Are your zucchinis rotting before they grow?
It's July and right around now our summer squashes are in full force. However there are a few things I wanted to share. This week is seems that many of the friends are seeing a couple of things go awry with their summer squash, most commonly the zucchini. I am curious if this is happening to you?
Fruit is rotting from the flower end: If you are seeing the flower end of the fruit beginning to rot, as shown in the photo above, then this is a symptom of poor pollination. This not from contaminated soil or a 'bad' plant, as so many think. This is super common and easily corrected. Zucchini plants have both male & female flowers. The male flowers are on a straight stem where the female flower will have a little rounded bulge at the base of it. When your flowers are open, then you can hand pollinate the female from the male flower. Voilà!
The flowers are falling off: If you are seeing the flowers fall of before it fruits, this can be for a couple of reasons. One reason could be that the soil is staying too wet and not drying out enough. The second reason is if the temperatures are too hot. Let me start by sharing that male flowers will fall off after they have been open, as it assumes the bees have done their job so it's job is complete. Nothing to worry about. However if the flowers are falling off before they even open, then this is something to get curious about.
Watering: Is the soil staying wet and not drying out? then adjust your watering schedule to water deeply and then not to water again until the soil has dried out a couple of inches before watering again. The soil may look dry at the surface, but feel down a few inches, is it still moist? Remember as the plant grows, you will water deeper and less often. Keep in mind that as the plants grow, the root systems also grow wide and deep. Also these plants do prefer well draining soil. If you have poor draining soil, more clay-like, then it is best to plant your summer squash on a high mound or in a raised bed with good, rich soil.
Temperatures are too hot: when the day time temperatures reach 90 degrees for a number of days, then you may see the flowers and underdeveloped fruits drop off. You can correct this by providing regular water to the plant, to prevent the plant from drying out during the times of excessive heat. Now you are probably thinking that I just mentioned that overwatering also causes the flowers to drop. I know, this can sound a bit of a contradiction. This is why it is important to know your soil, understand how the water is moving through it, how it is evaporating out. Equally as important is to understand how the plants are being irrigated. As plants grow, the way we water will adjust accordingly. From here you can identify what the problem is. I hope this makes sense.
Our garden and our plants give us clues. It's up to us to interpret these clues. I invite you to get curious, investigate a bit more. What I usually see after I've gone through a few possible reasons for a problem is that the person I am speaking with has an 'aha moment', which is when I've mentioned something that fits their scenario making complete sense to them what could be going awry.
I hope you found this helpful : ) Let me know what garden problems you are facing, I'd love to help out.
Have a wonderful day!
~Suzanne