Gourd goodness
I was worrying about gourd pollination and inspecting the expanding vines.
Then it hit me.
Literally.
I knocked my knoggin on a healthy pollinated gourd hanging front and center on the expanded trellis. 
Also, it appears that some others are taking hold but don’t call your bookie just yet given my track record on that call… 
Looking up 17′ of the tower of gourd power 
Morning blossoms on the escaped runners 
In the beginning III
(This is a continuation of the series recounting how all this mess got started, which I left off last week here.)
Even though I fully expected the seeds of my first garden to sprout, it was still a surprise and a bit of a rush when I went out one morning and it was actually happening.
The first out of the ground were a couple of bush type beans – “Roma”, a flat “string” bean and “Henderson” baby Lima beans.
In another day or two the “Devotion” hybrid sweet corn popped right up.
The spacing for the beans was 9 per square foot and the corn was 4 per square foot. This obviously is much tighter spacing than traditional row gardening calls for; I was a little skeptical at this point but followed Mr Batholomew’s plan exactly as stated in the book.
What a kitteh sees
What a small poodle sees:
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What a kitteh sees:
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Roma VF: The team shows
Roma VF doesn’t produce the prettiest Romas Trust me
Roma VF doesn’t produce the tastiest Romas Uh…. Bland.
Roma VF has one of the least sexy names of any of the Romas The initials are for wilt resistance – Verticillium Wilt (V) & Fusarium Wilt (F)
But on game day, Roma VF brings the whole team:
The 20 or so Roma VF in my garden plants that I started from seed have all grown uniformly and without exception, each plant is loaded with a generous quantity of fruit.
The Martinos Roma heirloom planted in the next bed has done OK, although of the three plants only one is what I would consider “robust”. However, the taste and texture is far better than the Roma VFs, making for a delicious salad tomato or just a “fresh eatin” variety. (The Romas will all be turned to sauce as intended.)
Gourds on the lam
I took a peek behind my fence and gourd tower and found that an admirable attempt to escape the confines of cohutt’s fence was in progress.
I encouraged them to rethink their strategy and focus on the fence lest the neighbor’s teenage son decapitates them with his old lawn mower.
Meanwhile, the vines are doing pretty well inside the fence and my bamboo tepee trellis is now officially a gourdish living Christmas tree. These plants are not shy; consider that the fence is 8′ in the middle
The little gourds I posted a few days ago have browned and wilted; a successful pollination still hasn’t happened yet as far as I can see.
Squash Vine Borers II
Today I wondered how the squash plants were doing- I figured after 48 hours and two 95+ degree days the verdict would probably be obvious.
(I spent a very long day with one of my company’s internal auditors in town to complete my office’s annual compliance examination. I was much more sympathetic to my borer infected squash plants afterward but I’ll leave the details of this comparison to your imagination).
The verdict:
- One definitely terminal yellow squash plant that was so pitiful I didn’t take a picture
- One half terminal yellow squash plant that might have a partial chance. How can it be half terminal? The plant had branched and while the main trunk was looking terminal, the branch wasn’t wilted at all.
- One healthy looking zucchini plant.
The wilted half is obvious in the picture but what isn’t as clear is that the smaller leaves coming out from under the zucchini behind it are actually the healthy branch of the wilted plant in front.
Go figure. I’m not holding out a lot of hope just yet- we’ll see what the next couple of days bring.
Squash Bug Bust
Under a leaf of one of my gourd plants, I discovered the egg mass pictured below:
Yes, squash bugs. Creepy little sap suckers were in line to work on my gourds and any squash that survive the vine borers (more on that later).
(All about squash bugs is worth a click just to see the albino tick looking nymphs that follow the eggs).
Bugs-r-us this week.
So I went back out this evening knowing what I would find and can report that as a result 4 more egg nests are “kaputt”. (The eggs really pop & crack too)
Summer Solstice: Here is Egg in your face
It’s summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the first day of summer.
Digression mode *ON*
You know the people in your town or on the news who make a big deal out of standing eggs on end every spring equinox? The some perky news-person with really nice hair can be found on this day at a school where the children are getting their science on by standing eggs on end.
The reporter generally solicits or gives the “scientific” explanation of how it is only possible on this one day of the year because the day and night are exactly of the same length and the earth’s axis alignment (…..blah blah blah wrong wrong wrong….).
The obvious question might be “What about on the vernal equinox when the exact same alignment exists? Well?”
The fact is eggs can stand on end on the vernal equinox as well. And the week after. And the month after. They actually can on summer (and winter) solstice as well, when the alignment of the earth’s axis would be as far from the conditions of the two equinoxes.
Why is myth perpetuated as science? We default into believing what we hear I suppose. I for one have never felt compelled to stand an egg on end on the spring equinox much less any other day of the year, so I haven’t been out myth-busting this one. But I found somebody who has, Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy. Some of these true disciples of science have gone as far as tricking the local news into doing a story of egg balancing on the solstice. Now that is funny.
Digression Mode *OFF*
Why the digression?
I’m blaming the view from a garden bench that I can honestly say I have not sat upon in the 23 year I’ve lived here until tonight. It isn’t every day I have the time to sit and consider these things; I made the exception today, after all it is the longest day of the year. 😉
Squash Vine Borers
Uh-Oh
I was away from the garden most of the weekend due to work commitments (Damn the man! The annual internal audit is upon me…..)
When I came home this evening Mrs C said the 3 squash plants wilted badly this afternoon so I went out to inspect. I was hoping that I wouldn’t find what I already knew it was- Squash Vine Borers.
Unfortunately, the signs were there on all three- the bases had been bored into noticeably and in 2 cases the cheesy “frass” was accumulated at the holes. If you haven’t figured out what frass is yet, click here. (Sidebar: Why can’t we just call all sh*t “sh*t”? Does somebody get paid for coming up with new and different names for it?)
Even though the plants are probably too damaged to survive, I decided to try and surgically remove the grubs by slitting open the vine longways and physically removing the invaders. This can actually work if you catch them early enough; even if it doesn’t work there is some modest satisfaction to be gained in destroying the destroyers.
I took a mug shot of one of the guilty before sending him to walk down the green mile and have graciously used the clickable thumbnail format instead of embedding the full sized picture. DO NOT open this picture if you are planning on eating cheese grits or anything similar in the next 48 hours. Consider yourself warned.
AND…..
If anyone was wondering, frass smells like sh*t too.
Behind cohutt's fence 