What's Wrong with my Squash?

Some weather background because this guy was fine before this past weekend. This past Saturday, we had severe storms with winds up to 70mph in some areas. Then we had 3" of rain in a period of 2 days. This was followed by 2 cool, cloudy days. Then, we've had extremely high humidity and warm days, but very little sunshine. I now have mushrooms growing everywhere! (It's been gross outside!) I find this last night as I was checking the beds. It's at the base of the plant, almost underground. Looks like a white fungus type growth...maybe a split in the base of the plant? The plant itself looks healthy, but I'm concerned about the base of it. I'll post 2 pics.

Pic#1

Pic #2

Any hope of saving this guy?

oh, I wish I could help you, but this is my first year growing veggies of any kind (squash included) so I'll be watching this thread to see what the vets tell you. Hopefully, they will have an easy enough fix for you.

Lots of water, high humidity, cloudy, and heavy mulch, you are going to have some fungi. Ninety Nine percent of it will be harmless. A greater danger is powdery mildew, but it will be on the leaves. Your plants will most likely be ok, when the sun comes out. You can apply a fungicide but probably not worth it.

Farmerdill is right. I've had that on my squash before when conditions were as you described and my squash plants did fine in spite of it. I do notice your plant looks healthy so I'm sure it will survive to provide you with more squash than you can eat which, of course, is what squash plants do :-}

Oh thank you! I'm so glad it's probably nothing serious. I'll pull back the mulch this evening when I get home to give it some more air. Might also dust the bed with a light dusting of cornmeal, too.

The funny thing is I don't even like squash! LOL My husband loves it, though. I told he's going to be eating squash for every meal this summer!

There's always the neighbor's doorstep in the middle of the night if he gets sick of 'em!!

ROFL stephanietx! I have the opposite problem--I love it but hubby won't touch it! I love it fresh but I also freeze some for later use. If you have more than your hubby needs, slice it, lay it on cookie sheets and quick freeze. Then you can bag it up or, as we do, wrap it with a Foodsaver. It comes out real well that way.

So now this particular plant is quite wobbly. It doesn't seem to be anchored in the dirt very well. Should I be concerned about this? Also, one of the baby squashes is shriveling up and dying. What gives with that?

They look way better than my lost squash. Planted on March 1st, and the only thing we got out of them was one puny acorn so small it wasn't even worth cooking, tangarine size. I forget who, maybe it was farmer dill, but someone suggested using a baking soda/water spray for the powerdery mildew. If you get that take it seriously. We had a few good squash last year, mostly acorn and zukes, but I didn't treat them and I think that crap has a way of surviving in the soil for a few years. It's a total bust for us this year, and I'm not even thinking of taking any of the plants around the infected areas to our new house, just becuase it's been so bad. But then again I acted too little and too late with the powder mildew. Just a word of caution.

It seems very plant specific, zukes, yellow crook, pumpkin didn't have a chance, the acorn and butternut have tried, but they've been very weakened. It does not seem to have an impact upon their cousins, cukes, watermellon, and cantaloupe.

At the new place first sign of that evil blight and I know now to take swift action.

Good Luck.

I had two squash plants blow over after heavy rain and wind over a week ago. One of the main stems was crushed flat, I stood them up and eased a stick through the branches. Didn't even tie them and they are still happy, happy. Hope you can deal with the fungus problem.

I've had some of my squash plants get wobbly after they get large and are producing lots of squash. It never seems to hurt them since they continue to put out way more squash than I can possibly eat/give away. Hubby doesn't touch the stuff so I'm on my own with it. Also, with our humid weather, I sometimes get a squash that shrivels and gets a little mold at the blossom end--I just pull it off and throw it away and the other squash usually do fine.

When you have too many squash, shred some and freeze (in correct amounts) to make zucchini bread in winter. (I use yellow squash as well as zucchini for this and I don't blanch them.) Yum.

Good idea darius! Somewhere I have a cake recipe that uses zukes too--I'll have to look for it.

Ok, this is my first year doing a vegetable garden. I have a squash plant and it seems that leaves are turning yellow and dying starting at the bottom of the plant. I see no bugs and so far none of the scary sawdust stuff that I read about earlier on the web. Something about a squash bore. Does anyone have any Idea about what could be the problem. I am am in extreme South Ga near Savannah.

