I lost my one baby butternut squash earlier this week. I seem to have so little luck with pumpkin/squash vines!! One day it was adorable and beige, about 2cm long with an in opened bud and then the next day the bud was black and then it all fell off! Never bloomed! I’m still hoping another one will grow! Good Luck!

We have an Update.

It's Squash Vine Borers.

As of this morning we trimmed our 3rd and only surviving Turban/Buttercup (not quite sure which was planted) plant. We found the larvae in the stem.

For some reason we thought we might not have as much pests as we live in the middle of a city. That was wrong.

These are the Squash and the Damage done:

- 2 Buttercups/turban completely dead and stem base is mushy as if its rotted

- 1 Buttercup/Turban has been trimmed in half, other half is still thriving

- 1 Pink Banana has fruit growing, 1 leaf is wilting, will keep careful eye on this as it is susceptible to SVB

- 1 Pink Banana is growing with no signs of SVB

- 1 Pink Banana was growing find and has been wilting on and off for 2 days, will keep a close eye on this too

- 1 Fairytale looks very healthy, not susceptible to SVB or Squash Bugs, but has 1 or 2 small holes in one leaf. Fruit is growing strong. Most healthy plant we have!

- 1 pepo at the front is just making a fruit now, appears to be the delicata we planted, appears healthy, has 1 burst or damaged vine either from SVB or when we moved it and strung up said vine to our tree. Will keep an eye on this and possibly use some surgical methods (as Grow Veg would say) to slice open and inspect for the SVB grubs.

- 1 Casper/Pink Banana, again not sure which germinated in this pot. Has no damage, also is so small it hasn't any male flowers yet.

- 4 Early Butternuts, these are also so small they don't have male flowers yet. Looking healthy though, and they aren't susceptible to SVB.

I should note some of these plants were not closely inspected today. Got turned off gardening after seeing the wrigglies, so we will do a closer inspection soon.

We are looking at methods of killing them. Does anyone know if amending the soil with say, selenium or sulphur could help the plant kill insects?

Recently found a paper saying selenium in plants kills aphids when they eat the plant.

One more question: Does anyone know if C. pepo is susceptible to SVB or Squash Bugs?

Thank you.

Claire: Given that C. moschatas are generally tolerant of SVB and Squash Bugs, you're squash's problem may be it needs Calcium, or it may need Magnesium to be able to absorb the Calcium.

The easy thing to do would be buy some Epsom salt, or Magnesium Sulfate from the bulk store. Its a very absorbable type of Magnesium.

Tomatoes and Squash seem to both suffer from Blossom End Rot, which can either be deficiency or inconsistent watering. For tomatoes, Blossom End Rot can also just happen to the first few tomatoes and the ones after won't have the problem.

It turns out water washes out the minerals from you plants soil, either from watering or rain. We thought this might have been our problem since we grow our plants in containers and it rained everyday for a week. Other people reported this happening. So just to be safe, when it rains quite a bit, add that Magnesium and Calcium to the soil.

Iron is important to add too. We haven't found a store that sells it yet.

We did a lot of research on this and all this information is what we found.

Thank You!!!! I’ve now read up on blossom end rot and that is exactly what my problem is!

All my other veggies are in two large raised cedar beds but my pumpkins and squash I dug up a small section of lawn to make a small bed for them back in the spring and planted them with out enriching the soil so I’m sure it’s a deficiency!

Thank you thank you!!

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/blossom_end_rot_causes_and_cures_in_garden_vegetables

I would not trouble shoot a unknown cause with fertilizers. The web page above will explain it all and why ....

Don't buy a soil test kit from Lowe's !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Use MSU testing !!

You need to lower the stress on the plant as a start ... Reduce / prune 30% of the leave surface but never when wet... cut leaves in half & axe the suckers. Place in sunlight protected overhead by a white plastic sheet .. get it out of the direct sun for a few. Place manure at the crown 3" high and roots should form and use this black gold to recover.

I bought composted chicken manure that is supposed to be high on calcium.... BUT I went out today and the pumpkin is COVERED in powdery mildew. I think I’m going to rip out the squash and pumpkins after work tomorrow and put it out for horticulture waste collection next week. I don’t want it to spread to anything else in my yard!

For next year I will properly prepare a bed with manure for vines.

Thanks for the info and tips!!