Pics of West Indian Pumpkin grown in NJ.

[lakelady]

Alfredo, I am so disappointed in my squash this year. Rugosa Violina has NO flowers but is growing well. I do not understand. Then my "mess" over in the other garden, has the Chiogga squash and that is loaded with flowers (3 plants) but all males I cannot see any females. Okay, so the cucumbers and squash are all tangled together as the cukes I planted seem to be much longer vines than expected and the squash doesn't want to run over ground but keeps trying to wrap tendrils on the cuke trellis. I'm still hoping something comes of both of these though.

Wonder how I can get the Chiogga to produce female flowers ugh.

How is your garden doing?

[Alfredo]

Originally Posted by lakelady

Alfredo, I am so disappointed in my squash this year. Rugosa Violina has NO flowers but is growing well. I do not understand. Then my "mess" over in the other garden, has the Chiogga squash and that is loaded with flowers (3 plants) but all males I cannot see any females. Okay, so the cucumbers and squash are all tangled together as the cukes I planted seem to be much longer vines than expected and the squash doesn't want to run over ground but keeps trying to wrap tendrils on the cuke trellis. I'm still hoping something comes of both of these though.

Wonder how I can get the Chiogga to produce female flowers ugh.

How is your garden doing?

Hey lakelady,
Sorry to hear the Rugosa Violina isn't flowering yet...have you applied any type of fertilizer to help it along possibly? I usually add some "Garden-Tone" organic granular fertilizer from Espoma to my squash plants once they're growing and that seems to help them. My 2 types of squash, Nutterbutter Winter Squash (type of butternut squash) and Guatemalan Blue Banana are both growing well. The Butternut is already flowering, and the Guatemalan Blue Banana is growing quite big...should start to flower soon. So your squash and cukes are growing together and getting a little tangled? That happens sometimes...hopefully they'll just act as a natural mulch for each other's roots against any heat waves. That happens with me and my morning glories, I'm always pruning them back off of my other vegetables/bushes...ok so sometimes I let them loose on bushes, but only if it's one of my plain green evergreen bushes and I want to introduce some color . I'm growing cucumbers and summer squash too, but I tend to always start those seeds late as I'm more into growing the tomatoes, winter squash, peppers and beans. I really should start both the cukes and summer squash earlier, and maybe start the cukes indoors just to get them growing earlier.

This year I've really got into growing beets, I've grown several Early Wonder Beets and they're very sweet, great for juicing...I'm also growing Bull's Blood Beets but those aren't ready yet as I staggered my timing of sowing the different types of Beets to have a wave of harvests with them hopefully. I'm going to post some pics of my squash plants here so you can see how they're faring so far this year.

~Alfredo

[Alfredo]

Here are some pics of my squashes for 2013.

IMG_0432.jpg Guatemalan Blue Banana Squash growing next to Rosita Eggplants, Orange and Red Habanero plants, Zinnia, Borage and Sunflowers. Wildflower garden area in the back against the wall.

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IMG_0522.jpg NutterButter Winter Squash flowering.

IMG_0523.jpg NutterButter Winter Squash flowering.

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~Alfredo