I Think We Have Lift Off!

Yellow squash (straight neck)

Maybe a Sugar Baby watermelon (I actually have about 3 that I think have been pollinated.)

Finally, perhaps a cuke (Straight Eight).

congrats! I keep checking my squash, cukes and watermelon daily, but nothing yet. I think all the blooms on the squash are male ( I think, not sure exactly what the females look like). but, Im hoping they will produce very soon.

The female flowers have what looks like a baby squash attached to them.

Looking good stephanietx! Can't wait for my veggies to start ripening.

cue_chik - the male flowers of squash/cucs/melons usually precede the female flowers, I don't know why, but perhaps it's to attract honeybees.

Stephanie...

It's all looking good --- when did you plant ? Also....what type of mulch are you using ?

Jann

Congrats!! They look great!

Jann, we planted the last of everything mid-April. Everything except the beans and peas were transplants since we decided rather late in the game to do this much this spring. We use a native shredded cedar mulch. We get it at Lowes.

ok... well, then apparently its official, i only have male flowers at the moment. theyve only been in bloom for about a week maybe two, so I'll keep my fingers grossed that the females show up soon!

You know, the females have to let the males strut their stuff before showing up for the party! LOL Until today, I'd only seen male flowers on my zukes.

ROTFL.. that is soooo true!

Stefer they all look great, I especially like your watermelon! I bet that baby is going to be a great snack~

I have 4 watermelon plants growing but they don't have the prize yet. Are you saying I need bee's to pollinate them before they make a watermelon?

We have both a girl and a boy that showed up for the high school dance. Problem is they are both staying on their own side of the gym floor, one each on far side of the planting area! Hope they figure out how to dance soon! If these 2 won't bloom fully, what will the other 22 zuke/squashes think of them? hehe

LOL.. Qinx... now now, we wont have any bud molesting before its time

Rat, you need both birds and bees in your garden. Sometimes, if you don't have bees, then you have to help your plants along. Here's a tutorial for you. http://www.ecoyardfarming.com/growedibles/hand-pollination-of-squash-and-zucchini-cucurbits/

And here's a pic of the beauty today. Gained weight overnight!!

Thanks Lady!

OK so we self pollinate out watermelons and they grow the fruit? If it's that easy I can do it... I am confused though, 1 plant will have both male and female flowers? Can I just run around with a paintbrush and hit every flower I see? This gardening is much more complicated than I first thought....

Sometimes you have to hand pollinate squash, cucumbers, and melons. They do produce both male and female flowers on the same plant.

OK well thanks for the info and consider it done! I got a large paintbrush and im hitting every flower with every other flower and back again. Its going to be like a big melon gang bang in the garden and I don't care. Don't ask for a video you freaks ok. Anyhow I'm going to try what you said and I better get some watermelons ok.

Also because of what you told me, I am also going to it at the cucumbers with the paintbrush of life. Is there any other veggies I need to "paint" while I am at it. I love your knowledge Stefer, keep it coming! We will have a great garden one way or another~

RATFOOD - you crack me up!! If you are growing OP varieties and plan on saving seed, though, you need to be careful who you paint with who's pollen. Otherwise, you may end up with some freaky frankenveggies when you go and plant those seeds you saved... If you're not saving seed, paint away - lol.

Kelly

can ya cross pollinate yellow squash with zucchini? if so, what do ya get as the result? and is it edible...LOL

Maybe a frankensquash and so many of them you can send Qinx some to repay him for his kindness with the zukes . . .

muahahahahaha.. pay back.. 'It'ssss aliiive! The frankensquash are crawling out of the basket and reseeding all over the yaaard!"

From what I've read all frankensquash are safe to eat...it's just a matter of texture and taste. My moms husband related a story about a garden he negleted for a couple of seasons and ended up with some weird cross-pollinated squashes, let them grow, picked them and ate them. He said they looked funny but tasted just fine.

Beautiful Pictures Stef.

