This is my first garden and now I am hooked. I live in Richmond and the garden is next to our garage and is raised off the ground by a little over a foot. When I was watering today, I noticed that there is funny white spotty clumps on the leaves. A few of the leaves look like they have been nibbled on my some pesty as well. I looked to see if I could find anything crawling but there was nothing. The vegetable marrow has been producing really well but I have found that the zucchini is alot slower. Does anyone have any suggestions on what the white spotty clumps might be (they almost look a little like milk stain spots and one or two kind of web looking)? Or any tips would be appreciated too.
Hi Sounds like it may be powdery mildew. To confirm check out www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/ , click on vegetable ipm in the left column and then scroll down to cucurbits. If it is you can control it with a spray of 1tbs baking soda in 1.5 gal water, mist top and undersides of leaves, avoid top watering and protect from rain if posible. Good luck Doug
Powdery mildew has my vote too, but you may also have something chomping. Look for them in the evening and just after dark (sneak up on them with a good light). Many of them disappear in the daylight. If you find out what is slowing down the Zukes, let us know! Mine seem to go from "gee they're taking their time" to "omigod, who am I going to give these to?" in about 4 days. Ralph
Thanks for all the replies, I think one of the problems is powdery mildew. Doug, thanks for the link, it was great. Ralph, I will have to check out for little critters this evening, thanks for the tip. My Veggie Marrow was an "omigod" situation and after who knows, the Zukes may still yet. Thanks again for the the tips.
did you ever find out why the zucchinis were taking long to mature? My has mildew - im sure but worse is that they grow to about 4 inches and and wilt... can you help?
Hi marinka--the shriveling of 4in. long fruits is common here, too. I find that hand pollinating eliminates this problem... Maybe the weather was poor, or male and female flowers didn't open the same day (sometimes it seems they are only open for one morning, so you have to watch carefully!). Drought could also cause this aborting of the young zukes...assume you are watering regularly even tho the summer's been unusually cool/cloudy here. It's often surprising how dry the soil is in late summer, can take quite a bit to re-wet it, and the squash family will have a hard time filling up their fruits otherwise.
This is the first year I havnt had powdery mildew, I have found once it starts on the plant its a goner. Nothing I did would stop it from getting worse. I built a clear plastic retractable cover over the zukes and heirloom tomatos this year worked like a charm. I am also really careful not to water the foilage. I have also started popping off the male flowers and really pollinating the girls well , it seems to help reduce the amount of little shrivled zukes.
thanks so much to both of you for the reply . Haven't been on the comp. much lately and just read it now. A week ago I finally threw the plant away. It was my first attemp with zukes....and now I know about polinating. I will def give it a shot again next year. My tomatos do quite well- in the greenhouse....:), the brocoli is getting there- no flowers yet, and the brussell sprouts are doing great....just my zukes that did not work...oh well Thanks again.. Marina
