Squash

Here is one of my two young squash plants--it is producing very well. The other squash plant is just getting production going, which is fine with me, because I don't use a lot of squash at a time. I harvest the squash when they are small--yes, I brought in these beauties!

Since about the first of August, my garden has just exploded! The tomato plants that were just going along suddenly are over the top of their cages and reaching through the wires. Picking is still going strong, but there aren't too many tomatoes left. If I let my tomato plants continue, then I could get another crop of tomatoes before our first frost (usually around Halloween). The flowers drop off when the temperatures get over 95', which is typical June/July weather here, so in the fall we have a couple of months where there are no tomatoes to harvest.

Harvesting . . .

My husband took really good care of my garden and I was able to harvest several eggplants, sweet peppers, and a couple of funny looking squash. I will harvest the hot peppers in a couple of days. I know that there are a bunch of tomatoes that are hiding, but they will soon be made into pizza sauce.

You may have noticed that some of my pictures have a brown smudge in the upper left corner. I am not sure why it is there as my camera is pretty new. I will try to find out what the problem is.

Winter Squash

We woke up to 32' this morning. There was a frost warning last night so we covered the tomatoes and summer squash; this is how the winter squash looked without being covered. There are still green leaves under the frosted leaves, so they will continue to mature the fruits that are there.

Harvesting

Today we shelled Summerfelt Beans. They are a dry bean and really good in soups and chili. My Dad has his own unique way of growing these beans--in the spring he sows the beans, and when they don't come up in a reasonable amount of time, he plants them again. When they don't come up a second time, he plants them a third time. Then, in about 2 weeks, they ALL come up! He does get anxious to get them in the ground, he just needs to be more patient! He has done this for years and it works every time!

We picked an acorn squash that we will have for dinner. We also picked apples from his tree and will have apple pie for dessert tonight!

The third picture is of his cucumbers that were touched by the frost. The plants are still growing and the cucumbers are really good!

Cross-Polinated Squash

I am growing three yellow straight-neck squash plants, along with one zucchini. I am not keeping the seeds from these plants, so when I see any male and female flowers, I hand pollinate them. As you can see, I have been using the male zucchini flowers to pollinate the yellow squash female flowers and have ended up with some interestingly patterned squash! I especially like the circles! They taste like regular squash, only their appearance is affected. I might just let one cross-pollinated squash go to seed and plant the seeds next year just to see what it produces!

Squash Plants

Bush squash does tend to lay down and grow in the direction of the sun, whether it is over other vegetables or onto the garden pathway. One way to stop it in its tracks is to tie it to a stake. This is a picture of my very vigorous yellow straight-neck squash. I drove a stake down into the soil fairly deep (at least a foot) because the squash will be tied to it and will become somewhat heavy. If we get a wind, it would catch the large leaves and knock the whole thing over if the stake wasn't sunk a bit.

Squash Plants

As I was watering my plants, I noticed that the leaves were different on one of the three squash plants. They all came from the same packet of seeds, and I grew them at the same time. The plant in the second picture is my "serendipity" squash, the one that sprouted later than the other two, but has out-grown them. The other two squash plants are under stress (maybe from the heat), but the one seems to be just fine. Perhaps the mother plant was accidentally cross-pollinated by insects, and the one plant isn't quite like the other two. I just thought it was odd that the leaves looked so different! With nature, you never know!

Serendipity!

In gardening, as in other areas of our lives, we can have serendipity! [Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else]. Here I show the three squash plants that I transplanted a couple of weeks ago. The two plants, to the left and in the back, were growing well in their little starter pots and had several leaves each. The plant on the right was a slow starter and had sprouted only two days before being transplanted, which meant that it only had it's baby leaves (cotyledons) and no "true" leaves. I thought maybe it would grow, but if it didn't there was no real loss. Wonder of wonders, it has grown faster than the other two, and as you can see, it already has fruit where the other two are barely starting to fruit! This is serendipity! I didn't really expect the plant to survive, but it has outshone the other two!

Always plant when you are on the fence--is it too late to plant or will I have time before the frost? Just do it! You never know when we will have a later-than-average frost or a warmer-than-normal late fall--and you could have a great harvest! Seeds are cheap--go ahead and plant!

My Garden

In just the past couple of weeks my garden box has exploded with growth. The top picture is looking from west to east, and the other picture is the opposite. The tall trellis holds my Painted Lady Pole Beans. I planted 5, but only 2 came up. It has an interesting flower, which I will show in the next post. I have a lot of Roma Tomatoes in this raised bed, with beans across the front, and my squash in the middle.

My To-Do List . . .

---plant my new Meyer lemon tree
---put in one new garden box
---harvest squash!!


Planting by the moon:

Monday: Scorpio---2nd best to plant root crops; #1 to plant above ground crops, flowers; good to transplant fruit trees, flower bushes, vines.

Tuesday-Thursday: Sagittarius---fairly good for root
and above ground crops; not good for transplanting.

Friday-Saturday: Capricorn---2nd best to plant root and above ground crops; 2nd best for transplanting.

Sunday: Aquarius---very good to plant above ground crops, but not from seed (seeds will rot).

