Q.
I put in a NEW vegetable garden this year. I tiled in a small amount of aged horse manure and a small amount of garden soil. My zucchini plants are small but there are lots of blossoms on them, but the blossoms fall off and there is no fruit growing. The plants are also very yellow in color instead of being nice and dark green. Do you think that there is too much nitrogen in my soil or could it be something else. If it is a nitrogen problem, what is the solution? Lime?
-Chesapeake, Virginia
A. It is normal for early flower to fall off. They are often male and those fall off whether they have fertilized or not. Female flowers will have a bulge at the base—that is how you can tell the difference!
It would be best to test your soil to see if it needs nitrogen or has too much. In the meantime, you could try adding some nitrogen fertilizer and see what happens. My guess is that it is more likely there isn’t enough. If there was too much nitrogen it is more likely that you would have lots of leaves and very few flowers!!
If there is too much, it will be easily washed away with lots of irrigation. That is the problem with plants getting enough nitrogen, it’s hard to maintain enough in the soil.
-Barbara Emerson, Have Green Thumb
Manchester, Massachusetts
