that is brown and yellow.

Could this be fungal? Am I guilty of overwatering? I think the overwatering part is certainly possible. We've gone back and forth between dry heat and humidity (though, uncharacteristically, the dry heat held on for quite a while here). We got our first rain in over two months just a week ago, along with a dose of humidity.

Somewhere in there, I (being a novice gardener) got frightened by the site of little bugs jumping everywhere when I was watering on a hot day (this was not in the zucchini, originally). I thought it was aphids and quickly sprayed everything with Dr. Bronner's soap solution - only to realize that my zeal had resulted in foliar spraying in the heat of the day. I hoped that, perhaps, I had simply burned some leaves and it would recover (particularly when I realized they were soil mites, not aphids, and I had nothing to worry about). It was later that day that I noticed the first leaf going bad. (I think it was Saturday.)

This past Monday, I picked up a new fertilizer in hopes of giving the plants a boost to fight off whatever was going on. It's the first granular fertilizer I've tried. I did a side dressing and watered it in. It's an organic fertilizer with pretty low numbers, but I don't have it in front of me now and can't find it in 15 pages on Amazon. I do know it was lower in nitrogen than the others and described itself as being for flowers, fruits, and roots. Ingredients include chicken manure and such; I don't recall exactly how it was worded. I side dressed with this fertilizer probably on Tuesday. (My watermelon, FWIW, seems quite happy with it and is *finally* growing!)

I can't recall now if I've watered once since the fertilizer or not. Today, Thursday, when I went out, everything was still quite moist. I did the foliar drench with the bacterium stuff, and poured some around the soil as I was instructed. But I did not otherwise water it at all. It was very humid while I was out.

These are getting about 6 hours of full, direct sunlight per day, in just about the sunniest spot on the patio (the tomato probably gets slightly more being more-or-less dead-center in a patio surrounded almost entirely by buildings; at least it's south-facing!). Lots of indirect sunlight most of the rest of the day.

Can anyone tell me what I'm looking at, for sure? Is there any saving them? If it's SVB, I've heard of injecting beneficial nematodes. Worth the trouble? Or should I try the trick of slicing open the vine? I don't want do that unless I'm certain that's what it is.

But then I'm wondering - where on earth did it come from? This is our first container garden, so all new soil, etc. I think we have one neighbor who gardens (or has in the past). But there hasn't been a garden in our yard, itself, ever! So are we really attracting buts THAT fast? These have only been in the ground for a few weeks.

Anyway, thanks for any and all input! I really, really want *something* to survive!!

[rainbowgardener]

Zucchini, despite their reputation in some parts for being easy and productive, in my climate can be quite difficult. I actually gave up on them and am not growing any this year (I'm trying acorn squash instead). Zucchini are quite prone to the two things you mentioned-- fungus (in this case powdery mildew) and the Squash Vine Borers. You only gave one picture of the stem and I can't quite tell if SVB is what you have. If it is the stem close to ground level will have a hole in it and outside the hole there will be some sawdusty looking stuff ("frass" which is their droppings which they like to push out the door of their house). If it is the SVB, your plant will probably be totally wilted and next to dead in a few more days. Sorry, but like I said that's why I don't grow them any more.

The SVB is the ONLY thing in my garden that can take a large healthy producing plant (by working at it, I've been able to keep the SVB's away until after I get the first couple zucchinis) and reduce it to wilted mush in a few days.

The leaf issue does look like powdery mildew. Type that into the Keyword Box that comes up when you click Search the Forum and you will find tons written here about it. If the SVB or whatever the root/stem problem is doesn't kill the plant, you can treat the powdery mildew!

Grow swiss chard! Nothing bothers it, it produces all season, doesn't care how much sun it gets....

[OrganicTexasMama]

It's been a week (or more) and they're not dead, yet. Does that mean it's NOT svb? Wouldn't that kill the whole plant quickly?

I have sprayed twice with the microbes and thought they were doing well, but it has spread more, again. I'm going to try a concentrated milk solution today. I also let the soil dry out a lot before I watered any more. I dug several inches down to find it dry before I watered (carefully, as always).

There is still a ton of new growth, but only one or two flowers per plant opening at a time, and no mature female flowers, yet. (The one that was most mature browned before it could get very big.) Really hoping I can get some sort of crop from these!

Oh, and some of the new leaves are more curled and thick. :/ Then something started eating the big, good leaves. Really, these are taking quite a hit. Let's just say I'm not researching zucchini bread recipes just yet.

[gumbo2176]

It's been a week (or more) and they're not dead, yet. Does that mean it's NOT svb? Wouldn't that kill the whole plant quickly?

I have sprayed twice with the microbes and thought they were doing well, but it has spread more, again. I'm going to try a concentrated milk solution today. I also let the soil dry out a lot before I watered any more. I dug several inches down to find it dry before I watered (carefully, as always).

There is still a ton of new growth, but only one or two flowers per plant opening at a time, and no mature female flowers, yet. (The one that was most mature browned before it could get very big.) Really hoping I can get some sort of crop from these!

Oh, and some of the new leaves are more curled and thick. :/ Then something started eating the big, good leaves. Really, these are taking quite a hit. Let's just say I'm not researching zucchini bread recipes just yet.

My past experience with SVB's is they don't kill a plant in a short period of time. The plant will still produce flowers, even start some fruit but in short order the fruit will shrivel up and die due to lack of nutrients. When I pulled my squash plants a couple weeks ago due to SVB's, they still looked relatively healthy. Once the plants were pulled, I cut open some of the vines and found as many as 6-8 borers in as little as 1 ft. long sections of stem.

If you have a lot of plants, look for the signs of borers. You will see evidence along the bottoms of the stems where they hit the ground in the form of pulpy material outside the stem and the stem will likely have open slits in them. If you see this, I'd bet dollars to donuts you have borers taking up residence.

[OrganicTexasMama]

Aw, rats. I was hoping we could rule something out.

I have two plants. On one, there are two little slits (shown in the pictures linked up thread) that look like the plant just split a little. Not holes all the way in, just slits. And I don't see any frass at all. I've checked several times and don't see anything except the slits as shown in the pictures. I did try taking a flashlight out to see if there was a blockage in the stem but didn't see anything. They're in a container so it's hard to get the flashlight all the way down to the soil level, though, without lifting the plant up a bit.

Sigh. At least my watermelon finally started growing?

[OrganicTexasMama]

I wonder if it's worth slitting the stems where the slits already are and seeing if there are grubs in there? I hear, sometimes, they can recover if the SVB is removed. More leaves are turning black and withering so I'm just not sure what's possible.