What's wrong with my squash

[Southern Gardener]

As a first time veggie gardener, I feel like a complete failure! What's up with this?

Here are my beans - they don't look too bad.

Here is the complete view - it just doesn't look "robust" :/

Suggestions, comments, constructive criticism welcome...

 

[countrygirl4513]

Compared to mine they look good. I've had nothing but troubles with early blight, birds, ants, fungus!! I'm having to re-plant my green beans, something has ate them alive.

Are you over watering? Too much of a good thing can become a problem.

 

[Southern Gardener]

No, I don't think so - we had 6" of rain last week and none since - I haven't watered again since my soil has alot of clay and it's still moist.

 

[bills]

"my soil has alot of clay"

This might be your problem. From what I can see in the pictures it doesn't appear that there is a lot of humus in the soil. This can cause poor drainage, as well as clay soil doesn't have a lot of nutrients generally. Squash I know are particularly fond of a good compost enriched soil, and actually grow very well in the compost heap itself.

Kind of late now to due much, as the plants are all established, but this fall I would really add a heap of humus to the beds. Compost if you have it, or peat moss, chopped leaves, straw, etc.. Now I may be all wet here, as I can only see a tad from the pictures shown.

Now the 6" of rain you had probably cooled the ground, and that can slow plants from growing like mad. So you have to factor that in as well.

The squash almost look they may have a a touch of fungal, or bacterial disease, which can often be cured with copper spray. It may have been because of the rain.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Well not bad for a first attempt.

Looks like definitely a fungal growth or some sort. Normally I would recommend spraying milk on the leaves but at this point a copper spraying would be the best chance. The rain may have caused the issue here.

I do, however, respectfully disagree with bills on the clay issue. Clay soils typically retain more nutrients because they do not have sufficient water drainage to *wash* away the nutrients as do other soils. This does create a problem in itself when too much of one nutrient(s) is present.

However, clay does tend to get soggy with excessive water, especially shallow waterings and compacted. This can stunt the growth of many plants like tomatoes and squash.

I would till the soil a bit and work some compost into it to hopefully alleviate some problems. Also, plant a good cover crop to improve your soil for next season. Have you tested your soil recently to see if you have nutrient deficiencies?

 

[Southern Gardener]

Well, I tilled the soil last weekend and added what little compost I had

The squash is looking MUCH better and getting very big the new leaves are nice and pretty! I pinched off the leaves that didnt look so good.

A friend of mine came over and showed me what suckers were on the tomatoes we pinched them off the tomatoes are still looking so-so.

My beans have lots of flower and the cuks are looking good!

Oakland, what cover crop do you recommend?

 

[silkiechicken]

Just planted out tomoatoes here since it must be cooler than where you are. My guess on the tomatoes is you bought starts that had flowers on them and were probably root bound when you planted them?

Personally, I have never had luck with tomato plants which started to flower prior to planting in the ground, as most which flowered in a tiny pot were root bound. I start my own and when they are about 6 inches tall, and well before any root binding, I plant them so deep only the top two big leaves are showing, and encourage them to grow lots and lots of leaves before setting any flowers and spending energy on fruit. Maybe next year see if you can't work in more organic matter, organic meaning manuers and so on, and get tomato plants that are younger rather than older for the first plantings.

My squash grow right out of where last year's chicken tractor was and love the organic matter. Don't seem to get burned either.... and even with the spots, yours look better than mine... they have just two cotyledons right now.

 

[Beekissed]

I will be planting buckwheat this year for my cover crops, as it is pretty and it winter kills. I am doing no-till gardening and, supposedly, you can plant right into the dead root systems.

I've read that field peas make an excellent cover crop for soil amendment.

 

[silkiechicken]

I think our OP is in a very warm place that doesn't freeze, do you think that buckwheat would still winter kill if it didn't freeze?

No till planting doesn't work here since the rate of decomposition is too slow in our cold soils.

 

[Southern Gardener]

Just planted out tomoatoes here since it must be cooler than where you are. My guess on the tomatoes is you bought starts that had flowers on them and were probably root bound when you planted them?

Nope - I bought them young and they didn't have flowers.

I'm pretty sure it's my soil - I found a six pack of tomatoes that I had bought that fell off my side porch into my flower bed - well I found them a week after I planted my veggie garden (the were looking pretty sad) and just stuck them in two of my flower beds - they are now bigger, bushier and much more healthy than the plants in the veggie garden - :/