Blooms are dying!

[Patrick DiFlorio]

225 gal FT
35 gal sump
4- 27gal grow beds

Ammonia 0.0ppm
Nitrite 0.0ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
pH 7.6

Grow beds are moderately full of both seedling and small plants. Tomatoes are at
A 24" height. Generally, growth looks good.

Look at the photo closely and you will see that the blooms on the squash and zucchini plants have wilted and died.
Is this because of a lack of pollination?
Or are other things happening?
This system is indoors with basic cfl lighting

Thanks in advance. BTW THANKS FOR ALL OF THE HELP THAT PEOPLE HAVE SHARED ON THIS SITE.

[A. Woodward]

I cant say about the lack of pollination. But I had blooms falling off and I started adding some Epson salts to my system and it seemed to help.. My tomatoes took off...(then the bees found my system.) The male flower on the squash and zucchini comes in first and stays only a couple of days the female has a blub like appearance just under the flower and if pollenated will fruit,, Both the squash and zucchini flowered male for awhile then female flowers started showing up...you can take the male flower strip back the pedals and stuff it gently into the female flower since your system is indoors I had to due this at first till the bees found mine.

Hope it helps ....

A.

 

[Suzanne Hayes]

If they are the first series of blooms on your plants then they are most likely the male flowers.  I Really couldn't see in the pic.  If the blooms were on long stems then they were male if it looks like there were small fruits behind the flower then they were female. Unless of course you have a variety that is self pollinating. 

My Zucchini is only send up male flowers so far so all are dying.  I'm hoping for some female blooms soon so I can pollinate

[Patrick DiFlorio]

thank you, both, for the info. They are the first set  of blooms. Again, this is a very new system.

[Egyhome]

I couldn't help but ignore the fact that you are low on nitrates. Maybe if you you increased the amount of fish or the amount of food you would have better results.

[Adam McMillin]

I second what Egyhome says about the nitrates being low.  I also see you're using river rock as a GBM. This is probably causing your high pH.  Nutrient lockout occurs at pH over 7.2.  I learned this the hard way. Lettuce and leafy herbs did fine but anything that was fruiting would wilt and then evenutally die.  Switched over to Growstones and Hydroton and the pH problems are pretty much gone ( I do have to adjust from time to time).  Interesting observation on my part:  once my nitrates were good around 80-120ppm and then, I tried tomatoes.  once they started to actually grow and went to fruit, the nitrates dropped within a week to zero.  Nitrates are your plants main food source. 

[David Marland]

I also recommend Epson salts! Within a week I had better blossoms and stronger plants, but in my case it was to late, to close to winter, the rain killed them, the last few months I have put Epson Salt on everything! Even my garden plants and fruit trees, fertilizer for fruit trees $7.50 per kg. Epson Salts $1.50 per kg sea sol $9.50 for 2ltrs, I have even put Epson Salts on my cauliflowers, bonus growth plus now flowering,

A. Woodward said:

I cant say about the lack of pollination. But I had blooms falling off and I started adding some Epson salts to my system and it seemed to help.. My tomatoes took off...(then the bees found my system.) The male flower on the squash and zucchini comes in first and stays only a couple of days the female has a blub like appearance just under the flower and if pollenated will fruit,, Both the squash and zucchini flowered male for awhile then female flowers started showing up...you can take the male flower strip back the pedals and stuff it gently into the female flower since your system is indoors I had to due this at first till the bees found mine.

Hope it helps ....

A.