By Victoria Torley

Zucchini soggy roots. Drooping plants. Fertilizer isn’t helping. Welcome to the tropics.

It was easy up north, you grew up with it, you understood it. Now you are getting two inches, four inches, of rain every day. It’s a whole new set of parameters when you garden in the tropics.

Let’s talk about rain. Rain is good, it means you don’t have to get out there with a hose. And rain is bad, it comes down in buckets and you have to be careful what, where and when you plant. I just went out to my veggies and the zucchini is limp and wilting as are some other similar plants.

There are three elements to zucchini wilt and the first is too much water! Zucchini wants to be watered once a week to a depth of two or three feet. My zucchinis are getting daily water and are soaked! Solution? Dig up and transplant in the greenhouse (if you have one) or in a raised bed under a sheet of plastic to control the water.

Second possible problem, bacterial wilt. The leaves are floppy and dying. When you cut the stem, the sap is cloudy and sticky instead of clear and healthy. Solution? Kill the plant. Dig it up, roots and all, wrap it in a plastic bag and dispose of it. DO NOT put it in your compost pile. It will only spread the bacteria.

Third? Phytophthora capsici infection, also a fungus. The leaves are wilting, the crown is soggy and my plant looks brown. The fungus looks like a dusty white film on the fruit and causes brown sores and dents. Solution? Fungicides. Spray the plants with fungicides containing dimethomorph, zoxamide, cymoxanil or cyazofamid.

Fourth? Beetles and vine borers. These bugs get inside the zucchini stem and it’s the reason I plant my zucchini with collars. Look for a yellow dust at the bottom of the stem. It is possible to slit the stem and pull out the bug but use the collar and spray with carbaryl or malathion to treat the infestation.

So, looking at my zucchini plants, I am fairly certain that the symptoms are those of overwatering (no big surprise since we have had huge amounts of rain daily for a week).

My solution? I am digging the plants up and moving them to an area with protection from the rain. If that doesn’t work, I will plant the next seeds in the greenhouse and control the watering completely.

So, go check your plants and don’t despair! There are solutions.

Plant for the week. And here it is, my poor little zucchini plant, complete with an anti-beetle collar. I dug it and transplanted it to a new area where it will get a lot less rain. I also sprayed it with a fungicide just in case. Good luck with your zucchini!

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For more information on this article or about gardening, Ms. Victoria Torley, gardener columnist, can be reached at victoriatorley1@gmail.com.