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The old guy at the plant swap in Savannah gave me one tip about my dying squash and I finally get it
Last Saturday I went to a plant swap at a church over on Bull Street in Savannah and this older man had a table full of sad looking seedlings. I almost walked past them because mine look way worse, but he waved me over and asked what was wrong with my zucchini. I told him the leaves were going yellow and the one little squash I got tasted bitter and weird, so I figured the whole thing was a loss. He picked up one of his scraggly plants, turned the leaf over, and said 'the bugs live on the bottom, nobody ever looks there.' I went home and flipped my leaves and sure enough, there was this whole mess of tiny green guys hiding underneath the whole time. I squished them with my fingers, gave the plant a big drink, and 6 days later there is a new squash growing that is not bitter at all. I ate it sliced thin with salt standing at my kitchen counter, and it was one of the best things I have grown all summer. Do you all check under the leaves or am I the only one who never thought to look there?
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sam_anderson1d ago
Are aphids really the whole story though? Yellow leaves and bitter squash can come from a lot of stuff, like the plant not getting enough water or just being old and tired at the end of the season. Squishing bugs on one plant one time and getting a good squash six days later sounds more like luck than a fix, since the new fruit probably set before you even did anything. Not saying don't check under the leaves, but a single zucchini tasting better doesn't prove much to me.
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