Here is a pic of Speedy Silver Zucchini fruit just picked. The fruit of Speedy Silver is light green. It is crisp when cut into, stir frys beautifully, has great flavor, great in any recipe calling for zucchini.
Second photo is Englisher (English Custard) Summer Squash or another variation of zucchini. I have not tried this one yet, but very anxious to.
Oh yum! I like the look of your 'Speedy Silver' Zucchini, bee'. I'm also looking forward to see you 'Englisher' as it matures. Looking yummy!
1) Earlier today I harvested two more of my 'Spineless Beauty' Zuke.
2,3, &4) are female Calabash flowers that apparently accepted pollens successfully (natural pollination by bees, butterflies or other pollinators such as moths etc).
5) This appears to be a 'Casper' pumpkin female flower that was failed pollination (natural pollination or lack of it).
The "rules" are in the first at the top of this thread. Emcars I don't think you are too late.
Rugosa Friulana Squash
Ambar Squash
Hilo Loatian Squash.
Black Futsu Squash.
The Hilo has really taken off in the last few days. Futsu isn't far behind and I expect the others will catch up pretty quick also. Now crossing fingers and hoping the squash bugs don't find me.
I would love to enter!
I am unsure if my varieties are taken already. They are Heirloom Candy Roaster, Organic Waltham Butternut, and Organic Heirloom "Dark Green" Zucchini.
I also do not have seedling photos, just more mature pre-bloom plants.
I suppose I culd just enter the Candy Roaster. That is my most interesting variety.
LilyLove....Your Spineless Beauty looks a lot like Speedy Silver. Looks as though you've beat the SVB and that other horrible worm. Yeah!!
Pepper...Great looking squash plants with very interesting names.
And, emacrs....I hope you can enter. How large are your plants by now. Maybe they could still be seedlings? Candy Roaster sounds very yummy.
I hope emcars would join us. The more the merrier. 'Bee. The zucchini continues to produce. But all 3 of my 'Horn of Plenty' squash seem to have ceased to produce any more. SVB bugs must have done the number on the plants. I was looking for young seedlings from the big boxes store, in hopes to replace them but could not find the same variety yesterday.
BeeBonnet- They are already vining, but do not have flowers or fruit yet. I will still participate and share regardless :)
Great looking plants and seedlings, girls! I'm in TN right now, but hope that when I get home, my little seedlings have taken off! Finally got some rain at home, so at least they are getting water while I'm away.
I really hope the 'Black Forest' pumpkin grows well because I want my grandchildren to "pick" a pumpkin at Halloween!
One latest update on my varieties. On this corner of the garden. I've been sharing photos of this particular calabash hybrid 'Lattoo' flowers and fruit that was hand pollinated.
I apologize that 'Lattoo' was not chosen in my 5 selections. So I hope this will clear up any misconception later on when our entries will be judged.
The 5 correct varieties as stated above:
1. 'Casper' pumpkin
2. Ridged Luffa
3. Calabash 'India Long'.
4. 'Horn of Plenty' squash
5. 'Spineless Beauty' Zuke.
Thanks.
Here is a photo of my first Gelber Englischer Custard. We ate it last night and it is delicious. More coming. It came from the plant in the straw bales and there are several more coming along. The plant in the reg. bed is now coming along too and has a tiny fruit on it.
This photo of it was taken on top of a chard leaf.
The Gelber is what I had planned to grow but i never received the seeds so I dropped out of this.
I suppose it is too late for me to send you some seeds?? Or, do you think you could grow a couple for fall? Let me know, Karen.
It's OK northern MI not enough time now.
This isn't the best picture but does anyone recognize this bug? It was on one of my squash plants this morning. I didn't mess with it in case it was a good bug. lol
pepper23 - I'm going to say that your bug looks like a woodlouse, aka pillbug, aka roly poly. I have those in my compost pile - lots of them. They like dark moist places. Seems woodlice, like earthworms are generally considered beneficial in the garden.
Hope that's helpful.
