Is this blossom end rot?

din333 · Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:33 pm

Hi,
I have been growing squash this summer and quite a few squash have ended up looking like this one in the picture. They barely get started before they turn brown. I live in Vancouver, which has very similar weather to the Pacific Northwest (rainy, cool) but the past couple of weeks have been really sunny. Is this blossom end rot? Is there anything I can do to get some squash off of these plants this summer?

Thanks for your help.

JC's Garden · Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:45 pm

I had something similar to that happen. SVB (squash vine borers) weakened my plants to the point that the squash took way too long to grow and they were attacked by a fungus or some sort. Check for SVB.

tomc · Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:08 pm

BER is exclusive to solanums. Most common to tomato.

Squash can have other disease that will cause fruit drop. Its not the same.

BER is a symptom of irregular watering and tomato plants in-ability to take up calcium. It is, strictly speaking not a disease.

rainbowgardener · Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:06 pm

You will know if you have the vine borers, because your whole plant will wilt and collapse.

At a guess, your squash flowers aren't getting pollinated (enough). Do you see honeybees or bumble bees coming to them? Squash has separate male and female flowers and needs a pollinator to get the pollen from the one to the other. Failing that, you can hand pollinate them. The female flowers are the ones with a little embryo squash behind them. You can hand carry the male flower to the female one and deposit pollen; or use a little thin artists watercolor brush.

It usually takes bees several visits before the flower is completely pollinated. Without that, the baby squash grows for just a little while and then shrivels up and withers away.

din333 · Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:21 pm

I don't think it is the vine borers because other than the rotting fruit the plants are really healthy and growing rapidly. I went out to look at the flowers today and there was actually a bee stuck in one of the flowers (the flower had closed). Other than this one, I can't remember seeing any bees around my squash plants. I'll start hand pollinating any new flowers that open up and see if that helps. Thanks for the suggestion!