Oh yeah, I think (someone with more knowledge back me up here) that you don't need to worry about a cuke and pumpkin crossing, or a mellon and a yellow neck...it's just the ones that are mostly closely related that can form the mystery spawn.

A question to the folks who have been gardening/farming longer: Why don't we see these cross-breeds at most grocery stores? Is it that they can't insure the quality and consistancy of that sort of produce or more that they think the general public would hesitate to buy them? I know personally so long as something cooked well and tasted good I'd try it.

And for folks who shop more often at farmers markets: do yall see an acorn/zuke squash show up ever?

From what I understand, the crosses are mainly on the plants that are open pollinated. Doesn't affect the taste, but will affect any future plants that come up from the seeds if planted. As this is the first year of veggie gardening for me, I have no experiences with crosses. I'm sure they don't show up in the stores because people wouldn't buy them if they didn't look 'perfect'. To me, though, that's part of the fun in gardening and sometimes the only way to learn what not to plant near something else.

Here's my watermelon baby yesterday. I can't believe how much it grows in a day!! I need to make a hammock for it soon so it doesn't break the vine. That's on my agenda for today. I think I'm going to stop taking daily pics of it, too! Hope it doesn't feel bad about that. LOL

do you have to have a hammock for watermelon? I am just gonna let mine grow on the ground. you think it will be ok like that?

On the ground it will be fine, but this little guy is hanging just over the edge of our raised bed (18" tall), so to prevent it from breaking the vine, it needs some support so it doesn't get too heavy for the vine. In my ignorance, I assumed that the watermelons wouldn't form until they'd reached the ground. See? Live and learn!

LOL. thansk for the advice. Im new to veggie gardening this year, and while alot of peeps wanna give me advice on growing certain things (I'll use the melon hammock as an example) I have to wonder why ... I mean, plants dont have hammocks in the wild.. so how do the melons grow then? (that was just an example), but I get alot of advice from seasoned gardeners like that, and at first I thought id have to run around the garden, making slings, hammocks, nests, nets and cradles for all of my veggies, but then I stopped and went "wait... these are plants... they grow wild somewhere... without all this 'cradling'...LOL.

ok.. exactly how long does it take for the female yellow squash blooms to make an appearance? so far, my plants are covered, and I mean absolutely covered, in bright yellow male flowers... but no sign of females yet :(

My females just really started showing up about 2 weeks ago. Still more males than females, but I see baby females on the plants that should flower in a few days.

Thank you thank you for posting that pic. Now I know exactly what to look for in female flowers!!!!!!!!

cue_chik: I still have one yellow squash plant that is all male flowers. The females will show up soon - fashionably late as I like to say . . .

Kelly

Im sure they will show soon. I just panic easily...LOL.

This being my first year with a real garden, I was very impatient and started thinking I was going to have to hand pollinate everything in order to get it going. I lost 4 zucchinis to not being pollinated and several cucumbers, then when I lost the pumpkins I started taking notes and getting the paint brushes ready. Then we had a couple of days where I couldn't spend a lot of time in the garden so I never got around to trying the hand pollination. Yesterday I went out to the garden and have 2 zukes that are more than 8 inches long, 2 melons, 1 pumpkin and a watermelon, all growing like crazy!!! Woohoo. I guess gardening teaches patience, nature will usually take it's course when given the chance. Here's a pic of the pumpkin baby from yesterday - today he's more than three times that size.

Yeah I couldn't get into too many flowers because by the time I wake up they are already closed. But I have a few cukes growing and there are ants all up in my melon flowers. Maybe they can pollinate like bees? Maybe they are stealing all the pollen for the queen ant, I have no idea.... I'm just going to hope for the best!

Ants do help with pollination, so I'm not too concerned yet about the bees not showing up. I did spy a couple of bees yesterday in my back yard. :)

Bodecoa, send us another picture of the pumpkin, thats a real beauty~ I wanna see how big it is now.

Sorry, I've been away for a while. Here's the new pic of the pumpkin. I'm so excited! He's about 10" long! This picture is from 3 days ago.

This message was edited May 27, 2009 7:58 PM