Software
Houzz Logo Print
organiclove_gw

Help me pleeease!

17 years ago

First time organic gardener here, and I am in need of a Guru (or many Gurus). Before I planted my garden in my greenhouse I researched pest control and safe soil amendments to the core. I started a compost pile, picked up organic seeds and got down to business. Since then, I have pulled all of my foot to two foot tall radish plants up, due to not producing any fruit. I have also pulled all of my spinach up due to out of control aphid infestation, two bean plants for the same reason and Im getting worried about my squash. I have about 30 straight neck squash plants that range anywhere from 1 1/2 feet to 4 feet wide. I went out of town for a week and had someone water the garden for me and when I returned yesterday i found my squash plants to be doing something quite odd. It looks like an abundance of new stems tried to grow and when they got about 6-8 inches or so tall, something might have eaten the bloom off the end and they just turned brown and shriveled. when you look at the huge, healthy plants you just see all these little stems sticking up in great numbers with the ends shriveled. I picked two gray squishy looking beetles off of the same plant today which is the biggest and I have tried to look it up to find out what kind of beetle it is and I cant seem to find anything on a gray beetle. Also, my green bean plants, which I planted at the bottom of bamboo stakes, are not climbing. I thought that all bean plants climbed, but maybe not. They have produced very few green beans and they have no runners on them. It seems like all of my plants are having some trouble producing fruit like I thought they would. The soil ph is about ideal in every bed, should I put down more manure or some type of meal for nutrients? HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Comments (9)

  • 17 years ago

    Well, here's a little bit of info, and a little bit of guessing.

    If you've got aphids, I'd recommend getting some ladybugs rather than pulling up the plants. A good nursery should sell ladybugs by the pint or by the bag, and they'll make fast work of the aphids.

    Not all beans climb. Beans come in two major types: pole beans and bush beans. Only the pole variety will climb. Your seed packet should tell you which variety you have.

    I'm having trouble understanding what you're describing with your squash plants, but let me offer this. Early in the season, you'll probably get all male blossoms before you get any female blossoms, and these blossoms will shrivel up after they bloom. Could that be what's going on?

    Good luck!

  • 17 years ago

    1. I'd bet good money you are over-fertilizing your plants. Lots of top growth, no bulb development on root crops? Rampant aphid problems? Limited fruit development on otherwise thriving plants? All signs that you've over-done the N. STOP FERTILIZING.

    2. Either your squash is still only producing male blossoms or it isn't being adequately pollinated. Squash typically produce male blossoms for a while before they kick out some female blossoms. If that's the case here, then a little patience is all that's called for. If, however, female blossoms are shriveling, then they aren't being pollinated. You can hand pollinate squash if you need to.

    3. Not all snap beans are pole beans (climbers). You may have planted bush beans. If they are already producing beans but haven't climbed then you've pretty clearly planted bush beans and they'll never climb. Limited production may be due to the N excess mentioned above, or may just be that you need more patience.

  • 17 years ago

    Thanks for the replies!

    Unfortunately there are no nurseries or anywhere around here that sells ladybugs. That was the first solution that I thought of. I was going to purchase some online but I figured by the time they got here my plants would be beyond saving..I figured that it might be over fertilization so Ill tell you how I fertilized.. In March we put a half of bag of MooNure (which is .2-.2-.2), 2 bags of Organic garden soil (.04-.06-.02), and a bit of Humus in each 5 by 5 raised bed square. I didn't think we overdid it but there's a first time for everything. I was going to hand pollinate the squash so I went out this morning and only about 1/4 of the blooms were open and I honestly could not tell female from male, are they usually open at the same time?

    leira, sorry about the confusing description its hard to put it into words, it looks very odd. There are stems sticking up everywhere all over the plants but no blooms or anything on the end of the stem they are just brown and shriveled at the end, the plants are so big they make for shaded damp areas when watered. I also see alot of molded blooms. I was thinking maybe blossom end rot?

  • 17 years ago

    Is this a raised bed or a ground level greenhouse?
    Have you had a good, reliable soil test done?
    What is your soils pH?
    What is the level of organic matter in your soil?
    How well does this soil drain?
    How well does this soil retain mositure?
    What does this soil smell like?
    What kind of life do you see in that soil?

  • 17 years ago

    Blossom end rot is a disease of fruit, not the blossoms themselves. You've either got early male blossoms (sticks with wilted blossoms on the end sounds like a male blossom to me) or you've got both male and female blossoms but you're getting no pollination.

    I don't think I understand your situation. Are all of your plants actually IN a greenhouse? If so, pollination probably is a problem. You'll need to hand pollinate.

    And it really doesn't matter how you prepared those beds, I'm still telling you it sounds like you have more than enough N feeding those plants already. Again, don't fertilize.

    You don't need to buy ladybugs. Most studies I've read say purchased bugs skeddadle after release anyway. If you're not using a broad spectrum pesticide (organic or otherwise), they will come eventually. In the meantime, a daily blast of water from the hose will help disrupt aphid populations.

  • 17 years ago

    And another thing. Male blossoms are just blossoms at the end of the stem. Female blossoms have little nascent fruit at the base of the blossom. Google some images if you need more help visualizing this,.

  • 17 years ago

    Thanks again for the Reply,

    Kimmsr- These are all 5 by 5 raised beds located inside of a nice sized greenhouse. I usually see 1 huge bee a day in there but most of the time it just looks like they are flying into the windows. I bought one of the battery powered home pH testers, not sure if it's reliable, but it reads about 6.5 in all of the squares except for 2 I think and their a little higher in the 7 range. For the most part the soil looks fantastic. It drains pretty well. I did put peat moss and humus in the squares back in March, because before the water would bead up on top of the dirt and eventually make mud. We moved a lot of that dirt out because by the time we got done tilling there was too much and it wasn't very healthy. We then added two bags of organic garden soil into each square along with half bag of Moonure and about a half a bag of peat moss or humus. The soil just smells like soil? No odd smell. About a week or two ago when my plants were getting infested with aphids at an extremely fast rate, I was seeing very tiny nats everywhere. They were flying right above the soil in every square and I saw quite a few on the bottoms of leaves but I couldn't figure out if they had something to do with the aphid population or not? I have 2 or 3 lizards that live in the greenhouse and I also see Ladybugs often on the plants with aphids still on them. I try spraying the aphids off with the water hose, but that somehow never seems to do the trick I just end up losing foliage. The only thing I put on my plants is Neem Oil when the aphids are there, 2 times and they're usually outta there.

    Marymd7- Well see, the thing is, I had a ton of small fruit that the blossom had actually rotted off and it looked like it made the fruit rot also and then they began to fall off the plant so I thought it might have been blossom end rot just because they had already began to grow like fruit. I think it might be that I'm not getting pollination. I have plenty of flowers such as yarrow, Marigolds, Salvia, lantana, Sunflowers and a few more that haven't bloomed yet. I have quite a few of each. Yes, all of the plants are in the greenhouse. I'm taking your advice and not fertilizing because you're not the first person that has told me that. I've researched hand pollination and I think I can do it, the only trouble Im having is when I go out in the morning to do it, there's only a small fraction of the blooms open and I think they're the females so am I supposed to open the male flower or what?

  • 17 years ago

    I was going to post some pics to show what is going on, but I'm not sure how to upload. If anyone can tell me how, I'd be more than happy to share them.

  • 17 years ago

    Okay, I think I've figured it out, here's a link to the photos

    Here is a link that might be useful: Squash Pics