The Modern Victory Garden

Early this morning I noticed one of the zucchini plant's foliage was getting lighter in color and had some rather extensive yellowing on one of the leaves.  After thinking about it a bit, I realized the bed they are in is completely new this year (part of the big garden expansion project) and that the soil is probably not very productive yet as a result.   It takes several years of good soil management to build up organic content and mobilize organisms in the soil that release nutrients.   So it was only logical to conclude that the plant was just in need of a good feeding.   Squash are heavy feeders (like corn) so placing them in a newly established bed means I am going to have to be more attentive to their fertilizing needs.          

I mixed up a watering can of double strength fish emulsion tea and added a tablespoon of Epsom salts to it.   Mixed it vigorously and then gave the zucchini and other squash plants a good drink and a splash of it on their leaves.   An hour later I popped back out to take care of something else and happened to look at that plant and (amazingly enough!) it's leaves had substantially greened back up!    I wish I had taken a "before" picture so that I could then show the dramatic improvement.   Obviously this was just what that plant really needed.          

See the yellowing on the leaf in the lower right portion of the picture?   That whole leaf was yellow like that an hour before!                                  

The other squash and zucchini are not showing nutrient distress (in fact they are booming along!) but they will also benefit from a more regular feeding schedule this summer.                                  

These pictures were taken very early in the morning so the light is low - but as you can see the patch is in great shape and coming along nicely.   All of the plants in the front portion of the picture are zucchini - "Goldrush" and "Sungreen".                 

The pumpkins and winter squash have female (with small fruits) and male flowers formed, which are about ready to open. My big job right now is to keep directing their long vines back into the bed area to make full use of the available open areas before I let them tumble into the walkways and adjacent areas. This end of the bed has the "Small Sugar" pie pumpkins. The middle portion has the "Buttercup" winter squash.                 

The zucchini is definitely moving into high production mode.               

I'll check back in later with more updates on how the garden is progressing.