I am having some problems with my squash. I've written about it in a separate thread, but wanted to start fresh with all the information. I think I have powdery mildew. Not quite sure I understand even why it is affecting them because all of the water is coming from the bottom. They get rained on every now and again, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary. I've thus far harvested 2 squash off of one plant. That was a week or so ago. Recently, I have seen two new females that appear to now be heading towards maturing (they are larger than they were, simply stated). I'm thinking that maybe it's been too hot for them and, combined with stress from the mildew, they kinda just stopped producing. I'm finding a lot of rotted blossoms that have dropped down into the center of the plant. I treated for the mildew with milk a couple times and also tried one treatment with Serenity or something like that and it didn't really help. The white spots have spread to two more squash plants, including my butternuts. Here's a sample I've posted before - it's gotten worse since these pics:
[img]https://jtnewton.com/Images/Garden/07312011015.jpg[/img]
[img]https://jtnewton.com/Images/Garden/07312011016.jpg[/img]
A couple days ago I went nuts cutting off leaves that had this junk on them. Most of it is on the outer plate sized leaves - most of the younger greener leaves remain unaffected.
Which brings me to my next point. The white spots have spread to my butternuts a bit - but not a lot.
Here is a summary of the facts:
1. Summer Squash plant 1 produced 2 squash and then stopped, aside from why I wrote above. Plant is still producing new growth and is kinda traveling along the bed which is where the two new females have started to produce. This is a shot down inside that is about a week old, you can see towards the top of the pic that some of the blossoms are rotting. A lot of the new ones in this picture have since rotted. There is new growth, now, to the left with new leaves, a little more vine and some newer blossoms.
[img]https://jtnewton.com/Images/Garden/07312011006.jpg[/img]
2. Temps have been 90+ for a long time. Over 90 for 22 of the last 31 days.
3. Watering via soaker, so no direct water to leaves aside from rain.
4. Butternuts have produced a single fruit thus far and it hasn't fully matured. Vines among the 4 plants are 10' long. I see small females on the vine, but they turn black and fall off in a few days.
5. Butternuts are growing out of bed onto weed block fabric, so they don't rest in water. The fabric dries quickly after a rain. There is no water related damage to the bottom of the single butternut that is currently growing (it's about 9" top to bottom, presently). This is a picture of it about a week ago that shows how it is sitting on the fabric:
[img]https://jtnewton.com/Images/Garden/07312011009.jpg[/img]
6. I have ants on the vines, but they don't seem to be doing any damage nor are they tending aphids.
7. All 4 squash plants are touching at some point.
8. I have a few cucumber beetles that frequent the plants, but there is no obvious damage from them. They tend to hang out down in the blossoms. I see plenty of bees around. Mainly, I am fighting more of them on the cucumbers in another bed.
9. The watermelon plants at the opposite end of the same bed appear to be thriving. Rapid vining has ceased and between 4 vines (from 4 seeds) I now have two watermelons that are softball sized and beautiful and another 3 that are passing golf ball size. Sitting on same fabric that spans between all 4 raised beds. No signs of the mildew on these at all, but they are not touching the squash either.
10. I haven't fertilized the squash a whole lot. I put some Vigaro (12-10-10) down about 6 weeks ago in very small quantities and more recently, spread a small amount of CitrusTone (5-2-6) around the base of the squash plants - but the bad stuff that has been going on was in progress before I added the Citrus Tone and didn't occur until well after the Vigaro went down.
Am I simply crippled by the combination of what appears to be powdery mildew and the hot as heck temps? Is there more at work here that I'm just not seeing?
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CharlieBear
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 588
- Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:19 pm
- Location: Pacific NW
Looks like you have covered the basics. First of all, I don't want you to feel bad about your yields, I am hearing from all over the country and the yields seem to be down for most people. The weather has just been too hot, or cold, or....
As for the powdery milddew when you say milk solution I assume that you mean 1 part milk to 9 parts water plus 1T baking soda per gallon in a sprayer. If so, that has shown even more promise then commercial fungicides in cooperative extention tests so far this year. The problem is that you generally have to reapply about every 2 weeks and sooner if you have a large amount of rain or very high humidity. Also you always want to spray when it is sunny and there is plenty of day for it to dry out well and do its job. It seems that the warmth from the sun is really needed to get this solution to work well.
Also be sure to distroy those plants when you take them out or bury them quite deeply. Don't leave any of it in the garden and don't compost. Besure to use at least a 3 year rotation plan to keep the problem to a minimum. Note, powdery mildew is a problem that many, many gardeners deal with. The reason for spraying is as much or more to keep it from hopping from plant to plant as anything else.
As for the powdery milddew when you say milk solution I assume that you mean 1 part milk to 9 parts water plus 1T baking soda per gallon in a sprayer. If so, that has shown even more promise then commercial fungicides in cooperative extention tests so far this year. The problem is that you generally have to reapply about every 2 weeks and sooner if you have a large amount of rain or very high humidity. Also you always want to spray when it is sunny and there is plenty of day for it to dry out well and do its job. It seems that the warmth from the sun is really needed to get this solution to work well.
