pest problem in my zucchini...any help

Well, I am gardening for the 1st time and in between my sugar baby watermelons and my straight eight cucs, I have a zucchini plant.

So far, every time I get a flower on my zucchini plant, it disappears. I have been reading about this, and I suspect that it must be some sort of rodent (since my Italian neighbors can't get to the plant without being completely obvious about it LOL). I'm thinking opposum, rat, squirrel, or bunny. I've seen all around my house with the exception of rat, but that doesn't mean they aren't there...

Below is a pic of what the missing flowers look like. It seems like a pretty clean cut, but I'm not sure what it could be- the cut blossom is circled in red :




Today, for the 1st time, I found a blossom on the ground. I picked it up and tore the flower open intending to spread the pollon over the tops of the other buds (just for good measure), but when I opened it, I got this surprise:




Now- the big question. Are the blossoms being eaten by slugs? How can I get rid of them? What to do? I was late to plant my garden (bought the house June 18th, planted garden June 26th) so I understand not having any harvest yet, but I'll never get anything out of my hard work if I keep getting infested with bunnies, slugs, powdery mildew (did I mention that my plants all have powdery mildew?) and God knows what else... Can anyone help me rid myself of at least the slugs?

Thanks!

That looks like a straight up blossom drop, not something eating it. I doubt it's being caused by the slugs, but they'll chow down on anything lying on the ground. I wouldn't be surprised if this is blossom drop and then animals are taking the dropped blossoms off the ground.

The two main causes I know of for male blossom drop are lack of pollination and high temps. I've also heard that too much Nitrogen can cause it as well. It sounds like you're doing hand pollination, so that's most likely not the problem. Temps have obviously been high this summer, and combined with a late start on the garden I would suspect that's the likely cause. If you keep hand pollinating cooler temps may help you out a lot. Unfortunately I can't really say how my zucchini plants have been dealing with the heat since Squash Bugs took them out awhile back

Female blossoms drop because of lack of pollination. The male blossoms exist to provide pollen, not receive it. The pollination window for zucchini is very short, less than a day, because the male blossoms have very short lives before they drop off. Having a single zucchini plant is risky compared to having a single hill with two or three plants because of the pollination window let alone the issues with squash vine borers.

bella54330 wrote:
Can anyone help me rid myself of at least the slugs?

Thanks!

I let them die happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6ZLRHvf5g

Burp....



Ron

Thanks for the advice guys! I knew you'd come through...

As for the slugs- I foolishly went out and purchased a bottle of "Slug Magic" (poison) from my local Farmer's Market for a whopping $12! As soon as I got home, I called my Mom to tell her about the slug, and she gave me the beer advice. Lesson learned- always call Mom before spending $ on something she probably knows how to solve for free. I also bought a $10 bottle of fungicide. Hopefully that will stop the spread of the powdery mildew.

As far as the zucchini plant goes, I'm still hopeful that there will be some produce coming, but if not, I have a variety of patty pans coming my way soon (probably more than I'll know what to do with) and I've learned my lesson. Next year, it will be MORE zucchini LESS cucs!

On a lighter note, I got my very first harvest ever yesterday, and I'm just so darn thrilled I have to share a pic! I got loads of bokchoy and some anaheim peppers. I sauteed the bokchoy up with some garlic and tomatoes, and it was pretty darn awesome if I do say so myself (and I do!)

Thanks so much for the advice everyone!

congrats on your haul--your backyard looks really pretty!

Keep in mind that if you've canned before or have been wanting to give it a try, we have a group swap in October that's a lot of fun. Just thinking about all those peppers and cukes and the pickling possibilities...D