Xtremehorticulture

Petunias Not Producing Flowers

Q. My husband planted some gorgeous petunias in early April.  At first they were all blooming and the planters were beautiful but now there isn’t a single flower in either planters.  We noticed a tiny black insect on the plants and there were many holes in the leaves so my husband sprayed them with Sevin thinking that would do the trick.  All we have is two planters filled with very healthy green plants but no flowers.  A. This is most likely tobacco budworm. I have attached a fact sheet on the pest. Tobacco budworm larva or worm puts holes in leaves and eats flower and leaf buds. The black drops you are seeing is probably budworm “poop” from eating the plant.             Spray the plants with a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, Bt or Spinosad. Sevin will probably work but the problem with Sevin is that it is deadly to bees and when plants are in flower, bees are normally attracted to them. Spray plants in the evening or very early morning hours when bees are not active.

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Snake Squash Growing in Mesquite Tree Not Fruiting

Q. This is the second year I planted Snake squash. As you can see by the attached picture they are very healthy and happy growing up my Mesquite tree. Last year I tried growing them in my garden and had the same problem, beautiful plants and no fruit. The blossoms appear, open then shrivel and fall off. What am I doing wrong? A. I think you are always going to have problems with any plant that produces vegetables from flowers when it is growing in such low light levels with so much shade. Vegetables that you grow for their leaves do not require very high levels of light but vegetables grown for something they produce from their flowers usually requires much higher light levels. If flowers do appear, try to discern the difference between male and female flowers. Like most squash, male flowers come first followed by female flowers. The female flowers need to be pollinated either by hand or by insects. If bees are few and far between then this may be a problem. Also they have a tough time setting fruit at high temperatures. All or any of these might be a problem for your plant. I would recommend that if you want a vegetable that you consider enriching the soil and try to orient the plant so it gets a minimum of six hours of full sunlight. The of course  you want to fertilize it so that it can handle this type of production.

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