I've.never heard of pill bugs considered beneficial. They mow down seedlings and will congregate in dark moist places. They will eat fruit that is setting on the ground. A few may not hurt but they multiply fast. This year they ate my cucumbers seedlings and bean seedlings ( that had been direct seeded).
Definitely not a pill bug. I have those and they don't bother anything here. My plant is still alive though so it must not be a bad bug. I remember it was a dirt brown color and that is one bug there. I was just suspicious since it was on my squash and for once I want a season to grow squash. lol
I think it's a rolly poly aka pill bug aka woodlice, they may go for rotten plant matters, de-composted material in general? I suspect they may eat tender roots? Anyhow, if they're beneficial or not I don't know.
Update;
1. 'India Long' calabash female flower day #1 after hand pollination, next to it is a newly open male flower this evening.
2. 'Casper' day # 17 after hand pollination. Just as farmerdill took note that this 'Casper' fruit is "elongated". I don't know if its shape will "round" up when it matures? Time will tell.
3. My new Ridged Luffa vine, the seedling is about 2' tall and counting. It's much smaller than other "squash" vines.
Question for brendak, are you growing a Luffa? If so do you know whether yours is Ridged skin, or smooth skin Luffa? We can compare note. :) This is my very first time growing the Ridged skin variety. I've grown the smooth skin luffa in years past. It was very easy going, and productive Luffah.
Ooop! My 1st picture was a wrong pic. !!!
Let's me try again. 'India Long' calabash male and female flowers. The female flower was hand pollinated.
Lily - As for the luffa - yes. Mine is smooth the skin.
Just checked on my tromboncino earlier this eve when I was in the Verticle Garden and here it is
Oh wow! That's looking good. :)
Update; over the weekend I discovered that not all my 'Horn of Plenty' squash were killed, two plants survived the attack of SVB, and are struggling putting out more male/female flowers. Two of my zukes vines also were seriously damaged by the SVB, but it appear that the bushy zukes were so vigorous that they just shook it off, and continue to send out flowers and fruits. I harvested two more unblemished zukes yesterday. There are more young fruits that I can pick in the next few days. I cooked some zukes for family get together Sunday, but ran out of yellow squash that I have had to buy from Publix. All were good though. :))
I picked 2 more zukes. The squash that vertically grown are healthy with no evidence of bugs. I was thinking perhaps all the bugs were lured to the garden, and left these alone. :)
Happy birthday to maypoplaurel. I hope you have a great day!
Happy belated Birthday Maypoplaurel. Linda Kay, oh yummy what fabulous looking cake! Thanks.
1) Calabash 'India Long' female flower day #1 after hand-pollination, this is my second fruit.
2) 1st 'India Long' fruit, these grows rapidly as if it grows right before your eyes. lol
3) My second 'Casper' fruit. The fruit was pecked by some critter, perhaps a bird? Am not sure, will see about hand pollinate another if this fruit fails to grow.
4) My young seedling of Ridged Luffa climbing up the pole. (the fruit is that of 'Lattoo' calabash which I didn't add on the list of this challenge).
5) These are the latest seedlings comprised of Luffa vine and 3 'Casper' pumpkin vines.
Here it's the very 3rd SVB adult moth I've ever laid eyes on. The first two got away, but this one I caught it! It was found on my 'Horn of Plenty' squash. this morning.
I harvested two more 'Spineless Beauty' zukes, this morning as well.
I am planning to go out there to the garden, pull out the big gun (insecticidal spray, spray the affected squash, and try to heel them in -- hoping to save the squash. Will post my finding as the season progresses.
Oh, not until I came inside, I found a squash bug, on my two freshly harvested zukes. (same 2 zukes, in both photos).
I have squash bugs now also. I've been trying to kill them as I find them and once the rain stops I will use dawn dish soap and water and spray the plants. I'm trying not to use Sevin or anything like that if I can avoid it. I will try to get updated pics tomorrow. Hilo has really taken off!!
