Hi , my question is about my squash zucchini and banana peppers . They were all doing great producing beautifully then like over night the bottom leaves started dying and falling off then some of the zucchini started kind of drying up inside I guess is the best way to describe it . All my new female blooms are shriveling and dying then white spots showed up all over the leaves . The original zucchini peppers and squash are fine and still growing but anything new dies . I added pics let me know if anybody needs more . Thanks for any feed back or help . The first pic is just last week then the rest are yesterday and today .
i'm not a super expert on diseases of squash or dealing with the southern heat, but to me it looks like some wilt from the heat along with possibly cases of powdery mildew starting up. which may be caused from the heat, too much moisture and/or soil/drainage issues.
can you describe where you have them planted and the conditions there?
one thing with gardening is that there can be multiple causes and you may not always be able to know exactly what is going on.
what i have always done is plant more than one crop and use more than one variety for each type of plant if i am growing a lot of them. some years we get a bumper crop and most plants come through, and then there are some exceptions where the weather, feeding hungry animals or the plants just don't make it. like in the strawberry patch for one year i got the plants put in too late and almost all of them didn't survive the winter and got frost heaved out of the ground or just died. the next year i got them planted earlier and so finally this past spring the patch was filled back in and it did well. the frosts didn't get the blooms and the bees and other insects did their thing to pollinate - so now i finally have strawberries and jam in the freezer again.
just have to keep trying and learn what you can.
some things you can grow down there i can't grow at all up here (mid-Michigan) the season isn't quite long enough.
We have them planted on a mild slope behind our house so I know drainage is ok but it has been hot but it’s been hot here for months and they were doing ok last week we got a lot of rain so I thought may be it was mold or mildew so I’m treating it with a mix of baking soda and soap this morning to see if that helps . I did a lot of reading last night most of what I read said a mild case of powdery mildew wouldn’t effect the fruit so that just has me stumped . But next year I will try different kinds that’s a great idea . I wish I had thought to plant strawberries !!!!
Slopes maybe the wettest part of a field. In looking at your pictures, I suspect grubs. Zucchini looks to be mildew but I believe grubs (or some under ground pest) is causing issues.
I think it's some type of bug like Seedcorn says. We get fog later in the summer and I always get powdery mildew but my zucchini keeps producing just fine.
Depends upon where Mom laid the eggs. She decides what would be the best host plants. Soapy water usually helps also with some water soluble fertilizer so plant can recover. Usually my zucchini gets infected and dies-no saving them. I’d starve raising zucchini for a living.
most of what I read said a mild case of powdery mildew wouldn’t effect the fruit so that just has me stumped . But next year I will try different kinds that’s a great idea . I wish I had thought to plant strawberries !!!!
