Carlie from Virginia sent in this photo of one of her zucchini’s and was wondering what had happened to it.
Well Carlie, it’s called blossom end rot. 🙁
I’ve had to deal with blossom end rot in tomatoes before, and it is sooo frustrating. You think you are going to get tons of beautiful red tomatoes, and then you lift them up to find they’ve all turned on you. It’s maddening. But, did you know that blossom end rot can happen in your zucchini and squash too? It’s a little less common, but still, better to take precautions than lose a whole crop, right?
Blossom end rot happens for pretty much one reason: a calcium deficiency. The thing is, pretty much the only thing you can do for end rot is to prevent it. Once it has already happened, it’s a slow descent into crop failure.
Start by making sure you water evenly. If a plant experiences huge fluctuations in the amount of water it receives, it may not be able to take up calcium when it needs to. Squash prefer a pH level between 6.0 to 6.5, so check your soil to make sure you don’t need to add any soil conditioners to adjust the levels. You can also add gypsum to the soil, it provides a little calcium to soil if it is deficient. Finally, if you notice end rot, remove any blossoms {they will not produce healthy fruit anyway} and get a calcium rich spray for the plant. That will help ensure the next round of fruit doesn’t fall victim to the same problem.
Really, gardening is all about the soil. Healthy soil should {in theory} equal healthy plants.
How about you, any tips for avoiding end rot in your squash and zucchini?
~Mavis
Alicia says
Thanks for sharing this! I had big, beautiful squash and zucchini plants last year and only got one squash and one zucchini the whole summer. Lots of flowers and lots of babies, but they all rotted before they got big enough to pick. Pretty sure now this was the problem. The plants this year will get some extra Calcium now for sure.
Debbie says
Mavis, a foliar spray of milk (I use reconstituted dry milk for this) works wonders. This saved my zucchini last year, and helped my tomatoes. too.
kristen says
Crushing up egg shells around in the garden helps
Jen says
I put crushed up eggshells in the holes when I plant but just do the tomatoes. I didn’t even know it could happen to squash!
Preppy Pink Crocodile says
I bury some dry egg shell pieces when I plant my plants (I save them in the freezer for months leading up to spring planting). They are full of calcium! And this year, I also dried dozens of shells in the oven on low. Once dry and brittle and then cooled, I blitzed them in the food processor until they became a powder. I’m adding that to the soil around my tomatoes and squash later this month too.
I have done this the last two years with my tomatoes and had HUGE success. Dumb luck or the extra calcium…who knows. But I’m taking something that I already have and would normally toss in the trash so it’s free and organic…my favorite combination!
KK
girl with dirty nails says
This can also happen if the flower did not get pollinated. Fruiting blossoms are female and have a baby squash that the blossom comes out of. Find a male squash flower, one where the blossom comes directly from a stem without a tiny squash between stem and blossom. Take a q-tip or feather, rub gently inside the male blossom to pick up pollen and they gently dab inside the female plant and pollinate your squash yourself. Try not to think too much about Birds-n-Bees stuff when doing this! Goes back to your movie Mavis on lack of bees as pollinators.
Margery says
I use stop-rot foliar sray, which gives the plants a big dose of calcium which is easily absorbed, so it acts pretty quickly to prevent the rot on new fruits. I also add ground-up egg shells to my garden boxes.
Carlie says
Thanks for sharing Mavis and all of the advice everyone! I’m going to have to try some of these before the rest of my squash keel over!
Missy says
I agree with GWDN, we have a serious lack of bees right now, and pollination could be an issue, especially if you’re having that much of a crop failure. Hand pollination is key, or do what I did this year and put in some beehives! The honey is a great perk.
