Last week I was asked a question about the ends of zucchini squash fruits turning black way before the fruits get large and ripen. Then the whole thing melts into a mush.
Ah, the joys of zucchini.
This is blossom end rot. It hits all squash and can strike tomatoes as well. When you first see the problem it sure looks likes some sort of fungal disease, but actually it is almost always a result of a calcium deficiency. Simply put, calcium is a mineral needed for building structure in plants. (See my book "Teaming With Nutrients" if you didn't know this or are a bit more curious as to what calcium does.)
In any case, calcium is needed for building individual cell structure. Way out there at the end of those forming fruits, there simply isn't enough of it to build the cell walls for the millions of cells needed to form a single fruit. Lots of the other stuff is there, but without the walls to the house, a mush develops. It's like leaving construction material around while waiting framing to be finished.
Fix the problem by doing a couple of things. First, stop using so much nitrogen fertilizer. This unnecessarily speeds up growth of the tops of the plant, making it hard for the roots to keep up the calcium supply. Next, get your soils tested. Soil pH has a lot to do with calcium uptake, so start there. It should be between 6 and 6.5. Lime may be necessary. You generally can only raise the pH of soil by about 1 point a year.
Speaking of zucchini -- don't forget Plant A Row for The Hungry, a national program that started right here as Plant A Row For Bean's. Food banks and places that feed the less fortunate will welcome anything you grow.
OK we are into August and mushrooms are and will continue to be popping up all over after rains. These are always of concern to yardeners until they get the facts. The first is that not having them should be of much more concern. This is because most of the ones we have in our yards are fruiting bodies of mycorrhizal fungi that feed trees and shrubs, so their absence may mean your plants are not getting the nutrients they need.
The second fact is that mushrooms are really fascinating. For example: Why do these mushrooms form year after year and why do they always appear after rain? The answer is that you have an internet system of fungal hyphae running all through the soils in your yard. Sometimes these grow parallel and when there are enough of them doing so, they then merge to form thicker strands of fungi. These eventually become mushrooms.
Actually, a mushroom is nothing more than fungal strands layered on each other. And they start as tiny buttons of all the merged fungal hyphae the mushroom will ever need. Unlike plants, all the parts are basically "there" from the get-go. The buttons act like dry sponges when exposed to water: They swell up quickly and in 24 hours you have a mushroom on your lawn.
Since we have them, in my opinion, all gardeners hereabouts should get a good mushroom identification book and learn more about them. We have so many and they are so interesting.
Finally, it has been a great year for tomatoes and it isn't over. I notice when I visit friends that most of us are growing at least a couple of heirlooms. Now is the time to pick out a tomato or two that is ripe and collect seeds for next year.
Just take a tomato, slice it, eat half and keep the seeds from the other half by scooping them into a jar along with the gel that surrounds them. Then add a 1/4 cup water and let the jar sit out of the sun a few days until a film forms on the top of the water. Remove this film and add 1/2 cup or so of water to the jar and stir it up. When things stop moving, the good seeds will be on the bottom and the bad will be floating. Pour off the water and the floaters. Repeat adding water and stirring until the seeds are gel free.
Then put the seeds on a paper plate or a screen from a dehydrator. Don't use a dinner plate or other hard surface. This is because the idea is to remove all the water and it will just puddle around the seeds if the surface does not absorb it. Paper towels work, but the seeds stick to them. Once the seeds are completely dry, store them in airtight, labeled containers.
Jeffs Alaska Garden Calendar
Recycle pots day: Aug. 22 at the Alaska Botanical Garden. Start collecting Nos. 2, 5 and 7 pots.
Harvest: Don't let your veggies get too big. They taste best picked just before eating.
Fireweed: The myth is that we get six weeks more of frost-free weather once the last flowers turn to seedpods.