Dear Helen: Why did some of my zucchinis turn mushy and rot after starting to develop?
E.W.
When the far, blossom end of a developing zucchini withers away and rots, the problem is usually some kind of stressor that caused incomplete fertilization of the female flower. When that happens, the tiny fruit-to-be located behind the flower starts to develop and then slowly withers.
The stressor(s) can be poor or dry soil, a lack of pollinating insects, or uncongenial weather conditions. This growing season’s temperature extremes have been hard on all sorts of plants. The long drought has brought further stresses to our gardens.
Given a modestly but consistently moist soil that is reasonably fertile and humus-rich, and adequate numbers of flying insects, temperatures may have been an issue. Zucchini grows and produces best at temperatures in the 18 to 24 C range. Higher temperatures stress the plants. My zucchini plants struggled this year until I top-dressed them with compost and then covered the compost with an insulating mulch. I use chopped straw, a good deflector of hot sunlight.
The photo you included with your email suggested one more possible cause of the rotted fruit ends. Because the stem end of the zucchini looked a bit more developed than most do when the blossom end withers, I’d check the soil moisture. If the far end of a zucchini rests on or has nosed into wet soil, it will rot.
Dear Helen: You have mentioned stink bugs on your raspberries, and gardening friends have told me about dealing with the same pest on their raspberries. My question: Should I be on the lookout for this awful pest on any other kinds of food plants?
F.C.
Stink bugs are known to feed on many kinds of tree fruit, grapes, berries, and even some vegetables and ornamentals. They pierce fruit and vegetable skins to suck their juices. The feeding causes dimpled or distorted, dead areas on fruits and vegetables, and leaves.
Friends had most of their peaches distorted from stink bug feeding. I’ve had some stink bugs in the blueberries, but not nearly like their gross numbers in the raspberries last month.
After the raspberries, I think I became hyper-sensitive to the unpleasant small that stink bugs emit when disturbed. I began to imagine I was smelling it everywhere. That is why I thought I was over-reacting to a similar odour when I was recently monitoring the cucumber vines. I suspected the presence of the bugs but did not see any, until a few days later when I looked for cucumbers to harvest.
I found several of the typically shield-shaped bugs on the cucumber foliage. They all gave off that nasty stink when crushed. I haven’t noticed any off-taste in the cucumbers, but I’m maintaining vigilance, and taking a small pail of soapy water with me as I check over the new raspberry crop developing, the blueberries and the cucumbers. Instead of crushing the creatures, dropping them into soapy water is a less messy and disgusting way of disposing of stink bugs.
Dear Helen: I had quite a surprise when I went out to tidy and dead-head the petunias, which are all single blooms, in deep pink. One flower had three petals in the usual colour and two petals in a lovely, contrasting pale pink. I have never seen this before. How do you think it happened?
S.J.
A two-colour bloom in a planting that has otherwise produced flowers all in one colour sometimes occurs in hybridized plants, that is those produced when two parent plants cross-pollinate. Sometimes, in the resulting hybrid generation, instead of the intended solid colour a mix of both parental colours will show up in a bloom
Your flower with two colours suggests that the dominance of the intended flower colour is incomplete.
GARDEN EVENT
Dahlia show. The Victoria Dahlia Society is hosting its 77th annual Dahlia Show on Saturday, Aug. 19, 1 to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 20, 12 to 4 p.m. in the Prospect Lake Community Hall, 5358 Sparton Rd. In Saanich. There will be a large display of award winning dahlias. The public is invited to make lists of desired varieties in anticipation of the Spring Tuber Sale in April. Freshly cut flowers will be available for purchase. victoriadahliasociety.org.