Also be sure to distroy those plants when you take them out or bury them quite deeply. Don't leave any of it in the garden and don't compost. Besure to use at least a 3 year rotation plan to keep the problem to a minimum. Note, powdery mildew is a problem that many, many gardeners deal with. The reason for spraying is as much or more to keep it from hopping from plant to plant as anything else.
Thanks for the input. I have actually been putting the milk solution on about every 4 days and I reapply (starting the 4 day clock over) after every rain. The last two times I put it on, it rained within 6 hours and I had no idea it was going to do so.
I also neglected to put in any baking soda. I missed that part of the recipe. Will do so this evening and will reapply. I also didn't know that sunshine was important and had been spraying at night sometimes because I just can't get home early enough to get to it.
Is 6pm an okay time to spray? It will still have a couple hours before dark, but no direct sunlight. The alternative is to simply get up early and spray in the morning - but it is still several hours before it gets hot. But with the temps we are having, it's ALWAYS hot so I guess drying wouldn't be a problem.
I did do some checking yesterday and it APPEARS that the persistence is paying off as it seems be less invasive at this point (but it may very well be because I've been cutting it all off the plant). And, for the record, I've been throwing them over the fence into the yard. I live in a dump, to put it bluntly. My wife and I are living in a temp house that belongs to a relative while we are building our REAL house in Arlington, Va. It's rent free, and we're pretty much just camping out there, so it is what it is. But it has a huge yard that has been mostly neglected that we've had clearcut and have planted some grass on. Plenty of room (11,000 SF backyard) to experiment with gardening. We'll be out of there in 6 months, so I don't give a junk what happens to the garden then.
I also neglected to put in any baking soda. I missed that part of the recipe. Will do so this evening and will reapply. I also didn't know that sunshine was important and had been spraying at night sometimes because I just can't get home early enough to get to it.
Is 6pm an okay time to spray? It will still have a couple hours before dark, but no direct sunlight. The alternative is to simply get up early and spray in the morning - but it is still several hours before it gets hot. But with the temps we are having, it's ALWAYS hot so I guess drying wouldn't be a problem.
I did do some checking yesterday and it APPEARS that the persistence is paying off as it seems be less invasive at this point (but it may very well be because I've been cutting it all off the plant). And, for the record, I've been throwing them over the fence into the yard. I live in a dump, to put it bluntly. My wife and I are living in a temp house that belongs to a relative while we are building our REAL house in Arlington, Va. It's rent free, and we're pretty much just camping out there, so it is what it is. But it has a huge yard that has been mostly neglected that we've had clearcut and have planted some grass on. Plenty of room (11,000 SF backyard) to experiment with gardening. We'll be out of there in 6 months, so I don't give a junk what happens to the garden then.
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gardenbean
- Senior Member
- Posts: 251
- Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:47 pm
- Location: Westminster Colorado
I used to do the milk solution but it really never quite did it for my plants so instead I went to my local garden center and purchased a bottle of Neem Oil for $14.99 and I applied it to all of my plants (tomatoes, eggplants and squash) when I suspected either powerdry mildew or bug problem.
I've had excellent results from using Neem Oil and it doesn't hurt the plants or anything around it, which is always good news for the garden.
However, like everyone else my fruit production has been lack luster at best. Does anyone know why this could be happening? And I do have flowers in the garden to bring bees to the squash plants.
I've had excellent results from using Neem Oil and it doesn't hurt the plants or anything around it, which is always good news for the garden.
However, like everyone else my fruit production has been lack luster at best. Does anyone know why this could be happening? And I do have flowers in the garden to bring bees to the squash plants.
I have to agree that it has been a bad year for squash. Everyone that I have talked to this year has agreed they are having a problem with their squash production.
My Squash plants now have powdery mildew and I have not had any female flowers despite the fact the plants have grown pretty large. In fact its the only thing I planted that is not producing fruit. I'm very disappointed with this year squash!
My Squash plants now have powdery mildew and I have not had any female flowers despite the fact the plants have grown pretty large. In fact its the only thing I planted that is not producing fruit. I'm very disappointed with this year squash!
Squash is not my only problem. My tomatoes just now put out the first tiny fruits and it's like a single or a couple here and there among my 10 plants. The heat, I think, is what is causing most of the fruitlessness... My cucumbers, also, have yet to pop out a fruit, but I have cucumber beetles in full force now. I'm going to have to try something else soon to get rid of them.
I checked the squash yesterday and the powdery mildew, if that is what it is, is spreading like wildfire. I'm going to try some milk, water and baking soda this evening if I have time...
I checked the squash yesterday and the powdery mildew, if that is what it is, is spreading like wildfire. I'm going to try some milk, water and baking soda this evening if I have time...