Stressed Squash Plants

Squah plant with leaves that are wilting.

This time of year, your squash plants should be growing quickly. They also require a lot of water to meet their needs, and keep them growing.  I noticed one of my squash plants is getting slightly stressed in the heat of the day because it is not getting quite enough water. A good way to know if it is a water problem, or a bug problem, is to water it the plant, and then see if the leaves perk up after a good soaking. The leaves were a little wilty, so I turned the hose on really low and placed it at the plant and watered for a good 15 minutes, then afterwards took a look at the leaves, and they had perked right up. So I checked the dipper for that plant, and found it slightly clogged. I will keep checking daily to make sure it is getting enough water and if it still needs more water, I might add another drippier for that plant. If you have wilty plants, and you water and it doesn't help, you might have squash bugs or even a bacterial wilt attacking your plant. Getting the wilt late in the season, you still might get a good harvest, but if you don't have many squash set on- then your harvest might be greatly reduced. There will be a separate article about dealing with squash bugs.



After a good soaking- the wilt is gone.

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