24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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farmerdill

All winter squash can be used as summer squash. Most are not as tasty as those developed for immature use. Nevr tried Delicata, know folks who use acorns, and butternuts are actually delicious as summer squash.

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jonfrum(6)

Thanks for the response.

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brandon_the_random(7b)

Thanks! So the speckling is normal or at least, not very detrimental? That's a 3~4 gallon pot. It's just the angle and the fact that the leaves shown are huge in comparison to the rest. They're about 5 times the size.

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Slimy_Okra(2b)

Yes, I've found that GC plants' lower leaves often end up looking ratty, yellowed or falling off. As long the plant is healthy and making more new leaves than those being lost, I wouldn't worry about it.

But a 3-4 gallon pot is very small for a GC. Those plants would need at least a 10 gallon to grow well.

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What vegetable is this?Has to be a volunteer, I think.
Posted by prairiemoon2 z6 MA
9 Comments
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farmerdill

It is a vining squash so I would treat it as a winter squash. Wait untile it matures at which time the rind will be hard and it will probably change color, the try it for quality.

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prairiemoon2 z6 MA

Thanks Farmerdill, I'll keep my eye on it then. It would be so nice if it turned out to be tasty because it sure grew easily with no disease or pest problems so far and it's pushing out a lot of fruit.

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theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

The sprays you mention don't cure powdery mildew (well I'm not sure about the daconil and immunox). They only help to control it's spread. Which is what you've noticed. If you didn't spray the PM would have most likely taken over your plants and quickly. Once you've got PM there is no turning back the clock.

Rodney

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Peter1142(Zone 6b)

Well, I have read elsewhere that PM rarely kills an entire plant by itself or effects new leaves, and this seems to match my experience. I did not spray every plant I have out there and some others have gotten it on a few leaves but it is spreading slowly, only on the older leaves, the same as the pumpkins. I did not spray the newer leaves either. While I understand that PM can't be cured, I honestly don't feel like I have made any real significant difference, only perhaps slowed it down a tiny bit. Given that all of these plants are now on their way out no matter what I do, I am kind of burnt out from trying to take care of them, and will be happy with the harvest I am getting. At this point 2 zucchini a day, about 10-15 acorns, 4 butternuts, 8-10 pumpkins (assuming they all mature, but I bet I can eat them green all the same, or use them for dog treats), I am already sick of squash now and haven't even harvested all the winter stuff yet.

What would be good for prophylaxis next year?

This post was edited by Peter1142 on Mon, Aug 4, 14 at 9:52

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seysonn(8a WA/HZ 1)

As I read through the posts , it becomes obvious that you may have no fruit with ONE or more plants.

My Own Experiment:

I have grown a SINGLE tomatillo plant at times and have gotten fruits just to prove wrong the theory that you need more than one plant.
There is no male or female tomatillo plants. So say you have two of them and both produce fruits. So WHO is pollinating WHOM? It just does not make sense.

Lat year I had ONE plant and started producing lanterns late August by tens if not hundreds. But could not get bigger when the weather got cooler.
This year I am also growing just one plant again. So far ZERO lanterns. But I am waiting and I am sure it will fruit later , just like last year and twice before few years ago.

I suspect that tomatillo is day length sensitive Being the native of Mexico, they like short days, not 16 hours day that we have here. Some how, either the pollens or the ovules are not viable at certain weather condition. It has noting to do with the number of plants.

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ci_lantro

First year growing tomatillos--three plants--I've had lanterns for at least a couple of weeks. Central Wisconsin & unusually cool summer.

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wertach zone 7-B SC

I picked shucked and have them drying, so I'm bumping.

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mckenziek(9CA)

Hey, Nancyjane, I may be mistaken, but I believe that downy mildew can be pretty much avoided in our climate if you use drip irrigation. The summers are too dry for easy propagation of downy mildew. I've seen people who had what I took to be downy mildew it on plants, but they were generally spray irrigated, or ornamental plants in the winter. I am not an expert, though, so take it for what it is worth. ;-)

McKenzie

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glib(5.5)

The same is true in Israel (the OP location). I can not believe that he gets DM. He must be watering with sprinklers. Israel is about as dry as the Central Valley in CA.

