GA: Here's what's tulled/"tulled": All of the squash, watermelon, cantalope, potatoes, leeks, cucumbers, most of the onions

I will use "tulle" loosely, to refer to any of the various netting I have, which now includes not only tulle but also shear curtains from the thfit store, and Proteknet from William Dam Seeds (the piece I bought was 14' by 25').

Of course, eventually the squash and cucumbers will need to be untulled -- goodness help me when that terrifying day comes!!!

Two immature butternuts harvested (vines dead); one immature butternut still on vine

I wonder if these two harvested immature squash will ripen. One is well on the way but definitely not there yet; the other is very green with just a touch of tan at the stem.

Dud baby winter squashes are delicious as fried squash fingers

Dang, I should have started doing this sooner! The dud baby winter squashes (butternut and cushaw) that never took off were delicious as fried squash fingers. The relatively bigger ones I peeled first, the others I didn't peel. Next time, try not peeling any.

Used last of last year's butternut squash -- it was fine

Roasted it, for Scooter. Last year's harvest is all gone now.

Powdery mildew: Gave up, no point since no squash/zucchinis etc. anyway

Up until last week or so, I was still applying water / white vinegar / oil mixture every few days and cutting off the worst leaves.  Now though I've stopped, what's the point fighting it, since there's still only ONE single winter squash (the vertical butternut), new winter squashes continue dying before flowering, and 3 of the 4 remaining zucchini plants look they are never going to produce anything.  There's only 1 zucchini plant I have any moderate hopes of getting anything else from; one of the rondes has some promising-looking fruit. 

So anyway, yeah, I'm going to let what will be, be with the squash.  (Though I'll keep monitoring the one half-decent zucchini for SVB)

"Cucumber Yellow Vein Virus" or a Mosaic Virus -- I'm pretty sure this is what must be affecting my plants

Learned about Cucumber Yellow Vein Virus today from a post on the edible gardens group.

 

Quite sure this is at least what's affecting my cucumbers and maybe some of my other various plant issues.

 

Note to self for next year, these are the things that seem to be unaffected by this/these diseases:

 

NOT affected:

chard

broccoli

lettuce

celery

parsley

basil

zucchini

ronde de nice

carrots

beets

asparagus

zinnias

potatoes

 

AFFECTED, from worst to less bad:

 

bean* (especially west wall variety -- all of its leaves have by now dried up and crumbled away, plant did not grow to full potential)

cucumber (leaves looking bad now, but I had a good harvest, so all isn't lost)

winter squash (vertical plants worse than central bed, so far)

ground cherry (I predict leaves will start looking quite bad within a few weeks, but, I had a great harvest, so all isn't lost)

tomato (leaves starting to look badly affected by something, but might be a different issue -- anyway I had a great harvest, so all isn't lost)

sunflower* (they're all flowering nicely, and hopefully will produce mature seeds, TBD)

 

The beans and sunflowers might be a different issue, as their leaves look rusty.

Mystery disease affecting bean, squash, cucumber, ground cherry, tomato, sunflower

Took photos today of a cucumber leaf, a ground cherry leaf, and a bean leaf.

For the life of me I google and google and google and can't find quite what this is.

I assume the bean thing is something different though based on leaf appearance.

Arghhhh the mystery!!  >:(

Powdery mildew is resuming again (after vinegar spray a few days ago)

Sprayed with the same mixture again this morning.  Worst in central patch.

Powdery mildew (squash family)!!!!!! Applied treatment, and pruned more leaves; pulled west ronde completely

Argh, 2 weeks earlier than last year's start of PM season!

The last week has been hot and humid with some thunderstorms and a few showers.  Maybe this weather contributed.  But yes, alas this evening noticed it on several of the squashes, primarily the two vertical zucchinis but also most of the other squashes including the central patch just starting.

So, applied this mixture using my sprayer (recipe from this page:  https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/dealing-powdery-mildew/)

- 4 cups water
- 1/2 Tbsp regular vinegar

Will try this mixture for a few days.  If it doesn't seem to be doing much, then I will go back to the baking soda mixture I started trying toward the end of last season -- BUT MUST BE VERY CAREFUL TO DILUTE IT PROPERLY.

Pruned a bunch of lower leaves from the two vertical zucchinis, and several leaves from the air conditioner ronde and both kitchen window zucchinis.

Completely pulled i.e. removed the west ronde de nice.  It was still just a gaggle of leaves, nothing productive on the way at all, so why have all those PM-spreading leaves for no reason.

Reference: Squash diseases

Handy website with descriptions and photos of various squash diseases:  https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/pumpkin-and-squash-diseases.html

(still not sure what's wrong with my vertical squash that looks diseased)

Oh no! Something very wrong with squash, bean, and ground cherry leaves in west bed! (maybe sunflower too)

First noticed it maybe ~2 weeks ago, on the northmost vertical squash in the west bed.  Didn't do anything about it.  Now whoa, those leaves are quite yellow, and speckled all over with something, top and bottom.  I don't see mites or aphids or anything like that.

And, what looks like the same thing is also expanding in the west bed beans, the west bed ground cherry, and possibly the west bed sunflower.  All those things are all close together.  The beans have it the worst, along with the squash.

Additionally ------ now the central ground cherries are also starting to show signs!!!!!!  Just starting, though.

So, today I pruned a bunch of leaves off that one vertical squash, placed in yard waste bag immediately.

Took photos of the leaves, will post to Edible Gardens tomorrow in the hopes of a diagnosis as my internet search wasn't successful.

Vertical squash not thriving; central squash growing like crazyyyyyy

Hmmm, despite their rapid early start, the vertical squash have fallen way, way behind the central squash.  The central squash look amazing, soooooo many side shoots as I continue to wrap them around, around, around again in their little area.

Article on powdery mildew -- vinegar + water

https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/dealing-powdery-mildew/

Reference: Squash vine borer-resistant varities / links

Here are some varieties to try, which are supposed to be resistant to SVB:

• Ronde de Nice summer squash, similar taste to zucchini
• green-striped cushaw
• Canada crookneck
• Trombocino
• Butternut
• article with borer-resistant squashes:  http://uncgarden.web.unc.edu/files/2013/01/Squashing-the-Squash-Vine-Borer-by-Chelsea.pdf
• this article has a long entry with details of most to least attractive to borer: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2106981/squash-vine-borers