Hope the rains stop soon for you pepper 23. We're now getting rain ourselves. I had just enough time to heel my squash and zukes in with new potting soil. I harvested 2 more 'Spineless Beauty' zukes. Although, the 'Horn of Plenty' were quite young yet*. I picked them because I was hoping the heeled-in procedure will stimulate more roots formation on the plants. My experienced gardener neighbor encouraged me to plant new squash in place of the damaged squash. But I'm holding out for their survival since I could NOT find the same varieties (cultivars) from the market place.
*addendum: I picked the young fruits from my squash hoping to divert the plant's energy to form new roots, instead of putting forth energy to the young fruits.
This message was edited Jul 3, 2015 12:31 PM
I am finally able to get out into my gardens! We have had torrential rains and flooding here in Dundee, and my backyard has been a wetland for a few weeks! My first Candy Roaster baby stopped growing and fell off. I think it was probably due to the attack of the striped cucumber beetles in combination with the swamp that was my garden. Now there is a new baby, the water is all soaked into the ground, I have fertilized, and applied nematodes and DE around the leaves and base of the plant. I was trying to not have to use the DE because I don't want to kill beneficial insects, but the beetles are out of control! Any organic insecticides out there that are effective for cucumber beetles and squash bugs? I am pretty sure that I saw my first squash bug today. This little baby squash gives me hope, though, haha :)
This message was edited Jul 5, 2015 7:44 PM
emcars, good luck with the flood aftermath. Glad to see some of your veggies recover from the wetland.
Here is my update. I topped off my squash shrubs with good topsoil, and the plant seem to continue to thrive. Though, it has been a few days since I did so, the plants appear healthy still, I harvested another large 'Spineless Beauty' zuke, the 'Horn of Plenty' squash grew a little larger each day. So I think these plants will survive.
1. 'Horn of Plenty' squash continue to grow dispite SVB damage.
2. ?
3. 'Casper' pumpkin 1st fruit.
4. A female Ridged skin luffa's female flower bud. (This is really tiny).
pic. #2 is a corner view of the revived squash garden. :)
Some clarification is needed. When I stated that "I topped off my squash shrub with good top soil...." what I meant was I attempted to heel in the undamaged portion of the vine in good dirt to encourage new roots.
The same 'Horn of Plenty' squash was small 2 days ago (see pic. above on 7/6/15), today, its size doubled. Seems like the plants continues to grow. I pick the eggplant to compare in sizes.
I've noticed some male flowers on another Luffa vine, but perhaps, this is a smooth skin Luffa that got mixed in my Ridged skin luffa by mistake.
My 'India Long' calabash 2 first fruits.
Lily_Love, your plants are beautiful! The calabash are so healthy and pretty. I am not familiar with this type of squash, what would you liken it to? Also, do you use your luffa gourds for actual luffa's? Sounds silly, but I was hoping to do that next year and was wondering how difficult/time consuming it is to do. I am saving seeds, so I didn't want to chance them cross-pollinating with something else this year :)
The calabash, emcars, are more like zukes with tougher outer skin. They're more popular in oriental cuisine than here in the States. The fruit can be pick when young (the smaller one of the two picture above). The succulent inner fruit then can be cubed or diced for stir fry or soup making.
How do I use the Luffa? Just as Calabash, the young luffa can be sliced, diced, and cook when young. I have saved smooth skin luffa to very ripe, and make sponge out of the dried inside, in fact, I've some that I use in my kitchen for pots and pans scrubbing. I'll post some picture of the sponges tomorrow.
Luffa I don't think will cross pollinate with anything else in the family. I've different type of luffas in my garden; I think the seed company has mistakenly mixed the seeds of different species in the package that I bought.
I never even considered the luffa's to be edible! They'll definitely be in my garden next year. As far as cross-pollination goes, I used the guide from the website below.
There seem to be conflicting thoughts and confusion on cross-pollination from other sources that I came across in my research. I needed direction, so I found this to be the most complete looking guide and went with it.
http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/squashpumpkincucumberwatermelon-pollination-explanation/
