Zuchini yellow/brown tips

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by hedwig, Oct 11, 2005.

  1. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    my zuchhini are doing well bearing well but some of them (ihope not all) have yeelow-brownish tips and are rotting. Too less nutritients too less/much water or what else could be the reason??
     
  2. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Are they getting stung by fruit fly?
    Ours went the same way, and we were told by most locals that the only way to grow zuchinis here is under screens. We just harvested ours when they were tiny tiny tiny little things, and they were quite good like that. Very crispy.
    Did anyone listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" this week? He was going on about the end of the harvest when everyone is so sick of zuchini's they are throwing them at things to watch them explode. Very funny.
     
  3. redorangenbrown

    redorangenbrown Junior Member

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    Do you mean the actual zuchinni fruits or the plants themselves? If it is the fruit then it could simply mean that the particular flower and subsequant fruit was not fertilized. I go around with the boy flowers and fertilize the girls, if they agree of course.
    This usually fixes the problem and ensures a bumper crop. Bees sometime lack a certain work ethic in this department and need a little help. They are busy after all with the queen and the honey and the buzzing and all that.
    Sean
     
  4. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    just the fruits. And what are the boys flowers??
    I do not recognize fruit flies! I have plenty (milions) of vinegar flies.
     
  5. redorangenbrown

    redorangenbrown Junior Member

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  6. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Maybe more bees will help.. native as well.or just plant more winter flowering trees eg taggas to attract the bees into an area Bees im sure dont just magicly appear over the horizon.They need feed 12 months a year, to be prolific enough to be around for early seasonal vegie growing ... Ive noticed a drop in produce either, early in season but usually at a later time eg after jan feb early autumn.Here where i live a mega gazillion canola plants dont produce many bees either anyone else notice this, or is it my imagination..


    Tezza
     
  7. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    The more bees is a bit late. We just begun the garden four month ago. I think i will seed plenty of flowers along the fence. I try to pollinate...
     
  8. Rob6014

    Rob6014 Junior Member

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    We had the same trouble last year when we grew the pale green-type zucchini - the dark green one grew fine with no trouble at all. We will grow the dark green ones only from now on.
     
  9. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    Could be several things:

    ARE these very small fruits, or nearly full-sized fruits? If this is happening at a later stage, it's probably a calcium deficiency.

    If it's happening with the little 'uns, then yes it's probably due to poor pollination. Zucchinis are notorious for pollination problems. Bees, yes. These are one factor. If you don't have bees, you'll have poor pollination.

    Question: What are the OK fruit like? Are they straight and well-formed, or do they tend to be bent or misshapen? If they're odd shapes, you probably have a BORON deficiency. Again, very common in zucchinis. Boron is needed for effective pollination. Very poor pollination results in fruit dropping when it's very small. SOME pollination results in odd shapes, eg. bent, twisted, thick one end and thin the other. Use some SOLUBOR as a foliar spray. Go easy on soil applications, as it's very easy to apply TOO much and create a toxicity.
     
  10. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    I read your description and think it is poor pollination. I think I have to plant more flowers. Like we begun the garden end of may we have still always a lack of compost and we can plant only if there is compost.
     
  11. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    OK. See if you can get some native bees. They don't travel far, and will work the crop regardless of weather conditions.

    And seriously, if you don't attend to the boron deficiency, you won't get anywhere. You can have all the bees in the world, but the fruit simply won't develop if they're missing this essential element.
     
  12. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Doesn't sound to me like a pollination problem. Hedwig says they are bearing well. But they get these brown ends and go rotten. C'mon, she's got fruit flies! No??? hedwig, why did you decide you had poor pollination after originally sayin you had good fruit set?
    biofarmer, you will probably laugh at this, but you know what they say, there are no stupid questions... what do you know about boron from cardboard? would sheetmulching with cardboard, which is high in boron I believe, correct boron deficiencies or in soils with plenty of boron would it overload? Or is it more like, the boron becomes available when other elements are balanced?
     
  13. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    Better off asking. You never REALLY know if it's stupid until you ask, do you? :?

    Boron from cardboard? No idea! Is it going to break down readily? Is it going to become available WHEN you need it? Who knows! It might.....but then it might not. That's one of the problems with elements that require a breakdown process before they become available. You need boron DURING FLOWERING. If it becomes available two weeks later, it's too late. The timing's critical. I'm a soil agronomist. I deal with commercial fruit and vege growers. I've seen ADEQUATE boron levels in the SOIL, yet deficiencies in the plant a month after the soil test. Reason? It's a highly soluble and mobile element. It leaches readily, especially in lighter soils. So even if it became availabe from rotting-down cardboard a month before it was needed, it could still leach in the meantime.

    Could it overload? It normally takes overloading of the soil with, say, 20-30+kg of borax to cause possible toxic loads. Unlikely to get that unless it was a HUGE amount of cardboard.

    As for becoming more available when other elements are balanced, not really. Not in this case. It's not one of those "tie-up" elements, eg. zinc, phosphorus, etc.
     
  14. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    So, in general is boron gradually removed from agricultural soils that grow flowering plants?
    A lot of people doing Permaculture use cardboard in sheet mulching. It usually breaks down in about 6 months.
    There are no stupid questions. The stupidity is in not asking questions. And of course, old Bill said it so well when he defined evil as rigorously applied stupidity.
     
  15. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    Most horticultural soils are of the light, sandy loam variety. These are the easiest to work with, but they're also the most leachable. And if you're trying to make a living when zucchinis can often drop down to $8 per box (the carton itself costs around $3, and you also have freight, agents fees, growing costs and pickers at $14/hr...get the picture?), you need to grow as much crop as you can. Therefore you can't afford the slightest deficiency. If you're growing them for home use, perhaps you have a nice bit of rich alluvium to grow in with a bit more clay content and therefore less leaching. If you increase your level of organic matter, you'll and up with less leaching and more boron-containing plant material returning the element to the soil. Plus, you may well find that with 3 or 4 zucchini plants you end up with so much fruit you'd BEG for a deficiency. But if it's a bit of naturally deficient country, then you may find it better just to apply a spray or two at flowering time. It's certainly cheap enough, and the organic organisations give it the thumbs-up.
     

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