Tag Archives: what's wrong with my zucchini

SUCCESS!! So THAT’S what’s wrong with the zucchini!

I have been trying to figure out what’s wrong with my fucking zucchini. Two of the three plants I’m growing had yellowing, browning, and eventually, dying leaves. This is not a new problem, I’ve never had great production from my zukes, and never understood how folks have enough to make bread or to give away. Hence my fucking zucchini frustration. This summer has certainly been the worst so far. See my previous post for pics and descriptions: Something is Going on with the Zucchini.

That being said, this summer I’ve focused on solving this issue, and have finally made some progress. As explained in my earlier post, I used a generic vegetable fertilizer and didn’t see any results after a week; the leaves actually got worse. So I tried the other suggestion I’d found through some research: magnesium. Using a solution of Epsom salt and water, I treated the base of each of my cucurbits, and then left for a camping trip.

And SURPRISE!!! When I returned after several days, the results are significant and positive!

  • Before Mg
  • One week after Mg

I feel pretty confident that the Epsom salt made the difference. A week before the Epsom salt treatment I used a generic vegetable fertilizer (Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food 18-18-21) on all the veggie plants, and while everybody definitely got a little greener and bigger and healthier looking, the fertilizer didn’t even make a dent in the zucchini leaf problem. One week post Epsom salt treatment, however, and the results are clear and definitive.

  • Before Mg
  • One week after Mg
Before Epsom salt (magnesium (Mg)) treatment, all mature leaves yellowing from the outside in, then browning and dying.

There have been other improvements as well. I read that the magnesium is required for uptake of nutrition, so an Mg deficiency prevents the roots from taking in the necessary good stuff. Since I did the fertilizer a week before the Mg, I was able to see that the fertilizer didn’t really do much to improve the zukes. Besides the yellowing and browning leaves, I had also noticed that the plants were producing very small and slow growing fruit. I even noticed some end rot:

  • These two never got any bigger than this, after pollinating three weeks before.

My previous experience with summer squash is that once pollinated, the fruit grow to harvest size in just a few days. So a zuke this tiny three weeks after pollination is an indication of something wrong.

The great news is that this problem seems to be fixed as well! One week after Mg treatment, and check out these stupendously phallic bad boys:

Baum-chicka-baum-baum!

More good news came from the yellow squash and the cucumbers. My cukes and crooknecks had been growing, but slowly. I had a gazillion flowers, suspiciously few fruit, and the tiny little potential squashes were pollinating but not setting. A squash that didn’t pollinate completely will stay very tiny (tinier than in these pics below), but will also become soft. These squash obviously pollinated, were firm, and even grew a little bit, but they never got any bigger than this, even two to three weeks after the bees knees did their sex magic.

Before Mg Treatment

But one week post Mg treatment, and voila!! Cucumbers AND squash!!

Here’s my first cuke, zuke, and squash harvest, one week after Mg. I was so excited about full size cukes and squash, I forgot to take pics before I harvested.

In past years I’ve always had lame harvests of squash and zucchini, and always wondered how others got so much! Now I know why. I suspect I’ve had this magnesium problem for a while, but never carefully and intentionally tried to fix it. Partially, that is because in previous years I’ve had massive pest infestations, and have usually associated these issues with pests. This year, however, I’ve had few pests, so have had the time and brainspace to do some goddam sciencing!!

Something’s Going on with the Zucchini

The leaves on two of my three zucchini plants are doing this! It happened very rapidly, and doesn’t appear to be affecting the plants next to it. This picture was taken AFTER I removed several of the leaves that had turned crumbly brown and dead.

Both of the affected plants are producing fruit, but the fruit is growing much more slowly than in previous years.

Some Googling offered very few answers, as I found only two similar-looking leaves offered in photos on discussion boards asking the same question I am: What’s wrong with it? And neither of the boards had an actual diagnosis. I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.

First, I have to rule out some things. The most obvious: FUCKING INSECTS. I’ll get another post going soon that includes my garden-acquired amateur entomology knowledge, but for now it’s enough to say that I did not find any usual culprits like squash bugs or aphids. No real insect activity that I can see. The only insects I could find on them are these fun little fuckers:

Cute and miniscule little fucker that I found on all of my zukes and yellow squash leaves.

And when I say fun LITTLE fuckers, I’m not kidding. These little dudes are tiny! Miniscule! Those are the veins of the leaf next to it. I couldn’t get a clear shot with my fancy-cam because it’s so small. AND, there’s only a couple on any one plant. I also checked the underside of the leaves, and thought I could make out a tiny little light brown grub, but there were only a couple, and so small I couldn’t make out any details to search on. My best guess is that the little brown grubs might be the babies of the black and white guy from the front, but I can’t be sure.

Grubs?

I did a pretty heavy Google search, including an image search, and I could not find any articles or images that identify this guy. It did not come up on any searches for “teeny little garden fuckers that are ruining my zukes”, although I admit, that search term may be a little too specific.

I find it difficult to believe that these little dudes, even if they’re sucking sap, are causing this level of damage. Additionally, I am staying regular with my organic pest killer, and have no infestations anywhere in the garden at the moment. So I’m ruling this guy out as the cause.

The other possibility is scald from pesticide or herbicide, or maybe a magnesium deficiency. But I couldn’t find anything definitive. I had used an organic pesticide a few days before, but was careful to do it according to the instructions, and on a cloudy evening as the sun was going down- the scald idea just didn’t make sense to me.

So my first experiment was to fertilize.

Zucchini leaves, yellowing from the outside edge in. Turning brown and dead.

I chose a basic fertilizer that should be good for everybody in the garden. I’m new to fertilizer, so am starting at the beginning, since I don’t actually know what’s wrong with these zucchini.

I am a full week out that fertilizer application and have seen no discernable difference or improvement. Actually, the first of the plants to show symptoms, has it spreading to the newer leaves, too.

While I still haven’t found any real insect activity on these zucchini plants, I have noticed that my yellow squash and cucumber leaves are also yellowing around the edges. Many websites and extension programs mention that this could be a nutrient uptake issue, and might be helped with a treatment of magnesium: Epsom salt. So today, I’ve applied a solution of 3 Tbsp Epsom salt in 2 gallons of water to all of the curcurbits in the garden.

I’m hoping that this will make an appreciable difference, because I’m running out of options, and with three zuke plants, I should be looking forward to fuck-tonne of squash. I have visions of piles of sweet green zukes for zoodles, roasted veggies, veggie kabobs, and so much more! We’re also heading to the hills for a camping trip, and the garden will be on autopilot for several days. Here’s hoping that when we return, I’ll come home to beautiful GREEN and healthy-looking zucchini.

I’ll update when we return!