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Wed 21 May, 2003 08:00 am
In a 4x7 ft. raised bed I planted 2 eggplant seedlings, 3 zucchinis and 2 crookneck squash. Everything's growing, I can see the beginnings of flowering but the bottom leaves on the zucchini turned pale yellow. I read that's an indication of overcrowding and the advice is to thin things out but do I really have to yank up one of the plants? After a month of growth? Or will they manage to adapt to these less than perfect conditions?
If you spaced everything out evenly, it seems like there should be plenty of room. I'd leave them. Maybe a light layer of mulch (keep back from the stems) to keep the bottom leaves from the damp soil?
The French method of intensive gardening would consider your bed as barely planted with only seven plants, though zucchini do get huge by the end of the summer. Are you sure you have enough nutrients in the soil? Zucchini and squash are heavy feeders (I don't know about eggplant but being similar, they probably are, too.). How frequently, how deeply do you water?
Oops. The raised bed isn't 4x7 but 4x4!
4x4 still seems big enough
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