A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening ?? about squash plants

Please HELP this newbie! Raised bed environment. Straight neck yellow squash plants - leaves are turning yellow/drying out, but plant has tons of soon to be blooms... Too much water or not enough? Soil is 2 parts top soil, 2 parts manure, 1 part wood shaving. zone 10. Thanks!

Where your wood shavings old and left outside to
decompose over a period of time??????

OR WHERE THEY FRESH????

If they were fresh, they're eating up the nitrogen
in your soil, with the decomposing process.....

Do you have a picture of your garden and leaves????

P.S. Welcome to The Garden Helper's Forum.
We're verrrrrry glad you found us!!!!

Hi Weezie & thanks for such a warm welcome! Glad I found you, too!

The soil was premixed & purchased from a local landscape center, so I'm not sure of the age or decomposition of the wood shavings. I do have a picture; once I figure out how to post it, I'll add it to the reply!

Thanks again!

PaintballMom

If you need help with the picture posting..
Give a holler!!!

Need help posting pic! Tried to copy & paste - didn't work... Any help is appreciated!

Do you have a Photobucket account???
Photobucket
Go there, sign up for one..
Download your photo's...

Come back here, click on the Reply or Quote page
at the bottom of anyone's previous post..
Then there's something that looks like a sheet of paper
with one green square and one blue square and one triangle that looks like a robot's face *I think*, click on that..
and paste in your Image's URL...
it's in the upper left hand side of the post box..
Third one over..

If I missed a step or just not clear,
shout out again!

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u210/PaintballMom/100_1217.jpg

OK, Weezie - I hope this worked! THANKS A TON! Let me know what you think!

I would just let them die back naturally
*the browned leaves*

and let them be..

How old are the plants?

And how many days planted???

To me they look okay...

Another question?
Did you grow from seeds?
Or nursery grown???

Where the plants hardened off before planting?

Hey Weezie. I don't reckon they look alright at all. I think the brown edges are evidence of a fungal problem and it is likely to get worse. Possibly brought about by insufficient drainage. The leaves should be a lot darker green too. This could also be from bad drainage and also the soil Ph may be too sour.

Longy,
You're probably right...

But I wasn't sure of how long she'd had them..
I know sometimes if plants are bought in the nurseries,
they aren't always treated with care/kindness..
and the center's looked good..
If they were just not watered properly, they'd have
brown leaves/edges..
And if she'd not hardened the plants off, or was early
to set them out, they'd get bleached from too much "elements" too quickly..
Again, looking in the centers', it looks like there's hope
for the plants...

Definitely the wrong color for squash. Don't soak them just water them 20 minutes is plenty and that's if the drainage is proper as previously mentioned.

You can get a pH testing kit at your local garden center to see if the soil is to sour.

I was wondering if the manure had been aged before it was added to the mix.

Some places that sell potting/top soil are not really selling a good product. Wal-mart sells a potting soil that is nothing other than regular garden dirt.

But don't worry to much Squash is hardy. Once you fix the problem it will come back real well.

OH MY GOSH! Thanks to each of you for your response! I'm SOOO glad I found this forum!

The pic I posted is of a plant I picked up at the "Depot". Planted it the day I bought it.

Guess what - this morning I noticed that the plants I started from seed (direct sowed) - lower leaves are turning yellow. My precious snow peas & beans. Tested soil tonight... Absolutely no nitrogen.

I have 5 raised beds, some larger than others. We had 8-1/2 yards of this soil delivered. Lined the bottom of the beds with mesh landscape fabric to prevent the borer (sp?) pests from intruding from below. Mistake??? I'm in Florida & the soil is the pits; hence the raised beds & purchased pre-mixed soil. Beds are constructed from landscape timbers, no chemically treated wood.

Ph came back HIGH, phosphorous is "medium", potash is "medium"... I'm gonna need a science class!

Any suggestions are EXTREMELY APPRECIATED!

That will definately be one reason..
You need to harden off the plants *even from a nursery*
to get it used to wind and sun in your settings, and the night time temps too....
Especially if it was under a tent/building or something.


Can you get your hands on some composted manure??

*and for the garden, grow yourself a cover crop, seed in late winter, and let it grow, then chop down and till it in and under...
something like red clover
or a legume type *that even add's extra nitrogen in the soil, with it's roots too as it's growing*



I think that sounds good/ok...
I basically did the same thing..
***Just remember the soil still compacts in there and still needs to be pulled up and turned and more compost added...
~~>I have the same, and mine turns to almost like cement after a few years of compression<~~
I did the same with landscape fabric under it..

Get your self some blood meal,
*and scratch that good into your soil...
Sometimes animals that eat meat (such as a cat, dog, raccons, etc.)
love that stuff, and are attracked to it if they smell it..
but it will be fine as long as you scratch it in to the soil.. watch out for the root systems of established plants*

Weezie - you're the bomb! Thanks a bunch for the advice that I promise to follow! I'll track down the manure & work it in. We've not walked in or heavily worked the beds at all, to avoid compaction. Beds were built just 4 weeks ago.

We have tons of raccoons/fox in this neighborhood (large river & forest area about 50 yds away). Found large paw prints in one bed two days ago - had to be something that could climb a stockade fence so not sure if the blood meal will be a good idea?

Glad to know the landscape fabric is an "OK".

Thanks again for all the advice - will keep you in the loop!

now remember that was composted manure. That means that it has set out for about a year. If you get fresh you could burn your plants.

Also fresh manure will have more germs and other stuff you don't want, so make sure it has been setting and curing for ast least 6 months, a yearwould be better.

This should kill the germs and seeds.