Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Liz" <liz@allslash.org>]

> my squash gets this major mildew thing every year
>
> WHAT can I treat it with?

Is it white? That's probably powdery mildew. Black or dark-colored spots are 
likely downy mildew. The standard recommendation is to treat with a 
fungicide. If you don't want to do that, make sure you completely clear out 
the diseased plants at the end of each season and destroy them, because the 
fungus spores will hang around otherwise and infect next year's crop. You 
can also try several plantings in succession, so as each planting becames 
infected, you can get your squash from it and then destroy the plants 
themselves. You're removing the host plants, so hopefully that may result in 
less source of infection in subsequent years.

Also you might want to look at where you're planting any cucurbit. A full 
day of sun will help to keep the leaves dried off and less friendly to 
mildew spores. If you can let them grow up a trellis, you'll keep them more 
open and provide fewer damp places.

> and this year the tomatoes are rotting at the stem as they turn ripe...
> whats up with that?

The tomato rot sounds like botrytis. Did you have a lot of rain as the 
tomatoes were developing? Botrytis is another of the fungal diseases that's 
worse in years with late cool rainy springs.

I think there are some organic fungicides (look for something by Safer) that 
you could use, and I've been told that neem oil will also work. Lucky here 
so far--I was so late getting my garden started that this year's late spring 
monsoon was over with by the time I got anything in the ground.

Liz
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com