Squash and Pumpkin Count

So I’ve been doing an investigation into what we actually have in terms of pumpkins and squash. I don’t have a definitive answer just yet, but it seems there is good progress on a number of them and a few more popping up as well. Overall, I would say the leaves are looking rather sickly, with some dying off and others looking pale. This adds to my thoughts that the soil is just lacking in nutrients. However, it is making it easier to see the fruit, to put a positive spin on it! I don’t feel the squash and pumpkins are growing all that fast any more either, but anyway, we’ll take what ever we get. So, what have we got? I’m pretty sure we’ve got at least:

3-4 Burgess Buttercups

3-4 Invincible Pumpkins

1 Giant Pink Banana Squash

4-5 Pink Squash

1 Giant Pumpkin.

The Burgess Buttercups are easy to spot, ’cause they are green! But seem to have stopped growing lately!

The Invincibles (I am guessing) are easy to spot, ’cause they are grey! Though there seems to be the chance of more to come.

The Banana Squash I’m pretty sure is a banana squash, that or a deformed normal squash, we’ll have to see.

The rest are just too hard to tell. They all look the same, smooth and roundish, apart from one that has a more pumpkiny look to it.

In the end, I just hope that they continue to grow. The rain has almost been non-stop, which doesn’t help the chances that they have a diesese, but they are definately suffering. Especially when compared to other peoples plants that were planted in rotted manure rich soil. There is nothing more to do but watch, wait and hope for sunshine!

Banana Squash No More

I’m afraid the banana squash are no more. They were picked by mistake. I am kind of hopeful that one other squash in the centre of the patch will turn out to be a banana squash, otherwise there wont be anymore growing this year.

I should do a count soon of what we’ve got growing where and keep a track of them. Looking yesterday, I think there is at least 3 Burgess Buttercups and 5 that look like pumpkins, so could be Pink Squash, Invincible Pumpkins or Giant Pumpkins and there is one grey one (though I was sure there was two before) which could be an Invincible Pumpkin or something that will change colour as it gets bigger.

Pumpkins and Squash Appearing!

You’ll have to click to see the picture in a better size. Here is a look at how the pumpkins are squash have been growing over the last couple of weeks. The pumpkin here I *think* is from the giant pumpkin plant, but with them all so tangled now, who can tell. As you can see they are growing at a really nice pace. Its already got some weight to it! If it is going to be a giant pumpkin it is in a good place for it as there should be enough space. How big will it get?!

I’ve got at least two giant pink banana squash growing too! These are around 4-5 inches long so far, but are looking good and show have enough space to grow in too.

So somewhere in the jungle of squash and pumpkin plants hopefully there are the grey pumpkins and the pink squash growing too. Here I found one of the Burgess Buttercups growing. It makes such a nice mix to see the different types growing together.

As for the plants overall, the weather has not been good recently, windy and rainy. I’m sure the plants have been suffering, some look like they are. Apart from that, I have doubts about the level of nurients in the soil. Looking around at other peoples squash and pumpkins, they appear to be as big or more healthy than mine, even though I know mine have been in the ground longer. I am in no doubt that the soil needs a really good feed and maybe twice, once at the end of the summer and once in the spring. This is going to disrupt my plans for early garlic and onion planting, so I don’t know how to get around it yet.

Squash, Pumpkins and Corn 20th June

Another update on the squash, pumpkins and corn. Things appear to be growing fast. the squash and pumpkins (I can remember which is which!) are starting to create the ground cover that I was hoping. The corn needs to grow on a little more to clear their leaves. I think I can assume the corn is going to grow tall enough, some have started getting their top ‘flowers’ already, but in general are looking really health and green. The squash and pumpkin should be acting as a decent wind break and hopefully mulch soon.

Here is the patch from another angle.

A lot of the pumpkin and squash have the first signs of flowers coming. I wonder how long it will be before they bloom?

Squash and Corn Bed Growth Comparison

It only been a few days since I last reported on this bed of the squash, pumpkins and corn together, but the growth is still noticeable! Some squash on the far side are growing really well, much better than those on the near side. I don’t know if this is due to different squash types or maybe the fact the beans were on that side last year? If you’re wondering, the front left hand corner is a sunflower, getting pretty big too!

