23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Blossoms can drop off for many reasons, most of them beyond your control.
Blossom Drop
birds
poor pollination
hard rain
wind
pests
contact with cage or support
etc.
A single blossom falling off would be almost impossible to determine why but assuming the rest of the plant and the remaining blooms appear fine it usually isn't a cause for any concern.
Dave
I'm in North Carolina and usually loose the battle with SVB but I also have plenty of the more obvious squash bugs. I haven't noticed that they do much damage even when there are lots of them around. Re SVB: this year I am trying a row cover. I started with some manual pollination but right now I have been hoping the svb are not around in the middle of the day and have left the cover partly off then. We will see what happens.
They are a pain in North Carolina, but you can pull them or hoe them when small. However, re roundup: I often use roundup almost like a hoe on a calm morning. I make sure that the spray is a fine spray but not a mist that will hover and I spray almost at ground level certainly up to only a foot away from beans or whatever. A couple times I have used a cardboard shield in one hand and nozzle in the other and been right up against plants vs. weeds in my iris garden etc.
Daisy, it might have been better to start a new thread because rr was answering another portion of the thread. I usually keep okra in a plastic bag for perhaps up to a week. In your case, you could try storing it that way to see how long it lasts, but if it were me, I would throw it away while waiting for more to develop. I don't recall having a single plant having more than two pods ready at one time, but I am attempting to pick them at ~ four inch length. If you fail to pick for a day, many may be too big on the next.
You're in the same zone as I am. I'm in central Saskatchewan and we normally have warmer summers than you, but this year it has been very cold and rainy with no change in sight, June has been 3 degrees C below normal.
The watermelon and butternut squash will do better in the greenhouse. That's a given.
The herbs will likely do better outside, especially if you have cool-season herbs (which most herbs are, except basil). Things like dill, cilantro, chives, chervil, rosemary, sage, etc. should be outside and they can tolerate some frost. Only basil needs to be started indoors.
The tomatoes, corn and zucchini could go either way. They like it warm but not hot. I would keep some inside and some outside, so that no matter how the summer turns out this year, you have something. Corn takes up a lot of space so I would put it all outside.
This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Tue, Jun 24, 14 at 11:58
tilton,, The live over first generation wakes up in mid May here. If you have any of those and emerging cucurbits, they go like a magnet on them and can destroy those small seedlings in a day or so.
If you don't see that generation, then they are generating anyway somewhere and the next generation comes out about the end of June or so...multiplied.
Even if you get later ones, if they are promptly taken care of, 899 stitches can be saved....just a little bit of Sevin sprayed on top of a few leaves at dusk will really decimate them.
That's fairly common on my squash, especially late in the season. Yellow straightneck does seem to be especially prone, though, I had a lot of doubles last year, and only a couple on zucchini.
Sometimes there is even a leaf or stem running between the two. A few years back, I had a Tromboncino pair with a small vine running between them. I let that squash grow to full size, and picked it just before frost. Sitting on the dining room table, the attached vine bloomed for several weeks... watching it grow made the end of the growing season more bearable.
Hows it go? All zucchini are squash but not all squash are zucchini...
Isn't it the same thing for pumpkins? All pumpkins are squash but not all squash are pumpkins. A friend of mine wont let me call winter squash a squash. She calls them all pumpkins, what ever color shape or form.
I had a similar problem a few weeks back. I hand picked all the little worms off (yuck) and then covered up with row covers and they seem to be all gone.
I think you can also use some sprays - BT I think is what was suggested to me. I'm sure someone more experienced on here can verify.
It's cabbage worms. They are little green caterpillars that are hard to see on the plant if you just glance over it. You'll find them if you look. BT is best to use for control when the caterpillars are young. Wasps are good natural predators and hand picking helps. Row covers or tulle works to keep the adults from laying eggs in the first place but they won't work if you already have them on your plants (unless you get rid of them first before covering).
Rodney
This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Mon, Jun 23, 14 at 16:44
Floral, you're not missing out on anything lol...
"Floral, you're not missing out on anything lol..."
From NJ! I expected that! LOL
It's a "must have" down here in the southern states!