Susan,

This is my first year to grow Chocolate Cherry and the fruit do turn a really strange greenish-yellowish-maroonish shade before they turn from green to their mature brownish-maroonish color. So, if you are seeing the green yellowish-maroonish, that's normal and they'll darken up in a couple more days. But if you're seeing a bright golden yellow like SunGold, then you have an imposter, perhaps from crossed seed or something.

With the squash, who the heck knows what is wrong with it. Mine almost never die, and the only thing that does kill them almost always is either Bacterial Wilt or SVBs, so I don't have much experience with any diseases.

You could post this photo on the Vegetable or Squash and Pumpkin forum and someone there who is experienced at diagnosing squash diseases might have an answer for you.

Did you check the backs of the leaves for pests like whiteflies or aphids or whatever?

Dawn

Susan, It's hard to tell from the picture so I need to ask, is that squash in a small pot? A squash plant in the ground (or large container) should probably be 4-5 feet across by now. They normally do fine in pots, if they have enough room and enough water, but the plant still gets huge.

Oops! Nope, I didn't do that. Will do that b4 posting a link to this thread on the Squash Forum.

Yep, I noticed this morning the cherry tomatos are turning a darker color (purplish, maroonish, whatever), so I have CC for sure. I expected them to turn kinda like Black Cherry and when they didn't, it took me by surprise.

I am comparing the other cherries, and the Black Cherry has really big fruit on it. I don't remember them having fruit this big when I grew it a couple of years ago, but maybe they did and I've just forgotten. They are looking so good. The SunSugars are smaller fruit, as is the SunGold. These are my only cherries.

Big Beef has 17 fruit on it; Better Boy has about 9 - fewer. CP has about 9 fruit - and that's after the hail storm took about 6 or 7 of them. Bush Goliath has about 14 fruit, and Indian Stripe, which got started a lot later, has only 2. I hope it will pick up. I think that these are probably fair sized crops for container grown tomatos.

Thanks for all your help, Dawn.

Susan

Those are the 5 gallon SunLeaves Gro Bags, Carol. The squash WAS huge, but as the leaves have died, I have removed them and these are all that is left. The resulting fruit has been small, discolored, and misshapened. Maybe that helps with ID'ing the problem?

I haven't had an iota of success with squash so far. Hopefully, the pumpkins, watermelon, and melons will do better.

I wish I had photos like Larry's garden to show, but sadly, I don't. I need to photograph my cukes and okra - they look much better than the squash did.

Susan

Susan,

You're welcome.

Black Cherry does make pretty large fruit with adequate water. In my garden, the fruit are somewhat smaller in a bad drought year when there's not much rain. Chocolate Cherry gets to be about the same size. I am not especially fond of Chocolate Cherry but love Black Cherry, so this will be not only my first year to grow Chocolate Cherry, but my last year as well. I've noticed CC does not turn exactly the same way BC does, although once they're mature, they look pretty similar.

It does sound like a good crop for container-grown plants, and if you keep having nice weather, they should set additional fruit.

I suspect your winter squash might have several things going on at once. It is probable that it is root bound in a 10-gallon grow bag. It is possible the heavy rainfall or watering that are necessary to keep it happy also are leaching nutrients out of the bag. The yellow mottling on the leaves bothers me, but I don't have enough experience with mosaic virus diseases to know if that is what is causing that. I wish I could be more helpful, but I just don't know what it is.

I am sort of a ruthless gardener. When a plant gets sick, I have very low tolerance for whatever it is and tend to yank out the plant and toss it on the compost pile. Based on my experience with growing squash plants in the ground, once they start going downhill here, if it is anything other than a watering or nutritional issue, I'm not going to be able to save them, so I don't try. That's easy for me to do because I always have younger plants coming along elsewhere in the garden since I seed new ones monthly in a beat-the-SVBs strategy. I realize that when your space is limited and also includes container grower, it is harder to yank and toss a sickly plant because you don't have multiple generations of younger plants coming along to replace it.

If you haven't fed it lately, you might try feeding it and see how it responds. Container-grown plants are often underfed and very rarely overfed because of the leaching.

Dawn

Hey, Dawn, I went to both the Pumpkin, Squash, etc., Forum and I think I have found the reason for my Zukes' problems. Another individual had a similar (virtually same) problem with her squash and it was ID'd as stressed out plants; plants that won't do any better in the long run. This person had purchased squash plants that already had flowers, yellowing leaves, and were rootbound. I didn't purchase mine, but grew them from seed in styrofoam cups. However, I let them stay in the cups too long and they were also rootbound, forming flowers, and had yellowing foliage. I planted them anyway, teasing out the roots, and doing all the absolutely wrong things.

Suggestion is to replant seeds directly and start over. That's what I am going to do. Will keep everyone posted on how they do, and will also keep your suggestion in mind regarding watering and fertilizing in keeping with container grown plants.

I'm attaching the thread in which this is discussed in the event you'd like to read it,and thanks again.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash Problems

Susan,

I'm glad you got such a speedy answer from them.

Good luck with the replacement squash.

Dawn