Kitchen Garden Forum

I've planted several plants of courgette 'Parador' on our allotment from seedlings raised indoors. They had a week or two to harden off and have now been in the soil for another two or three weeks. They look quite healthy apart from some of the older leaves are yellowing. I consulted my back numbers of KG on 'Courgette Knowhow' and it mentioned inadequate hardening off. If this is indeed the case I'm not too concerned but could it be anything else? I don't think its mosaic virus.

Hi Mel Darke,

Hopefully it isn't anything to worry about.
The old leaves on mine yellowed and died off, but the plants are doing fine with lots of healthy leaves, and the first courgette should be picked next week

Cheers, PJ.

Even in Bristol I think they are suffering from impatience - the cause of a lot of recent posts!

I've got yellow leaves on my tomatoes and courgettes both inside and outside. I have given them a dose of epsom salts in water but nothing seems to have helped. The ones outside are obviously very wet with all the rain we had last year so cant help that. My inside ones seem to have a rusty pattern on the leaves and they are curling. Does this mean I have got tomatoe virus? Never seen it before so dont know what it looks like. If I lose this lot of toms and courgettes I lose the will to live as we lost all our toms last year to blight. Wont do them again if this happens.

If it's magnesium deficiency you need to spray the plants with an epsom salt mixture rather than water them.

Mosaic virus is a mottled pattern rather than rusty, as far as I know.

Thanks Tigger sorry to be thick but what is the quantity of epsom salts to water to spray on the leaves. I got my box wet which had the epsom salts in it and had to throw it away and now I have no instructions.

JB's the expert on this but I think it's half an ounce to a pint.