Put some shishigatani seed into pots this morning. We will see how it goes!
So weird. Some tromboncinos are developing normal and other get to a decent size and the bulb at the end starts to shrivel. You can see an example of each in this picture. I assume it’s just the plant aborting them for too many. They zoodle well at the stage of the one on the left. @resonanteye given these grow so fast, do they mature fast too? Or do you leave them on the vine until frost?
i leave them until they get orange. they do get big FAST and ripe before some other. the only other one that i find ripe in midsummer are really small ones like white acorn or delicata.
it’ll look incredibly suggestive for a while before it’s fully orange. almost a pink fleshy color.
edit to add if they’ve started to turn orangey they will finish off the vine, too.
early July
end of August
I’m pretty sure it’s a Moschata though. I’ll contact true leaf.
Meanwhile, slower start to squash season (besides tromboncino) like the melons from the cold spring, but first musquee de Provence pollinated. The first few are always extra exciting. I have always grown these out on turf and I got too bogged down this spring to cover crop the whole area and only did the row I sow like last year. I hope the mulch doesn’t cause rot issues. New cover crop plan this fall
hollow stems?
my summer squash are ramping up. I’ve picked about 10 so far pretty small but i know it’ll get out of control soon.
i plant “too many” crookneck because they’re my favorite, those are just now starting to make female flowers. the trombos are just getting started too.
Have determined this plant is delicata bush, for anyone who cares to know. nbd, we like delicata. Seems to have missed the first round of svb eggs.
Turns out it wasn’t just me who couldn’t get TLM Big Chief bns to grow, apparently enough complaints that they tested them and got abysmal germination, so they refunded me. But, only because I bothered to email the issue. Not sure about anyone else, but when it comes to $3.50 seed packets, I would greatly prefer to be reshipped the correct/healthy seeds as opposed to a refund. Oh well.
I think this set of pictures I made for a friend last year might help you prevent any cross species mixups (eg delicata instead of butternut) in the future before you plant.
All pepo seeds I have seen are around as long as my thumbnail, moschata are around half that size. Maxima of course are thick seeds whether white or brown.
One of my Tetsukabuto seeds I saved seems to be making squash with a neck. Because of that and it is also so early to fruit, I am thinking a honeypatch 898 moschata is the father of this one. I’ll have to see how the fruits grow to be sure.
I tagged my seedlings from each Tetsu that made them so I know what bag to take from if I like that F2 a lot and want more like it.
Any ideas why my pollination is so bad when im not hand pollenating? Almost none of butternut females are pollenated and so far only the one cucuzza has pollenated. 0 watermelon
I have noticed a significant drop in native pollinators this year.
Well that’s fun. I’ve found over 20 vine borer eggs on a one foot section of this plant. I’ve removed as many eggs as I can find, and am going to treat with spinosad and inject bt in the evening. Hopefully something lives long enough to mature some fruit.
What’s the verdict—blossom end rot or poor pollination? I’ve had a decent amount this the last few years and always figured rot, but I can’t fully give up hope of a pollination issue since that’d be easier to manage.
My summer squash have always been in containers, so keeping things consistently moist is not easy.





















