A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Zucchini dying, but Tomatoes live!

Hello, all! I am new to this list, and I hope that someone may have an answer for me...

My house faces SW, and with large trees out front, the only place I can plant my garden is in an area along the side of the garage. There is a bed along the wall of the garage - here lives my herb garden, hot peppers and sugar snap peas. All of these do well where they are.

My other planting space is on the other side of the walkway (about 2 feet wide, planting strip is 1.5' wide), and in it resides my tomatoes and what is left of my zucchini. I have planted toms here for the last 3 years, and they do fine, but I can't figure out why my zucchini give up and die! I have tested the ph, appears to be fine...

Any thoughts?

BJ,
Can you tell us what your zucchini plants
look like when they are in the process of
"giving up and dying"?????

Weezie

Well, they don't look overwatered, but they just shrivel up and wilt away...

Last year I had problems with slugs (thank you, Washington State), but that doesn't appear to be the problem now...

BJ,
Does the plant shrivel up or the zucchini fruits?

Weezie

You said the squash are wilting. With no other description, it sounds like incect problems. Could be squash bugs or squash vine borers. Inspect the underside of your plants to see if there are any bugs. There is a number of ways to deal with them. Your choices are, hand picking, trapping, soap sprays, BT or the least desirable, malathion or sevin.
Also, you stated that you have planted your Tomatoes in the same place for years. If you are putting them in the exact location every year, you will soon have a desease problem with those as well. Rotation on a 3 year basis will keep this to a minimum. Continous planting of the same species in the same spot for years promotes desease, especially if you do not grow organically.

It's not that the squash (fruit) are wilting - the plants never even get to the point of putting on fruit. I'd feel like I finally did something right if I got that far...

The plants are dying within 7-10 days after planting. We are up on a hill, and the soil is really rocky (though I've dug out the rocks from the planting beds), but the soil is pretty much clay. We've amended with manure and top soil (last year), and before I planted this year, I added coffee grounds and fish emulsion. I'm still getting the same result with the squash. Perhaps should I add more sand or a soil conditioner? Would this make more of a difference with the squash???

Note: I did plant squash in my FRONT flower beds last year, and they don't seem to mind that spot, but the majority of the flower bed doesn't get enough sun for the plants to produce much - that's why I wanted to try a new spot. Also, we are going to dig up that bed and completely redo it, and that is why I don't want to plant there this year...

BJ,
Could be too much water..With a clay base
and manure (or manure was toooooooooo fresh, if you know what I mean, could burn the plant)
might not drain properly????
Could be with fresh topsoil, manure, coffee grounds, it's too much moisture...

I'm not too sure of the coffee grounds on zucchin's. That's acidy, not too sure they like too much of that stuff.. ? ? ?

What would be your chances', if you want to keep it in that same spot, but of getting a half whiskey barrel and putting it there, would give the plant a drained sunny area???

Zucchini's produce like weeds, but the plants do seem to be tempermental????

Keep us posted...

Weezie

Hi. Are you letting water get on the leaves? Sounds hookey I know, but I learned in Italy - that if water was getting on the leaves of the zucchini I often lost them - but if I made a definite point to keep the leaves dry the zucchini did very well. Then I read somewhere that the leaves are very susceptible to problems if they get wet. I have not seen "wet leaves" as a problem here in the desert - but it may be because the water dries off a lot faster.

If you are watering the zucchini about the same as the tomatoes they sould be fine - - not too often on the water - - every 3 - 4 days should be sufficient - again something I learned in Italy and then did the same in CA with it. I used to get zucchini (and not woody either) that were big enough to make (from a single one rather than several) fried zucchini for dinner and still have enough for 2 - 3 loaves of zucchini bread.

Wheezie is right - - take a little care and it will out produce your and your neighbors ability to eat it all.

Jon

Ooooooooooooh Jooooooooooooooooon,
Could I get you to post those fried zucchine and bread recipes??????

I just looooooooooooooooooooove any recipe for those abundance of fruits!!!

Weezie

Hi Weezie,

Frying the zucchini - - without a recipe what I did the first time - was simply bread them (cracker crumbs or flour), a little salt and pepper and then use a little cooking oil and fry like you would fry potatoes - but not as long as of course they cook much faster and you aren't trying to make them "hard". I preferred the cracker crumbs but the flour was easier to deal with.

On the zucchini bread - - I tried a couple of different recipes that I had found in an old Betty Crocker that I no longer have (think the ex took it even though it had been in my family for years). If the zucchini turns out this year (last year the jack rabbits got it and I hadn't tried before that here in the desert) I'll have mom digging out her recipes.

Jon

I've seen on Alton Brown's "Good Eats" (Food TV) that you can lightly salt the tomato slices and let them drain on a rack over the sink for a short while before you flour and fry them...

Here's my Zucchini Bread recipe from a BH&G cookbook...

Zucchini Nut Loaf

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 egg
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/4 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Stir together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder; set aside. Beat together sugar, zucchini and egg; add oil and lemon peel; mix well. Stir flour mixture into zucchini mixture; gently fold in nuts. Turn batter into a greased 8x4x2-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 55 to 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly on a rack. Wrap and store loaf overnight before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.

Note: I usually leave out the nuts and nutmeg. What I use instead is the 1 tsp cinnamon plus 1 tsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice. This is also my secret to great banana bread! You can also use orange peel if you don't have lemon peel...