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Fitchburg , MA

Hi,
Last year I was growing in a new patch and my plant faded in June. The leaves yellowed and the leaf nodes were very short.
I will post my soil and tissue test results. I have high P and high Zinc and I believe the P and Z are blocking the uptake of each other.
I am wondering what an expert grower would do? I was thinking spoon feeding P or foliar spraying P to get it into the plant.
Looking for suggestions

3/28/2022 11:42:09 AM

Fitchburg , MA

Soil Test:
https://kenersongroup.com/EastPatch_SoilTest.jpg


Tissue Test:
https://kenersongroup.com/EastPatch_TissueTest.pdf

Plant Photo:
https://kenersongroup.com/June25th.jpg

3/28/2022 11:52:56 AM

Fitchburg , MA

All fruit never developed. Based on the facts I have, i believe I didn't have enough available P. But not sure. Wondering what the experts would think...

3/28/2022 11:54:34 AM

Grittyville, WA

I dont think that imbalance would explain the leafs yellowing.

3/28/2022 5:46:10 PM

Colorado

Sounds like your plant could of had yellow vine disease.If the new growth was paler or had yellowing or bronzing and the spacing tightened up and even stopped Id suspect YVD.No fruit set is typical of YVD

3/29/2022 2:08:10 AM

Bethlehem CT

Yeah I agree, I don't think it is from the nutrients. I think the zinc would have to be way more off the charts. I can't say conclusively from the photo if it was yellow vine disease or not.(But I am leaning towards it) Sometimes a lot of rain will cause the lighter colored leaves on the vine tips too. But The fact that you couldn't get a pollination to keep does seem to lean towards YVD. The only other thing I could think of is herbicide toxicity in the compost or from a nearby lawn or crop.

3/29/2022 8:10:34 AM

Bethlehem CT

As Far as suggestions, be really vigilant and proactive about spraying for squash bugs regularly, especially from mid June through Mid August. Permethrin or bifenthrin work really well and have residual and deterrent qualities that make them your best bet. Spray the plants every 4-7 days.

3/29/2022 8:20:44 AM

Grittyville, WA

Interesting. From your plant photo I would say sulfer deficiency. Also I wonder if your ph is off despite testing at 7.0. Maybe the plant sustained some sort of root damage. Sometimes they can remain leaf turgor with hardly any roots. Then you dont realize via wilting that the roots are mostly gone, except that the nutrient uptake is poor. I dont doubt the phosphorous was low in the plant. The question is why. If you used a hard rock phosphate product, maybe the soil would test high, but the availability would still be too low. I'd try bloom booster next time. But that wont contain sulfer so I'd say double check the ph then add whichever form of sulfer would be best. (Copper sulfate kills two very small birds with one stone.) They can tolerate a lot of sulfate. Magnesium sulfate and calcium sulfate or sul-po-mag.

The last thing I question is how did the soil potassium measure so low then the plant measure high?

Im writing a novel here sorry but I thknk Ive noticed brown organics (like sawdust) can suck not just nitrogen but phosphorous and sulfer out of the soil. The microbes are hungry for these minerals.

Did you use ammonium phosphate heavily and it still did not get phosphorous into the plant? Bloom boosters are mostly ammonium phosphate plus micronutrients, I think.

3/29/2022 9:16:01 AM

Grittyville, WA

I'm sidestepping on disease, which may be the real elephant in the room.

3/29/2022 9:17:50 AM

Fitchburg , MA

Thank you so much guys. I am going to be more vigilant with bifenthrin and imidacloprid this year.

Last year I used imidacloprid and sevin. Later i heard that sevin changed its formula and may be less effective.

4/5/2022 9:56:17 AM

stoughton WI

were you spraying any weed killer?

4/5/2022 7:02:12 PM

stoughton WI

were you seeing any squash bugs, im usually deficiant on the same things, leaves will be a lighter green color but not yellow.

4/5/2022 7:09:36 PM

Fitchburg , MA

I wasn't spraying any weed killer last year. It was also my first year in the patch so I don't have any prior experience in that soil.

I did notice some squash bugs and cucumber beetles but i used imidacloprid every few weeks and sevin every week in the peak bug months.

4/6/2022 10:02:53 AM