Hey there, I'm Christy Wilhelmi from Gardenerd. And right about this time of year is when I start
hearing from my clients and questions on Ask Gardenerd about, "Why my squash is dropping
off the plant" without or, you know, "why it's turning brown and falling off?" So it could be one of three
maybe four reasons. So let's talk about that. Number one: both winter and summer squashes are considered
heavy feeders. In fact most things that produce a fruit are heavy feeders. Hey, Mittens is here! Come
here sweetheart. Uh, so this, this means that if your soil isn't nutrient dense, you're probably
going to need to feed your summer squash and your winter squash at least once a month. What I like
to do is mix it with a little... I mix a little granular organic fertilizer for vegetables
with a little bit of compost or worm castings and combine that together, sprinkle it around each
plant, scratch it in, water it in. And definitely start doing this when you start seeing blossoms
opening on your squash plants. And that will ensure continued production throughout. Because it's,
you know, very likely that the the plant used up a lot of the nutrients that are in the soil
or that it has access to...We'll talk about the second thing in a minute...by growing big and green.
And now it needs phosphorus and potassium in order to flower and set fruit. Those are the second two
nutrients on that box of fertilizer, fyi. Now there are occasionally times when your soil may have
everything that it needs in it but the plant can't access it. And that could be a lack of soil biology
in your soil. Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes that actually turn food they can access in the
soil into something the plant can use. So always keep your soil happy with lots of
compost, compost tea, and mulch. There are other videos that talk all about that
on this channel. So there's also the possibility that if the fruit is turning kind of moldy
on the end and dropping off that could be something called blossom end rot. Which again
is a lack of access to calcium in the soil. Now it doesn't mean your soil doesn't have enough calcium.
Probably does (have enough). It's just that it can't access it. So if you think about how when we take multivitamins
or calcium supplements it's usually paired with magnesium in order to allow uptake. So what is
that in terms of gardening? It's Epsom salts. It's not salt, it's magnesium sulfate. So if you water
your plants with diluted magnesium sulfate, Epsom salts, that will help facilitate calcium uptake.
Look who's here. Hi Mittens. I don't think you can see her. Hey Pookie. Anyway, so that's reason number
one. Number two is a lack of pollination and this is most often the case. Now I have a beehive right
over here but I still leave nothing to chance. Every morning I come out and I hand pollinate
my squash with a good old-fashioned watercolor paintbrush. It's really easy to do and I have a
link to the blog post that explains this, and shows you the difference between male and female flowers,
so that you know what to paint where, in the show notes down below. So basically what you're doing
is you're looking for male flowers that are on a long stem and you're taking pollen from that
and painting it on the female flowers that have the fruit at the base of the flower.
And then voila -- plant sex. You will have fruit. And the thing that you need to know
is that these flowers only stay open for a couple of hours. So come out into your garden
before the sun hits the plants and usually by 9: 30 they've already closed up and started to wither.
So early morning tasks that you can accomplish really easily and you'll get more fruit that way.
The third possible reason why you might have squash withering and falling off the
plant is maybe a fungal infestation like powdery mildew or downy mildew.
If your plants, you know, they like to grow big and get lots of leaves so that really cuts down
on air circulation and if you live in a coastal environment where you get a marine layer or if
you're watering from overhead, that could promote the onset of powdery mildew. So it's a good idea
to thin the plants out make sure there's lots of air circulation. Take off any leaves that have been
infected with powdery mildew and that will help solve your air circulation problem. So those are
three reasons and then some why your squash plants might not be setting fruit or might be falling off
after they set fruit. I hope you like this video. Share it with your friends don't forget to
subscribe and turn on notifications to find out when our next video comes online. And you'll find
a lot more information about how to grow squash and all the other summer crops at Gardenerd.com
and in my books Gardening for Geeks and Grow Your Own Mini Fruit Garden. And of course check
out my new novel that is set in a community garden here in Los Angeles, Garden Variety. Happy gardening.