garden problems help

[never_retreat]

A lot of my san marzano tomatoes have these black spots on the bottom, any ideas?


Some of my cucumber plants are a little dead looking.


Some sort of insect also ate the base stems of my squash.
I pulled out the dead ones, and sprayed the remainder with some diazinon.

I also started seeing some mildew on the squash and zucheni.
I'm going to spray for that tomorrow, I have to get a new sprayer, one broke. I have another one I use for roundup and don't want to kill the plants.

[zxcvbob]

The tomatoes have Blossom End Rot; it's caused by the plant having trouble regulating water due mostly to a calcium deficiency.  Mulch the tomatoes if they are not already, make sure you water them evenly, and treat spray with a calcium chloride spray and/or work some gypsum into the topsoil around the plants.  There are several brands of BER spray, and I think all of them are calcium chloride.

Do you have cucumber beetles?  They carry a disease called Cucumber Wilt.  I can't really tell from the pic if that's what you have.  When I've had trouble with it has always been when the plants are small.  So I keep cukes sprayed or dusted with insecticide until they are about ready to bloom (then they are on their own)

[RoadKingLarry]

Blossom end rot, calcium deficiency and irregular watering can cause it, I've never had much success with foliar application of calcium but it's worth a try. Need to get it into the soil before you plant.

The insect damage can be controlled with insecticides. I use Sevin and a generic permethrin in rotation.

[zxcvbob]

Dont use Sevin on anything visited by bees (squash, melons, and cukes.)  It is deadly to them, but it acts slowly enough for them to get back to the hive before they die and can decimate the entire colony.  Use a stronger and faster acting poison, and try to keep it off the flowers.  Diazinon is good if you still have some.

[lupinus]

Also check for vine borers on the cukes or squash if you have it. I got them in no time.

Keep in mind also that salting the earth with pesticide should be last resort. You kill everything, beneficial insect and bad one's alike. I always preferred spot treatment to the individual bugs or hand picking. Lots of home brew recipes on the internet of what to spray on the bugs you don't want.

Takes a little more time but it's worth not having to spray over and over again.

[never_retreat]

The tomatoes are mulched with hay. I will go out today and get something to boost the calcium.
We have been having a lot of rain, hot all day rain in the evening. I figured that was what the culprit was.
I have not found any bugs on the cucumbers so I did not spray with insecticide.

Could I add some lime pellets along the base of that plants to increase the calcium?