Saving Squash Seeds

There are six species of squash (all are Cucurbita genus):
—Cucurbita maxima—ie. Bananas, Buttercups, Hubbards, Marrows—very long vines, huge hairy leaves
—Cucurbita mixta—ie. Cushaws—spreading vines, large hairy leaves
—Cucurbita moschata—ie. Butternuts—spreading vines, large hairy leaves
—Cucurbita pepo—ie. Acorns, Cocozelles, Crooknecks, Scallops, Vegetable Marrows, Zucchinis—prickly leaves and stems
—Cucurbita ficifolia—plants are perennial in warm winter climates; fruits greenish cream mottled skin; used in Mexico to make candy
—Cucurbita foetidissima—perennial in frost-free areas; leaves have disagreeable odor when brushed; fruits not eaten, but seeds pressed for oil

Squash plants will not cross-pollinate between these six species, but there are many varieties withing each specie that will cross-pollinate. For example, the butternuts won't cross-pollinate with the banana squash; but the crookneck and scallops could.

If you want to save squash seeds that will be true to the variety, to plant the next year or to trade seeds with someone else, you need to be careful. "Different varieties within the same species must be separated by 1/2 mile or must be hand-pollinated, so be sure to check neighbors' gardens for varieties that could ruin your isolated plantings."(from Seed to Seed, by Suzanne Ashworth).

Ashworth suggests how to hand-pollinate to guarantee seed purity. She says to check in the evening for male and female flowers that will open the next morning. These flowers are yellowish and may start to open at the tip. "Use 3/4" masking tape to securely tape the tips of the blossoms shut. Morning dew will sometimes cause cheap brands of tape to burst open, so be sure to select a brand that is sticky."

To help with genetic diversity, switch male and female flowers from more than one squash plant of the same variety (ie.–two or three plants of the same kind of zucchinis). Once the dew is dry (the female flower will need to be re-taped), pick the male flowers as I showed yesterday. Remove the tape and petals from the male flower. Gently pull off the flower tip and tape from the female flowers—the flowers will open slowly. Swab the male anthers onto each section of the female stigma (as shown in yesterday's post). Even better results occur if two male flowers are used for each female flower. Several female flowers may be opened at the same time and the same male flowers used for them all, just be careful that bees don't sneak in to help!

Next, re-tape the female flowers to completely close the flower. It can be completely taped if necessary, just be careful not to damage the neck between the flower and the squash itself, or it might be aborted. Bumblebees and some solitary bees may chew through the flower petal to get to the pollen. If this is a problem, use 2" tape and cover the entire flower. Or, the entire plant could be covered until the flower petals wilt down over the female flower, making it harder for the bees to chew through.

Grow the squash until it is quite large and fully mature. Remove seeds three weeks after harvest. Squash can be smashed or cut open. Gather all of the seeds and rinse in a colander under a stream of water; remove all strings and debris. If squash flesh is still attached to the seeds, rub the seeds in a wire strainer under running water to loosen it. Drain the seeds and dry. Store in a cool, dry, dark place and the seeds can remain in viable condition for six years.

Squash

Everyone is getting excited! I'm hearing people say that they have their first zucchini flower, their first squash, and their first ripe tomato! Ah, tis the season!---the start of the summer harvest. Years ago I decided that if I had to live on what I produced in my garden, I would very quickly get bored with tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans. That was when I started to branch out and learn to eat a greater variety of vegetables. I really didn't like summer squash because it seemed slimy when it was cooked. I did like Zucchini Bread, so I looked for other squash recipes that I might like. I think the squash plant looks really pretty and could be put in the flower garden.
You may be excited to see the first flowers on your squash plants, only to be disappointed when it drops off instead of producing a squash. The first flowers of the squash plant are generally male flowers. The plant produces both the male and female flowers, as shown below. The male flower is on the left and the female flower is on the right---hopefully the difference is clear.
The picture below shows the female flower, closest to the bottom of the picture, which looks like it's attached to a baby squash---which it is! If this flower is not fertilized, then it will drop off. Notice the male flower above the female flower. The male flower has no baby squash attached, just the stem attached to the flower (clearly shown in the next picture).
One way to increase the production of squash plants is to find the female and male flowers open at the same time. The flowers aren't open very long, so the window of opportunity is small. The bees may not be attending these flowers, so there is an alternative---do it yourself! Take the male flower and leave some of the stem as a handle or it will be a challenge to work with.
Next, strip away the flower petals, as shown. This is the male part, with which you swab the female part. That's all there is to it!
One way to out-fox squash bugs is simple, too, if you have the room for it. When your squash plants start to bloom, plant seeds for a second generation of squash plants. When the second generation starts to bloom, take out the first plants, and plant seeds for a third generation of squash plants. When the third starts to bloom, remove the second generation. Keep doing that all season and the plants will always be young and lush, and generally bug-free, instead of plants that are getting old and stressed, which attracts the squash bugs. Towards fall the weather will start to cool, which also stresses squash plants, and the squash bugs may show up.

Raised Beds

My garden is looking nice and lush these days! The warm weather we have been having really makes things grow. You can see the squash is now covering the spinach completely, although the spinach is sending up it's flower stalk and will soon be rising above the squash leaves. You can also see that the chard (the red peeking out, on the left side of the squash) has been taken over, too!

Lest you think that my whole yard looks this good, I will show you how the rest of my raised beds are doing. The only thing in them is one dozing cat---I don't think she liked her picture taken! Soon I will transform these boxes into productive vegetable gardens!