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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Squash


Summer squash

I talked about zucchini plants in a pot in a former post. Here they are!
We were waiting to see how they were doing. I decided to try them in containers, every year squash bugs would just destroy the plant from the roots. I am hoping the bugs live in the soil and won't find the plant, I used potting soil and compost from a nursery. I purchased 25 gallon pots made from degradable fabric containers on eBay. ( they were really cheap ) Zucchini need a lot of space. 


They are doing great for now and are about to bloom. I planted some Italian zucchini and some round zucchini, I like those to cook them stuffed in the oven.

Winter squash

I know it is hard to think of the fall while anxiously watching your tomato plants and wanting the fruit to be ready but you will be so happy to enjoy your winter squash!
This year we planted some “potimarron” or "potiron".  They are a gourd that kind of look like a pumpkin but the “meat” is quite different.  They preserve well too. We brought seeds back from France last year.
We are also planting butternut and acorn squash.


As they take up a lot of room we are planting only one plant of each kind, squash are insect-pollinated but they have the male and female flower parts in separate flowers on the same plant, insects transfer pollen from male flowers to female flowers while going from flower to flower. Some people recommend to help them by hand-pollinating them but I will trust the bees.

It makes me come back to the idea of having a bee-hive.


Did you plant any squash ? Which ones ?

2 comments:

  1. This is my first real garden… my yellow squash was doing the best but seemed to wilt in the heat (central texas), I have two zucchini that are doing great. Two that just didn't seem to grow, they seem stunted, one that got destroyed by bugs, and two that grew slower than others and I think they got over powered and weren't getting enough sunlight… I don't know. I'm using this year to learn as much as I can and make changes for next year. They sure are delicious though.

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  2. I planted four grey squash close together, thinking not all would make it. Well all are big and I have plenty of blooms already. It could get crazy cause it's only mid June.

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