A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Squash leaves yellowing

My squash leaves are turning yellow. They're planted in what should be very well-enriched soil, lots of compost was mixed in this year, but it's quite possible that there's a nutrient missing since I made all the compost myself. I think they are this but I can't be totally sure.

From one plant that's not so bad:


From another plant that's looking pretty bad:

Maybe low nitrogen? Try liquid fish emulsion fertilizer. It works pretty fast.

I applied some Neptune's Harvest brand fish emulsion fertilizer after doing some quick research on the product. It's only been a few hours so far, and no change. I'll make note of any changes tomorrow.

Any other ideas?

How much water are you giving it?? Squash need about 2" of water per week. If you are giving it more than that, perhaps there is an iron deficiency? Iron Chelates can be added to the soil if that's the case.

Also, I have read that bacterial wilt can cause yellowing leaves. You can diagnose that by cutting off a piece of the stem and squeezing it. If the juice inside comes out like slime, it has bacterial wilt and there isn't anything that you can do. I do not know how common/rare that is tho....and because it seems that the yellowing is starting from the newest leaves and moving towards the base of the plant, I'm thinking it's some kind of deficiency instead of wilt.

I think I watered them twice since they've been in the ground. They were in some pretty sizable pots before, and they were turning a little yellow then, but it seemed to clear up when they went in the ground, and now it's back. It's rained pretty heavily here, the ground they're in has been so wet I've backed off on the watering for fear of root rot.

I'll try the bacterial wilt test, but not signs of wilt except the daily wilting in the sun, but it was a bit cooler and overcast today, and they all stayed well perked-up all day.

Where can I get iron chelates? Do I need chelated iron, or will normal iron compounds do the trick?

How long ago did you transplant these. If it was resent it may just be shock to the root system from changing the location.

The yellowing began before transplant, do I doubt that's the cause.

I'm pretty sure it's nutrient deficiency of some sort, given that I'm now getting about .5" of rain a day. I'll just have to wait until this weather system blows over.