My Zucchini plants are large, flowering, and producing well. However the bottom leaves become yellow then turn crispy brown. This advances up the stem with more brown leaves. All new leaves are a normal green but are soon affected. I am worried that this could spread. Nearby I have some eggplant which suddenly have become wilted on their bottom leaves. Any suggestions? rip them out? spray with something?
It may be a deficicy of something. I'm really not sure, but some of my zucchini, cucumber and squash leave are shriveling up and turning yellow. Otherwise they are doing great, lots of veggies!
Check for spider mites. They are exploding in numbers with the hot dry weather (mostly) in this area right now. I find eggplant especially attractive to the little critters, but cukes and probably zucchini/squash will also be possible targets.
I simply cut off all the dead or dying leaves on any of my veggies. The zucchinis lower leaves seem to naturally die off. If there are bugs, you get rid of them by removing the leaves and discourage bugs from growing on the surface of the soil(slugs, etc). Fast, simple, and organic. I am rather brutal with my zucchini plants. I have 24 plants in a very limited space so I remove older leaves from them to keep pathways clear. They don't seem to mind the trim. Have you tried almond-orange zucchini bread? It's great. I found the recipe on cooks.com. Enjoy your zucchinis!
It's been cool and wet here(Pa). Today is one of the hotter days so far(85f). A couple of days ago it felt like fall outside.
