A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Zucchini

Some body Please Help me.

I live in upstate NY. I planted 6 hills of zucchini. This is the first time I am planting them. I had lots of slug problem. Now it is under control.I may have some here and there. I saw a slug sitting in one hill one day and now I am making sure the slugs are not in the area where my zucchini is. All my plants has flowers and buds. I see flowers one day the next day it is falling off. I am watering in the morning and evening. I am adding miracle grow every other week. The plants are in sun light most part of the day. Can you please tell me wdhy flowers are falling off and what is the cure. Please help me

Hello Fellow New York Gardener!!!!!

Some of the very first flowers on most
vegetables like squashes, are male flowers..

Nothing will ever become of them, and do
fall off.... after you get what seems like
a bunch of the first flowers that fall off,
you should start experiencing the female flowers...

They will have a swelling behind or just under
the flower, and will get bigger and bigger when
pollenated....

May I ask how long they've been planted?

Also, just to be sure, how are your plants planted?

In garden soil?
Pots/Containers with bagged dirt/soil??
How much sun are they recieving?
What are your watering practices?
ie: water in morning, late nights??
Have you used any fertilizers, it any at all...
but if you have, what kind....

Oh, yeah...... for the slugs....

Best thing to do is go and take a flashlight,
after night fall, I usually go out about 11:00pm,
to make sure they're all out of their hideouts
and heading towards or on something to eat.....
When I see them, I take a rock, brick, stick...
*two bricks are the fastest, easiest..*
and squish them..
** I call it, CLOSING DOWN THE SALAD BAR **

(**I have wayyyyyyy too much area to cover with
egg shells, diatomatious earth..~although for specific plants..like a hosta, crushed egg shells can work...**)

Also, as a trap for them during the day,
I lay out a piece of wet card board~and/or~
a tarp like thing, and under it moist...

They'll congragate under those things...
and I find them sleeping there in the mornings,
the one's I missed at night...

Dear Weezie:
Thank you for your immediate reply. I bought the plants from a local nursary in the first week of June and planted them in my garden soil. three hills in one area and three in the other side of the house. I am watering morning and evening if the day is too hot and soil is dry. I am adding miracle grow every two weeks. They are in good and moderate sun ling most of the day. The plants look healthy. But the flowers are falling off. Now that you say that it is common, I am happy. Slugs I am going in the night about nine oclock with a flash light and putting salt on them. I go back early in the morning also. I do not see the shiny path they make. I do not see any damage to the plants either. So I am convinced that I controlled the problem. Please give me some suggetions to save my plants and get some produce.
Thanks

Don't put any salt on the slug while it's still
near your plate... take it off to the side somewhere's and then do it..
The salt will kill the plants..

That may be a small part of your problem...
Check your numbers on your Miracle Grow container.
Most of the time, MG, is a high nitrogen based fertilizer... ie: 10~2~2, which will give you growth and fullness, and lot's of green...
Try to find something that is a higher middle number, the middle number is for your flower production and fruit productions...
ex: 10~60~10...

And for future gardens, try to find some natural oranic fertilizer's, like Compost, Alfalfa Meal, Bone Meal, Blood Meal, any animal manure...
to work into the soil/dirt...that will give your plants a slow release natural fertilizers, that are easier for your plant to utilize.....

Weezie's on it. You use nitrogen once a plant is established and needs to green and grow. When the plant nears the flower stage you go with a bloom enhancer.

I use fertilizer at half rate.