I can't grow marrows, pumpkins, squash anymore

[possum]

Help, I have grown these for years in the UK, but I can't grow them here in NZ. I have raised beds full of compost and horse manure. Last year I grew seedlings in pots and planted them out, they grew slowly but died before fruiting, never looking very healthy and rather yellow in colour. This year, I planted the seeds direct in the soil in a new bed, very few have germinated and they are growing very slowly.
I will plant more in trays, but what is going wrong. Although very dry hear, the veggie patch is on an irrigation system and gets watered a minimum of twice a week, every day in summer.

[Chickenlady]

We have had amazing crops of courgette, pumpkin and other squashes in past years but this year we had very few courgettes and the pumpkins failed completely. Last year the courgettes were even worse.

Other people in our location have commented in a similar vein and we decided it was the weather - too wet maybe. So even though you are as far away as you can be from me, things aren't that different.

BTW, whereabouts are you in NZ? When I was there it rained like crazy - no wonder it is so green! Have you had a lot of wet weather?

[Millymollymandy]

Possum is in a very arid place!

I can only imagine the problem is that you either have too rich a soil (not rotted enough horse muck?) or there aren't enough nutrients. Do you have actual soil mixed in with the compost and muck?

Having said that, I'm just clutching at straws really, because most squash are usually really happy growing out of a compost or muck heap.......

[possum]

We are in a very dry area of NZ, Canterbury is very dry and we are in a very dry area of canterbury, we get probably half the rainfall of the UK and also the ground is very free draining as it was a shingle bank beacj 6000 years ago. The soil is a combination of old rotted compost (several years old) and some horse muck chucked on it a few months back. There is no soil mixed in with the compost, I am guessing that the soil is slightly acidic rather than alkaline.

[Millymollymandy]

If it was fresh horse muck it might be too rich/burning the roots. Can you experiment with mixing in some soil, however sandy, in say one bed and try again?

[Jack]

Gidday

You may be trying too early. The idea is to get them running just on Christmas.

[possum]

the horse muck was put on the soil over winter, so it shouldn't be burning the plants.
Jack may be right it could be that I have put them in too early this year, last year I thought I was too late, although we haven't had frosts here for a few months, so i thought they would be ok.

[Jack]

Gidday

I know they doo need a warm soil but is they aint going by Christmas down here they just won't have time to ripen.

[maggienetball]

If the leaves have yellowed it might be a sign of lack of nutrients.

[possum]

Well an update.
This year the three surviving seedlings (now plants) are not green and are looking healthy. I chucked in a whole load of crown pumkin seeds into the bed a couple of weeks ago and it looks like every last one has taken, so I now need to separate them out and will have enough to fill the whole bed.