HELP, I have 2 Hills of straightneck squash, one hill with about 4 plants is doing very well and already has several fruits about 3". The other hill, with about 6 plants, looks very healthy, the plants are about the same size as the ones in the other hill but is only producing MALE flowers! All of the plants in hill 2 seem to produce flowers in clusters rather than spread out along the vine as the as the flowers in hill 1 are. Is there any way to get a sex change for these plants? What should I do? I have been growing squash for years, and while I have had to hand fert. sometimes, I have never encountered THIS particular problem before. Any sugestions? zone 8, near Ft. Worth TX, been very wet, cool, cloudy spring this year.

Consider counseling for them?

Spot, I'm in SW Fort Worth and I wouldn't worry about them yet. You know how the guys are. They have to show off before the girls show up! LOL

my squash (Crooked neck) blossoms seem to be clustered as well and entirely male flowers. Im holding out hope that the females show up very soon.

The girls are all fashionably late!!

this is my very first attempt to grow veggies, so Im a bit nervous/impatient/panicky.. but all the veteran growers keep telling me this is normal, so i just breathe into a paper bag and keep chanting "girls are coming, girls are coming"... this seems to ease the anxiety for about an hour..ROTFL

Actually, I think that some of our problem is the weather we've been having. It's been cool and rainy/damp many days. I think that keeps plants from producing.

ugh, we've had just the opposite, hot and dry. today was our first full day of rain.. and I mean an entire 24 hour period of nonstop rain... let the Central FL rainy season begin! (boy did it ever)

I've had one boy flower show up and he refused to dance with the girls. I've had 2 girls open up but could not entice the boys...

Now I see more of both showing up, Soon there will be a great big old fashioned or.. party and we'll have zukes and squashes and all sorts of fun in the garden!

Btw, anyone need any extra zukes? LOL

Maybe we have a bunch of wallflowers!

I'm seriously afraid of how many squashes I'm going to get now. I looked at my plants and they are covered with buds just waiting to pop!

8tiptoes outta the room so that Qinx doesnt notice I'm gone*

In response to the comment about the baby squash dying - it probably wasn't fertilized.

I SEE YOU CUE_CHIK! Get back in your seat!

ROTFL... Darn it!!!! and i thought i was home free!

can't... escape... from Qinx the squash master!!!

Thanks everyone for your replies to my Squash's "Male Problems". Hope the girls show up soo, I tired of playing Mrs. Bobbett every day. Both my Husband and I enjoy steamed baby yellow squash so much. BTW to the other Ft Worth area Texans, it's supposed to start raining again Friday and rain all next week - there goes Memorial Day!
One more question... is it too late to plant new Alaskan Peas to replace the very prolific ones that damppened off from the rains in the last 2 weeks?

This message was edited May 19, 2009 7:41 PM

This message was edited May 19, 2009 7:45 PM

Spot, I heard that on the news tonight. Doesn't bother me one way or the other about the rain as I have to work and have no outdoor plans. I put fertilizer out today on my flowers, tomatoes, and peppers so that'll get it soaked in well. Just need to throw some fertilizer down on the yard now!

am I supposed to remove male blooms or let them die on their own? does it make a difference either way?

Uh oh!

I think I counted about 15 squash showing up last night... both M/F flowers are getting ready to blossom...

I'm preparing for the onslaught of yellow squash!

It has been raining here for four days, my yard is a mess. I knew i couldn't plant anthing in the ground so everything is in big pots and drums. but because of the rain all my veggies have taken a beating with the wind and rain. Their calling this a Noreaster, hope I got that right. Squash, tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, potatoes all of it soaked. I pulled some of them under cover of the porch and the drums in the garage. Snails oh man! My plants are bent and wonky. What can I do? Also this is my first attempt at growing. Help!

I'm not sure there's much you can do except provide shelter for your plants. Until the ground dries out, you're pretty much gotta wait it out.

I am having the same problem with the wind and rain. My yard was soggy for a day or so but luckily it seems to have dried out before stuff died. Except for the beans, a lot of the leaves don't look so good. So far I havent' had a whole vine die but one looks pretty bad. They are on a trellis, there is nothing I can do to protect them. My tomatos and peppers are staked and caged, or both, some are leaning bad.

I hope the wind ends soon.

Well today I did a best I can do salvage job. I went out an bought stakes and such. I lost alot of leaves off the squashes and the bush beans are just bent. I put little sticks in to try and save them but, I guess I just gotta wait. Oh, but today is so pretty. I hope this has passed on the lil bit of sun peaking through has me hopeful. Margocstn, I hope yours have gone on too. Good Luck.