Squash/Pumpkin Sweetcorn update

Just to give a visual update of the squash and pumpkins growing with sweetcorn experiment. As you can see, things are growing on nicely. There is a few other things added to the bed, some lovage that grew back from last year, a row of brussels on the right, some herbs and a few spare sunflowers. The main leaves on the giant pumpkin died and it seems to have settled into growing at a more modest pace. It is certainly being out done by a couple of others on the far side, which I think could be giant pink banana squash, but there is plenty of time, and hopefully sun, to come for all these to grow. The sweetcorn seems to be growing ok too. I’ll have to compare past photos to see, but I think they seem quite healthy and well established, they just need to get tall now!

The Giant Pumpkin Lives!

After all the problems I’ve had with rotting seed, frost, mice(!) and slugs, I’ve got one.. just one.. giant pumpkin plant left, but its a big one! This is by far the biggest of all the different giant pumpkin seeds that I got to germinate. The starting leaves are massive, let alone the main leaves! I left it in a pot growing in the box for as long as I dared, but the other day, I finally bit the bullet and I have planted it out now. So far it looks really happy, but I’ll report back in a few more days and show it properly in its new bed. We’ll be watching this one’s progress closely, I’m now mostly worried about the space it might need, considering it’s size! Where ever it decided to start it’s pumpkin, the other plants better make way!

So here is the squash, pumpkin and sweetcorn bed. The dug ground and fatter stick in the forground is where the giant pumpkin is now planted. In here are also the pickling cumbers, about 3 or 4 plants. These are going to be trained up poles, coming out of the squash/pumpkin ground cover much like the sweet corn. I have no idea how much space everything is going to need in this arrangement, there isn’t any known rules to speak of, so a guess and wait see. No doubt it is going to be crowded, but how much and what an effect that has on everything, we will find out. I can’t wait!

Not Slugs, Mice!

Yes, I had jump to blame the humble slimy slug for eating my seedlings over easter, but after sowing pumpkins and squash I came back the next day to find the dug up and chewed to pieces! Kind of cuter thought than slugs, but never the less, they wiped me out of giant pumpkin and sweetcorn seeds! I’m going to have to start again, again again.. but a lesson learnt that this can happen! Cute little furry buggers. Luckily, being mice and not slugs the seeds that had grown were left alone, just the ones waiting to germinate had been eaten. I found the most likely place the mice were getting into the box and blocked it off best I could. Re-ordered giant pumpkins and sweetcorn and re-planted some sunflowers and squash that had be attacted too. Hopefully this will be the end of it and we can get on with growing the damn things!

Slugs Suck!

Ok so slugs don’t suck they just eat everything! (except “conveniently” not weeds)

Somehow they are getting inside the box and when they did while I was away over Easter, they ate almost everything insight. So much so that you wouldn’t have even known that seeds had been planted. I had to sow yet another round of pumpkins, squash and sunflowers and I’m going to have to buy another round of sweetcorn seeds. Luckily the tomatoes are still ok as are the beans and cucumbers.

Bastard slugs.

Looking at the plot in general there are weeds every where, there is going to be a great deal of work needing done to stop them growing over.

Grow Squash Grow! (Pumpkins too)

The squash are growing and growing well! These five are the five pinky warty ones I sowed, along with the giant pumpkins, back in February before the big freeze. They are growing really fast in the fantastic weather we’ve been having and the box is working a treat. A couple of weeks behind these are the tasty green squash and coming up the rear is the taste green pumpkins. I then planted one more spare of each, just in case.

So here you see then the five pink warty sqaush at the top left, then the five giant pumpkins underneath them (with one spare). The vertical line of small round pots on their right is the tasty green squash and the square pots are the tasty green pumpkins. The round white pots are the sunflowers, which should start appearing very soon.

And here is the area they are going to be planted in, along with the sweetcorn. I still haven’t worked out the best arrangement yet, but before planting any I’m going to try to greatly reduce the local slug population with a quite number of beer traps. I want them arranged so the squash and pumpkins give a good ground cover for the sweet corn and the sweet corn in good blocks to aid pollination. However, I don’t want them too close together as to swamp the sweet corn and I have to think of space between them all for the actual squash and pumpkins to grow. Some of which are likely to be mighty big!