Gardening help.

[Lady Neysa]

Something is eating my zucchini blossoms. I wonder if it might be cut worms, but I'm not sure.  Something is nicking them clean off as if they were cut with scissors.  They must be getting eaten, as there is no trace of the blossom.  The rest of the plant is unaffected, and nothing else in the garden is being bothered.  There are pepper plants alongside the zucchini.  Tomato plants are thriving. My brother suggested that the plants just arent being pollinated and thats why zukes arent forming, but if they were just falling off, wouldn't the blossom probably still be laying there? If not cut worms, what else would be eating the blossoms, and what can I use to stop them? Preferably something natural and inexpensive.

[Ferret]

You have rabbits ?

Cut clean off sounds like a rabbit or bug.

Ferret

[Merlin the Elder]

If it was a rabbit, they'd get the pepper plants as well.  If it's bugs, and you want to go natural, I might suggest diatomaceous earth. It's very fine, and you'd have to spread it often probably (using a mask or bandana to breathe through), but it's totally natural and will stop a lot of different kinds of bugs.

I had pill bugs that would attack my Hostas. I went out one day, and there were several on the plants. I could actually HEAR them chewing the leaves. The idiot at the garden store told me that pill bugs didn't bother plants...

[Lady Neysa]

If I were to use the diatamaceous earth, do I put it directly on the plant leaves, or spread it on the soil, or both?

[SirRichardBear]

Hot pepper sray works well for most insects too. 

[Rowan MacD]

  Are all the blossoms missing entirely?
 Male blossoms drop off before the female flowers open, but the male flowers do not produce squash, only pollen.  

 Since the blossoms are edible any number of wildlife could be snacking in the bed, particularly if there is a shortage of wild food in the area.
 Lots of bugs eat various parts of the plant, but none exclusively (as far as I can find) eat just the flowers.

 Keep us posted if you find out what it is....

  I don't know if you want to use it, but tobacco juice is a good animal/insect repellant.  Poison to insects and most critters don't like the taste. 

[Gwen aka Punstergal]

Of course, it COULD be a sneaky neighbor.. there are a lot of old recipes for zucchini blossoms (not kidding, look up zucchini blossom fritters.. mmm)

[SirRichardBear]

My favorite is stuffed blossoms me mom use to make them they are fantistic she never wrote the recipe down and I've never been about to find one.

[Merlin the Elder]

If I were to use the diatamaceous earth, do I put it directly on the plant leaves, or spread it on the soil, or both?

Sorry for not getting back...crazy week... diatomaceous earth can be anywhere, really. It's not a poison, and you can actually find food grade D.E.  Basically how it works is that it cuts the bugs to death! If it's a flying bug that eating the blossom, you'd need to sprinkle all over, but otherwise, you can just spread it around the plant AFTER you water. It is not going to stop any animal, if that's your culprit.

[raevyncait]

if it's bugs, I second the DE, or hot pepper spray.  I use food grade DE ($13 for a 20lb bag) in the house and it's totally eliminated the ants, and reduced the other bugs by more than half. On friday the apartments did a "pest control treatment", which I've learned from a neighbor who was home when they did her place, involved spraying the exterior corners of the bathroom, kitchen and living room, but none of the bedrooms (fortunately I've not noticed any in the bedroom), closets, or baseboards, and I see no significant change in the number of bugs, which annoys the crap out of me, because I put my 2 smallest cats (sphynx & a sphynx hybrid, both more susceptible to respiratory issues from fumes, etc.) through the stress of a 30 minute drive in the morning with 2x55 a/c in my car and a 40 minute drive home, thankfully with REAL a/c, for naught.

Howard Garrett, the DirtDoctor has recipes for foliar feeding stuff, garlic pepper tea insecticide and other organic recipes on his website here: http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Organic-Recipes-Homemade_vq204.htm

Mom used his recipes for years on her various flowers and such, and rarely, if ever had a bug problem.

[Lady Neysa]

Thanks for all the tips!  I feel a bit silly now...turns out I didn't have a problem after all!  I didn't know as much about zukes as I thought until I researched more thoroughly.  As of right now I have 7 very tiny zukes forming, as long as nothing happens to them I should be in business!  I guess I got thrown off because of what happened last year.  See, the first time I planted zukes a few years ago, I planted them not knowing the slightest thing about growing them. They flourished without me even trying, I didn't even pay that much attention to them so didn't notice the cycle of the spent blooms falling off. I was up to my ears in zucchini! Then last year, I made the mistake of starting a plant in a pot. I then transplanted it, but it never got any bigger. It got a few flowers on it, but never did produce any fruit. I assumed something was eating all the buds before they set fruit, not knowing the fruit would set on the female buds at the base of the plant long before the bud would open So when the whole normal cycle started again this year, I assumed I had some sort of critter in my garden wreaking havoc!  Boy am I embarassed, but I guess that's how you learn. 
So now that the tiny zukes are forming, anything else I should know about? 

Oh, and I will try some of these remedies, as something is legitimately eating/lacing holes all over my green bean leaves, and the buds are just coming on so hopefully I can save my beans. Something munching on the basil too..

[JimsDana]

If you should happen to get one of the "KILLER ZUCCHINIS", I mean one of the big 9"-10",  and it has a nice circumference, Scoop out the seeds and stuff it with meats or other veggies!
As long as the flesh has not turned to fiber, baked zucks are wonderful.
If you find one to large, let it continue, and use the seeds for next year!

[Lady Neysa]

If you should happen to get one of the "KILLER ZUCCHINIS", I mean one of the big 9"-10",  and it has a nice circumference, Scoop out the seeds and stuff it with meats or other veggies!
As long as the flesh has not turned to fiber, baked zucks are wonderful.
If you find one to large, let it continue, and use the seeds for next year!

The first year I mentioned when I had tons of zucchini, several of them did get bigger than my forearm!  They weren't too terribly seedy or fibrous either, they were great! 

[Lady Neysa]

I have a few zucchinis several inches long and doing well as we speak!