Chris says
I grind up egg shells in coffee grinder as not only homemade calcium supplement for family but also to sprinkle around plants for Calcium . ..
carol says
I use crushed egg shells in planting holes, too, and haven’t had blossom end rot on tomatoes or squash, since I began doing this. Carlie might want to try grinding the egg shells really fine (mortar and pestle?) and stirring them into the top layer of soil, since she has already planted the squash. I think the milk spray is a really good idea, too, as it will stop fungus diseases that might be affecting the leaves of the plants and the squash. Also, beware of overwatering!
Christine says
my neighbor swears by adding about a tbsp of skim milk powder in the planting holes. I am trying it out this year, but looking at her garden…it seems to work quite well
Karen at A Glimpse Into My Reveries says
I have used 1 tablespoon of Epsom Salts to a gallon of water to treat blossom end rot. I do this early in the day and give the leaves a dose of it, too as a foliar feed. The magnesium in the Epsom Salts helps the plant uptake nutrients and minerals from the soil, and prevent the problem before it starts. In the future I will add lots of compost to the beds with blossom end rot. And I am saving my eggshells, grinding them to a powder in my blender and will be adding directly to the beds.
High nitrogen in fertilizer can also cause lots of leaves and few fruits.
Susan says
What about dolomite, would that help with the end rot on my summer squash and lack of tomatoes (but lots of tomato flowers)?
Mavis says
I suspect that would help a ton since it’s so high in calcium!
Carrie says
I took TUMS which is made of calcium carbonate and after crushing them (1/4 of a big bottle) in water in a pitcher, watered around the plants! It worked. I had to do it twice this summer so next year I will rotate my crops in my pots and look into the sprays you mention.
Mavis Butterfield says
Wow, that is interesting. I think I’m going to try that. Thanks for the tip.
Susan says
I NEVER thought of Tums! This is my first year of vegetable container gardening (we have a yard full of voles) and I’m getting lots of leaves on tomatoes & summer squash but no fruit on the tomatoes. The squash fruit is getting end rot. I tried some dry, powered milk because that’s all I have at the moment but don’t know if that will work or not. My husband put a few tomato plants in the ground and they aren’t nearly as big as the container ones, but they already have baby tomatoes coming! What am I missing or not doing that I need to change?
Chris says
What about using an actual calcium supplement? Maybe crushing it up and mixing it with water? I remember reading that you could put a calcium vitamin underneath the plants when putting them in soil. That was for tomatoes though. I suppose it would be the same thing.
Silk says
On reading the above, and my squash plants having already experienced 2 fruits with end rot… I’m going to try Carbon Calcitra ‘indigestion relief’ tabs dissolved in water, misted on leaves (for a quick fix ‘pick me up’) and bury an undissolved tablet very near the plant. As I see it ~ I’ve nothing to loose at this point! =) Yes, I will report back on progress in 1 week increments. (I’m in AZ, hot weather has passed and we’re going into a beautiful productive fall season where I live so I should get SOME harvest ~ if this works.)
Silk says
Followup: WONDERFUL results! 1) purchased generic antiacid tabs; 2) dissolved 2 500mg tabs in 8oz water for each XL plastic garden bucket (1 each of zucchini/yellow, spaghetti and butternut). Also buried 1 tab in center of bucket soil & am watering am & pm. Flowers within 2 days, fruit set 2 days later and I’m now harvesting first of many to come! NO blossom rot, plants XXX healthy/growing & new squash aplenty set ~ as it SHOULD have been. Burying 1 tab in each bucket weekly for short remainder of growing season; will be dumping, mixing & redoing pots next year to redistribute minerals. Thank you to all for info. Happy gardener again now.
Peter says
I put bonemeal in the holes where I plant tomatoes, seems to work well for blossom end rot also 1 tablespoon absent salt per gal later.
Eve says
It’s not true that you can only prevent it, and not cure it. This happened to my zuccini and squash plants and a little to my tomatoes. I just crushed dry eggshells in a mini blender, into a powder (I save them, we eat a lot of eggs) it immediately fixed the problem. No new fruits produced after the eggshells were added had the rot. I repeat a couple times during the growing season. Works perfectly.