Saturday, July 27, 2013

How I cured blossom end rot in my squash

I discovered a very disturbing visitor in my squash patch.  Blossom end rot. 

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I lost close to all of my squash to blossom end rot over the past few weeks.  The few I did get were perfect, but I certainly didn’t have the tons of zucchini that makes the squash famous. 

I had been reading about how many plant diseases can be traced back to a nutritional deficiency in the soil.  I also read that blossom end rot can be cured by adding a supplement of calcium  to the planting hole.  Unfortunately, these plants were two months old.  But fortunately, I had a natural, organic, source of calcium that lives in my yard:

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We collect the shells as we use them in this cute little dish by the sink:

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Because I didn’t put them in the planting holes I had to speed up the break down of the shells… so I put them in my food processor…

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And blended them to a fine powdery type substance…

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Then I added them to the base of my squash plants.

And for a while I didn’t notice anything.  Then, I started to see more and more flowers.

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And all of them became squash. 

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And not one of them rotted away or fell off. 

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And now, I have over 30 tiny squash that are healthy and growing well in my garden patch.

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And although it isn’t the most scientific type of experiment, I am sold.  There will be egg shells in the hole that I put my squash in from now on to prevent Blossom End Rot.

Happy Gardening!

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9 comments

Morgan said...

That is soooo cool! Going to have to give this a try.

Mrs. T said...

I love the dish that collects the eggshells by the sink! Wonderful idea, I must do that!

I just stumbled across your blog through Pinterest, and I love what I see! :D

Kudos to you, mom, for having a 'larger family' and doing all this housewifey stuff. It's a rare and wonderful thing this days. :)

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Morgan - please let me know how it goes for you! I know it worked wonders for me. :)

Thank you, Mrs T. :) I do love it! I am off to check out your blog.

Blessings,

Val

Emily said...

Oooh! I wish I had seen this earlier. I also have lost all my squash to rot and didn't even know where to start researching it. I had just chalked it up to damp NW weather, but I will have to try this when I plant them next year. :)

4BoyMama said...

Great share!!! I am just beginning to garden and am in LOVE with it! I had this problem last year in my little city garden and lost all my zucchini. We have recently moved out to some acreage and have started prepping my ground for a much bigger garden for this spring, I will definitely be digging out all my egg shells from my compost canister to put in my zucchini area. I'm not much into blogging but I have been reading several of your posts and getting all kinds of good advise. Thanks so much. I love real life advise from real life busy mamas!

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful. I know that the tip has helped me SO much! I now put eggshells in the hole when I plant the squash and then add ground eggshells later when they start to grow fruit. I haven't dealt with blossom end rot at all these last two years.

Thank you for your sweet comments! They make my day!

Blessings, Val

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Hi Emily!

I hope this gives you a tiny reminder for this year and it works great for you as it did for me. This spring has been so wet here!

Val

Unknown said...

I read on another site you can also use Tums or other such antacids to add calcium. I am in process of using this. I woll let you know if it works.

TQ said...

💯🐂💩

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