Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Zucchini's Being Squashed.

Nothing wants to be outside in 97 degrees with high humidity. Not even the plants. We've been above 90 all week with the heat index always being a few degrees over the actual. It's not pleasant.

About a week ago, I posted about my zucchini that seems to have stopped producing. It produced like gangbusters for weeks on end and then it didn't even put out male flowers for several days, which is unusual.

I thought for a time that the bush has reached the end of it's time. Then again, I haven't fertilized the garden all season, so that could have quite a bit to do with it as well, but things were looking so good for so long, I didn't see the need to. Then, I found this much farther down the main stem:

It seems like it just moved the new blossoms from the bottom to the top of the leading stem (term?). There aren't as many blooms, but it's still putting out one every third or fourth day. Not the 2-3 a day we had earlier, but still nice. The bushes are a little worse for wear and you can see the start of some powdery mildew on some of the leaves. I don't think much is going to go on here in July. For the most part, it may be the okra and sweet potato's time to shine. I can't believe I may actually need to start planning the fall garden already! More on that tomorrow....or maybe tonight since I missed a post last night. The niece and nephew were over to spend the night. It was a house of four kids under 6 yrs old. How do people do it!? At least it only took about an hour and a half for them to all fall asleep. I stayed with them this time until they all fell asleep being that the last time we woke up at 1:00AM to hear them still playing. It terrified me that we were sound asleep while they were still awake! They're playing well right now, and I've stalled them as long as I can. I'm going to run and make some breakfast.

The morning sure was early today.

4 comments:

  1. EG wants zucchini....dangit, I planted something else by mistake.

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  2. I was reading in one of Coleman's books that he starts a second zucchini periodically around the garden. Once the second one starts maturing the older one goes in the compost. Seems like a plausible idea that I would like to try this year.

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  3. Oh no, EG. Seriously? I hope what you planted was worth it. I just love zucchini and I'm sad this one is about to be done, or so it seems.

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  4. Dan, The problem with second plantings around here is the SVB and squash bugs come out in force and it's hard to get that second planting in before everything gets powdery mildew. Our staggaring would have to be only 2 weeks or so apart. It might work, however. It's worth a shot next year. Thanks!

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