Various plants / various ugly leaves

Well, I guess the honeymoon is over. After having some decent success with the garden, things have quickly turned ugly. I have issues with my zucchini plants, Pole beans tomato, peppers and watermelon plants.  I have no experience with this and all the pictures I see online look different from what I have OR the descriptions don't match OR the pictures and descriptions of several things match.

I thought it was blight but the descriptions say they have concentric rings.
My Father in law suggested bacterial withering from beetles, but I haven't seen any beetles.
A little over 1 week ago, I dusted with Sevin to get rid of the kudzu bugs and fire ants...worked on the kudzu bugs but not the ants.
I picked up some 3 in 1 product that contains neem and I plan to spray them down, but that's just a shot in the dark.
I am also planning on cutting off the damaged leaves and seeing if anything recovers.

I got 2 good zucchini off the plant and now I am having issues with blackening of the leaves. Your thoughts on identifying this would be greatly appreciated:


I also noticed my watermelon leaves were damaged too, but I am not sure it is the same thing or not.

My pole beans are growing great and have just started to get some bean buds but the bottom 1/3 of the plant's leaves are turning yellow and falling off. This is not the worst of the leaves but it was the only picture that turned out clear so I will try to get another.

One of the pepper plants. I am thinking about just pulling it because it had trouble early on and hasn't done well at all. i was hoping it would recover but I think it is a lost cause.

Tomato plant. It has struggled since shortly after we brought it home. It is not in MM but was a pre potted and caged one stop shop purchase at the big blue box.


Your thoughts, suggestions and insights are greatly appreciated.

I'm going to be watching the answers. The squash leaf is a little different from what I've seen. The tomato rather anemic. The the rest look like some of mine!

Did you purchase all, or most, of these plants as starts?  If so, where did you get them?  What brand are they?

Also, I believe you've been getting a great deal of rain lately, which tends to foster plant diseases; please correct me if I'm wrong about your weather.

Ralitaco, We get caught up in wanting Photo quality plants. I'm thinking that most of us have some really less-than-perfect plants but they still produce. I looked at my squash leaves this morning and allowing for the color differences between your photos and my photos, there is one that looks just like yours!

sanderson wrote:The tomato rather anemic.

What would cause that? Would I be helping by adding something to the soil?

sanderson wrote:The the rest look like some of mine!

Sorry to hear that, but I am glad I am not alone.

sanderson wrote:Ralitaco,  We get caught up in wanting Photo quality plants.  I'm thinking that most of us have some really less-than-perfect plants but they still produce.

I understand what you are saying but that really is not my concern. I really, really want to have a good experience especially since I put so much time and money into building my TT's that I don't want to go down in flames like I did 5 years ago.

If the leaves just turn brown as part of the natural process because the tops are still growing that is fine. If they infected by something, I would like to clear it up before it kills off my plants.  

I was going to take some more pictures, but while I was at work, my wife clipped off the bad leaves tossed them. I should've took a picture of the pole beans because after she pruned the yellow leaves, there is not much in the way of leaves on the bottom 1/4 of the vines. With that said, I can see the beans are starting to appear up top. Since I have never grow beans, is that normal? I am thinking of Yolos pictures and her pole beans seemed to be quite lush and dark green from top to bottom.

As I was looking at what my wife had cleaned out, I found what I believe to be the root of my problem - there were several lettuce leaves that had died and were rotting on top of the soil. they were slimy and smelly and I am guessing putting off bad bacteria. I cleaned them out and will spray with neem, but the weather isn't cooperating. So do you guys think I am on the right track with that being the cause?

sanderson wrote:I looked at my squash leaves this morning and allowing for the color differences between your photos and my photos, there is one that looks just like yours!

Another issue I am having with my squash is end rot. I belive that is a soil deficiency though. UGH

donnainzone10 wrote:Did you purchase all, or most, of these plants as starts?  If so, where did you get them?  What brand are they?

The zucchini, watermelon and peppers were starts from a local store/nursery.
The Pole beans were from seeds.
The tomato plant was a Bonnie plant from Lowes

donnainzone10 wrote:Also, I believe you've been getting a great deal of rain lately, which tends to foster plant diseases; please correct me if I'm wrong about your weather.

Oh no, you are right. Lots of rain here lately...not like TX but plenty.

The lower leaves of bean plants yellow and fall off. New stems can start at these nodes. As long as the upper part has healthy leaves and produces beans, it should be okay.

I wish I could help more with diseases but this is only my third summer and I am still learning. Last year no tomatoes due to a vector-borne disease. The leaves curled under and no tomatoes formed. This year the leaves are curling upward and I have tomatoes. Go figure. For your tomato, if no one else diagnoses anything, try giving it a half-strength shot of all purpose fertilizer and see if it hasn't improved in a couple weeks.

ralitaco wrote:

sanderson

I looked at my squash leaves this morning and allowing for the color differences between your photos and my photos, there is one that looks just like yours!

Another issue I am having with my squash is end rot. I belive that is a soil deficiency though. UGH

Squash fruit will look like blossom end rot at the very tip if it was not fully pollinated.  That could be one problem.  If you keep having that problem, try hand pollinating.  If it was not pollinated at all, the fruit will eventually drop off.  If it was partially pollinate, the tip will be brown and the fruit will be shrunken.

My recommendation: Top dress the bed with at least an inch of quality compost, this will feed the plants and hopefully make corrections to improve the health of the plants as well. And remove the really ugly dead/dying leaves. It will simply make you feel better to not look at that .

+1

Spray with the Neem as well. That might be a mildew starting on the squash.
A certain amount of weird and dying leaves is normal.

yolos wrote:
Squash fruit will look like blossom end rot at the very tip if it was not fully pollinated.  That could be one problem.  If you keep having that problem, try hand pollinating.  If it was not pollinated at all, the fruit will eventually drop off.  If it was partially pollinate, the tip will be brown and the fruit will be shrunken.

+1 yup. The end rot on squash is lack or insufficient pollination. In tomatoes it is a calcium deficiency.

Turan wrote:
+1 yup.  The end rot on squash is lack or insufficient pollination.  In tomatoes it is a calcium deficiency.

In this case Calcium deficiency is usually due to improper watering and poor calcium up-take, NOT necessarily lack of calcium in the growing mix.

I agree with Campryn. I would top dress the plants with compost.
It could also be due to the amount of rainfall for the yellow leaves.
A lot of plants get yellow leaves on the bottom, just snip them off.