Some of the Garden Pooping Out

Some plants in my garden seem to be giving up, mainly summer squash and one cuke plant. Is this normal? Do the plants give only for a limited time? I would think this would happen in the fall, and not in mid August. What are your thoughts?

Squash Vine Borer?

When you say the plants are giving up, can you be more specific?
Have they stopped flowering & fruiting? Have the leaves died off?
Have you been fertilizing them at all? If so, what are you using.
Have you had dramatic changes in weather?

I haven't seen any evidence of pests. The older leaves are wilting and turning yellow. It looks like the plant is attempting to root in another spot, but isn't very vigorous so far. There is a little bit of new leaf growth. Fruit production has slowed down or stopped.

I have been fertilizing with chicken manure. Not really drastic changes in weather.

This message was edited Aug 15, 2006 11:52 AM

Composted chicken manure or fresh chicken manure?

If you are using composted chicken manure, I'd try giving the plants something with more phosphorus and potassium. Cucurbits are heavy feeders. They may have used up most of the available phosphorus in the soil and not have enough to bloom and fruit with.

If you are using fresh chicken manure, it may be tying up the nutrients while the manure breaks down.

I have found that cukes planted in garden soils that have grown cucurbits in recent years tend to fade out after a while. A brand new area might stay healthy a little longer.

My squash plants looked that way. I finally found a squash borer. In addition to that, I did have some powdery mildew. Mild but still there, used the milk and water spray. Then i cleaned up the plants by cutting off the bad lawer large leaves, chopped off the bad vines from the borers and fertilized with fish emulsion spray. i also got rid of the borers. 2 weeks later they are looking quite good. they are not like they were the first of the summer but they are still producing. the fish emulsion seems to made a difference. does anyone like using it?

Anyone gardening west of the Rockies have squash vine borer? I was reading that it's habitat was east of the Rockies and in to central America. With movement of produce back and forth, I would not be surprised to learn that the vine borer had made it to the west. Wondering if anyone has encountered it here.

Salemsunshine,

My summer squash plants have been like that every year. They get really productive for a while and then, they kind of all stop (in growth of leaves/fruit), and then, they start up again, but at a much slower rate. This year was no exception, so I had another EB (Earthbox) ready to go with new seedlings and the new ones are doing good at this point, but I already uprooted the 1st batch of plants that slowed down. I've never had any major pest or mildew issues, so I just assumed that this was the way things go with summer squashes. No?? Are they supposed to keep on going all summer long? Mine only lasts about 2-3 months and that's about it.

tmm

That has been my experience, 2 months pull them up and start over. I find most of the bear until frost blurbs in seed catalogs were written for our northern friends.