Noticeable browning/yellowing along the stem near the soil line, lots of milky white spots along the stem, and some spots with buildup that is reminiscent of sawdust. And limp, droopy leaves (although that could be partially due to the heat). I'm at a loss; I suspect that in two or three days they'll look exactly like they did last year, with the stem essentially disintegrated at the base. We have one decent fruit left on one of the plants, otherwise the few others that are coming in are already starting to yellow. And one of the plants is totally barren at this point. We also haven't gotten anything larger than short pencil off our summer squash plants at all this summer. I immediately started some new seeds in our small pots and plan to transplant them if (and when) these plants die, but I have no idea what I should do differently with the new plants to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them (provide they are even able to germinate and grow fruit this late in the season). My mom, who grew up on a farm and had a vegetable garden for years, doesn't know what it might be. My dad wondered if it was maybe something wrong with our soil, which might actually have some legitimacy to it, because our summer squash are planted where we had zucchini last year and the zucchini are in a new spot, which might explain why the zucchini started okay then turned bad and the summer squash never really did much.... But who knows.
I refuse to give up on growing zucchini, though--of all the things we plant it's the one we love the most, and nothing would make us happier than to have an over abundance of it in our house (as is we probably buy it from the store to eat twice a week and would gladly eat it more frequently). Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
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