Content of the article:
Squashes form the ovary in late June - early July. Male flowers should fall off two weeks before the formation of the ovary. After the male flowers have fallen, the fruit should already begin to thicken. But there are times when the fruit begins to rot instead. This happens for several reasons: from a disease called “Top Rot” to poor ventilation of the root system. Consider the causes of decay of the ovary in more detail.
Poor pollination of the ovary
Due to rainy weather, bees can pollinate squash badly. Then the female flower does not fall off and eventually begins to rot. The rot is transmitted to the ovary, and then the still unformed fruit falls. To cope with this problem, you need to manually pollinate female flowers or spray the plant with a sweet solution in order to attract insect pollinators. If the female flower has already decayed, but rotting has not yet passed on the fruit, cut the flower with a sharp knife and remove the competing shoots so that the zucchini redirects the nutrients to the unformed fruits.
Lack of sunlight
If the zucchini shrub forms fruits only in early July, this means that the plant does not have enough sunlight. For the rapid development of the late ovary, it is necessary to thin out the zucchini. Cut off large leaves covering the sun from the south.
Cut large leaves not under the root, leave two thirds of the stem. It will serve as an additional food for the ovary.
Also try not to water the squash superficially so that the sun does not burn the ovary. After removing the leaves, the plant should receive moisture only in cloudy weather, otherwise the ovary will not form into a full-fledged fruit.
Vertex rot
A disease called "Vertex rot" appears on the zucchini leaves, and then goes to the ovary. The leaves shrivel first, then dry and fall. The same thing happens with the zucchini ovary. The cause of this disease is a lack of potassium in the soil.
To save the harvest of zucchini, a potassium salt solution is applied to the soil next to the plant within a week.
To increase the resistance to this disease, a weak iodine solution should be applied to the soil. This increases the resistance of the zucchini and to viral diseases. In 10 liters of water you need to dissolve 30 drops of iodine. This solution can be sprayed zucchini leaves, or bring it into the soil during one of the irrigations.