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seysonn(8a WA/HZ 1)

1)-The one in the picture shows (probably) Phosphorus deficiency.

2) Some pepper and tomato varieties naturally have light green foliage; like Gypsy, yellow banana. While others have darker green foliage; like Jalapeno.

3)- In general a very dark green leaves is an indication of over supply of Nitrogen. In this case they need a lot more water until the excess Nitrogen is washed down and/or used up.

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

You can do either. Without knowing which variety and type it is, long-day or short-day, there is no real way to know what it will do.

If it isn't bothering anything, leave it alone.

Dave

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

If the plants are growing well and there is no signs of any disease but no blooms then likely it is available nutrient related.

In the deep south high heat can delay blooming but in zone 5 temps I'd suspect there is excess nitrogen in the soil or insufficient phosphorous. Excess N leads to big bushy, plants with few to no blooms.

So what and how much have you fed them or what have you added to the soil in the way of nutrients? And I assume these are in ground? If they are in containers then that is a whole other set of issues.

Dave

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deadred

I did feed them at about two weeks with miracle gro. Probably too early. After some reading, I probably wasn't supposed to do that until they had already bloomed.

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hilnaric

Meant to say that aside from the size, the shape is nothing like ichiban, either, which tends to be fairly straight with a rounded blossom end.

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buenaventura43

They look like chinese eggplant.Japs.eggplant I grew is a lot darker like black in color and longer.

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Given the symptoms you describe the most likely culprit - other than stem damage - is squash vine borer. Lots of info available on them.

Dave

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alisande(Zone 4b)

Thanks, Dave! I looked up the squash vine borer and performed surgery on three plants, removing a fat borer from each. I hope each plant has a one-borer limit, because I didn't want to try digging for more.

A fourth plant appears to be affected, but the stem at the base of the plant is so thick and short that I didn't want to cut further after the first cut, which yielded nothing. Instead, I cut off two badly affected leaf stems. Instead of white borers, I found several dark brown (or dark red) millipede-type critters inside the stems. I wonder if they're a side effect of the squash borer, or a separate problem. Any idea?

I covered all the slits with soil and am hoping for the best.

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Chris - if you will check out the other 'help me ID..." posts further down the page here and over on page 2 - been a real run of the question lately - you'll find that volunteers and those grown from saved seed can seldom by identified. And even then they are just guesses.

Squash cross-pollinate far too readily (unless it is prevented) for them to breed true. So yours is a hodge-podge. :)

Growing out volunteers can be interesting but seldom worth the work or space.

Dave

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chris03333

Okay thanks!

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2ajsmama

Oh, thanks for the ammonia idea! I definitely have to go for deterrent since DH doesn't want to set a trap and attract more/other creatures, and capture the wrong one. How long does the ammonia last? Does it need to be refreshed every day? Bummer it's going to rain for the next 5 days so it might get diluted. I'll post back and let you know if the hoop worked.

Funny thing is it's just this 1 spot, and I haven't seen any worms at all, certainly if there were worms in the beds there would likely be more than 1 and I have 120ft of wooden-framed beds in the 65ft tunnel, plus another 60x4 ft mounded deep bed of the same compost in the middle. The compost is so old (finished) that I don't think there's anything for a worm to eat. No cutworms or grubs either (maybe next year), this manure had been covered with landscape fabric for a few years.

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2ajsmama

I haven't been out today since it was raining but I forgot to say I also put a rock where the hole had been dug, that seems to have discouraged the pest and I didn't see any holes anywhere else. I removed the wire but left the rock in the bed.

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lazy_gardens

It's a biodegradeable dye. Don't panic.

I use shredded tree branches and under-done compost on my veggie beds.

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Yeah much better mulches to use for vegetable gardens - literally 100's of discussions here about mulch the search will pull up for you to read. But it isn't going to kill you.

Dave

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