Butternut squash looking a bit yellow?

[cuffbertt]

Sorry for posting yet another "Help, I have no idea what I'm doing" thread!

I have two butternut squash plants growing in the garden. Until recently the one on the right was quite a bit bigger than the left. It grew a flower which never quite opened and got a bit battered during some heavy rain and eventually died off. The plant started to turn a funny shade of yellow about a week ago, and from some online reading I thought it might be over watered (from the heavy rain) so I held off watering it for a bit, but it hasn't changed. Another flower emerged over the weekend, which opened nice and wide and looked great! That's now closed again and hasn't opened since. Now I have a couple of questions...



- Why has the plant turned yellow? Is there something I'm doing wrong?

- Is it normal for a flower to open and close like that? It's now been closed for about 2 days. Does it only open when it's nice and sunny to attract the bees etc?

Sorry for all the beginner questions :P

Cheers,

Carl

[Jimmy]

I grew some in the greenhouse once, I don't think they would do much outside here in Lancashire.
Even in the GH I only got one off each plant.
I decided they were not worth the space and effort.
Looking on Aldi they are 72p at the moment and often on offer at less.
My concept is grow what works best, that you like and is expensive.
In my case Spring Onions, Yellow Courgettes, French Beans etc.
Jimmy

[Mr Bones]

A couple of my courgettes went yellow and one died. Turned out something had been feasting on the roots. You could try giving your poorly plant a high nitrogen feed (eg chicken pellets) to see if it'll help but as it's right next to a healthy looking specimen it's doubtful it's lacking in nutrients.

[cuffbertt]

Thank you for the replies guys

When you say feasting on the roots do you mean some small insect or bacteria etc? Could this be due to the soil I've put them in? These squashes got put straight into the clay soil with a little bit of compost and I didn't really dig it up first so I don't really know what's in there with them (before I learned what I was really meant to do!)

[Mr Bones]

Thank you for the replies guys

When you say feasting on the roots do you mean some small insect or bacteria etc?

Dug another one up today being eaten at the base of the stem just above where the roots branch from by an 8mm long dark grey grub. Had a goggle but not managed to identify it yet.

[cuffbertt]

Well it's been two weeks since my first post and there's a bit of an update...

The yellow squash seems to have come back from the brink of death and is now a decent shade of green again. There's even a flower on it (well, most of a flower, the slugs got some of it!). I gave both plants some tomato food and left them to it, and it seems to have sorted itself out now.

The other squash has gone mental, it's now easily twice the size and has some huge green leaves. It has a couple of yellow flowers on it which look great. I think it has a male and female flower so hopefully I might soon have some little squashes growing!