A significant number of baby squashes, especially earlier in the summer, have had a tendency to turn yellow and brown, shrivel up and fall off. We are assuming, from doing some internet research that this is due to insufficient pollination, and have tried, when possible, to pollinate them by hand. There are still lots of squashes, and I imagine that when one squash aborts, the plant simply puts the energy into growing another one. So maybe it's not something to be overly concerned about. However, this has made it seem like growing the different varieties of squashes separately instead of all mixed together would have been a good idea (we let the idea of diversity get to our heads I guess); it would definitely have helped for hand pollination.
We have been pretty relaxed about watering, and this has been a very dry summer so far. So even though we have mulch, signs are starting to show. Especially on our tomatoes, which are just starting to produce. What you see on the photo is called "blossom end rot". Apparently it is caused by a calcium deficiency, which results usually from irregular watering (this damages the fine roots and/or inhibits soil life, hence the plant's ability to uptake calcium). It doesn't seem to be too bad though, only a few plants are affected. If we had a smaller garden, watering wouldn't be such a big deal, but the surface area combined with the heat and drought we've seen, and our leaky water collection barrels make it a serious task to water everything often enough. Maybe we must perfect our rain dancing skills!
We've also noticed some yellow blotches on squash leaves and some white ones on the perennial kale. We'll keep an eye on them and report back if it develops into anything interesting...
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