First fruits of the vegetable garden

© Joshua Stark

Just a quick pic of the first good zucchini I've grown since we bought this house two years ago.  For some reason, the soil wouldn't grow cucumbers or squashes (and some of the greens wilted, too).  This year, I built a raised bed and filled it with potting soil, and my zucchini is very happy.  And, thank God ducks don't like zucchini leaves!

Dying squash and cucumber

Well, it's happening again: I'm losing my zucchinis and cucumbers to some unknown ailment.

Last week, I looked down at the base of my zucchini plant, and I saw the signs of a wilting that occurred last year:


The plant grows vigorously for a few weeks, and then begins to shrivel up where the stem comes out from the ground. This shriveling then follows the plant up and out, killing the vines and leaves. The plant grows vigorously, flowering big, beautiful flowers, but before it can become a fruit, the shriveling catches up with it and it dies.

In my garden, no other plant last year was affected by this mystery disease. And this year, it looks like it's just the zucchini so far (though the cucumbers have shown some yellowing). Now, it has occurred after a hot snap we had (96 degrees for a couple of days), and I've read that bacterial and verticillium wilts may occur after the temeratures rise, but again, no other plants have shown this damage.

I'm suspecting a squash borer, but by the pictures I took this morning, I don't see any signs, and I'm loathe to pull such a beautiful plant. What I am going to do, instead, is cut it above the withering, and put it in some water. If/when it roots, I'll plant it in fresh soil and see if that solves the problem.

If you have any suggestions or, better yet, THE answer to my problem, please let me know.

My setup

As a first post about my garden, growing things and raising things (right now ducks and plants) on 1/10th acre total, I guess I should start with a list of what we have, so far:

Sweet corn, pole beans, bush beans, radishes, broccoli, spinach, swiss chard, nasturtium, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, leeks, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, boysenberry, orange, pomegranate, parsley, sage, dill, thyme, basil, oregano, strawberries, walnuts, ducks, cedar, redwood, roses.

My goal right now is for one meal per week to come completely from our little space. We live on a 1/10th acre lot in a city near Sacramento, worked a little garden space last year for tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, corn, beans, and peppers, and watched the soil bloom with worms and oxalis. This year, the soil looked much better, although the plants still grew well last year, with the notable exception of the squash and cucumbers.

Those two plants were beset by some disease which rotted the plants right at flowering time. The plants would grow and flower prolifically, but just as the flowers turned to fruit, the vine had shriveled up to it, and killed it. Exactly one cucumber and one zucchini last year, the former inedible, the latter shaped like a baseball bat.

So, I'm hoping this year that the better soil will prevent that, and if it does not, then I'll have to do some research.