Does anyone know what is causing the white color running down the veins of my zuchini and squash ? I have had this before and it doesn`t seem to hurt the plants or the fruit. I thought powdery mildew with all the rain we have had and thats how I treat it but it sure does not look the same. Ideas anyone ? Its mostly the top most leaves that are affected.
Mart, are you by any chance growing a different variety than you're used to? In some varieties this is quite normal. Could also be a nutrient-deficiency.
Does your problem look something like this? I was told this is an either soft-bodied or hard-bodied sap-sucking insect. If you wet a cloth or paper towel, and rub a leaf with it some yellow residue should be left on the cloth or towel. I was advised to use insecticidal soap on the leaves which i cannot and will not do because my garden is organic and also this plant is a host for butterfly larva. Even though there are insecticidal soaps approved for organic use, I can not use them. I had ten feet of vine with this problem (see recent post in the Pest forum). If this is not much advanced for you, you might try removing the infected leaves and also clearing the base of the plant where the perpetrators usually live and cleaning the stem of the plant. I assume your fruits are annuals so this shouldn't be much of a problem for you. My vine is perenniel so i cut it back to about 5 inches above ground level and it is growing back very nicely.
Didn`t think about the variety. This is happening to only the gold zuchini . It does look similar to the above pic but starts more toward the central vein and going outward from there. I have not grown this type before so it may be a natural thing for this variety. Like I said the little zuchini seem to be fine and growing normally. The plant itself seems to be healthy,,in fact it is growing twice as fast as the regular zuchini.
Mart, I have a variety of squash that has white spots all over the leaves--that's natural for that squash. I think you don't have a disease/pest problem, since the vine is healthy and setting on fruit that is healthy.
