Cucurbit growing 2017

[mic]

In the greenhouse i have (all plants now a couple inches tall)

5 x Lidl seed cucs (forget the name)
5 x marketmore
3 x telegraph

1 x sugar baby melon but 3 more germinating
5 x cucamelon seeds germinating

Would like to try a butter squash too.

In the garden I have 3 jack o lantern pumpkins growing, possibley a bit early but I'll risk it as there's only a few weeks before last risk of frost and I don't want to keep upsizing the pots untill then. Have got a good few inch tall so doing ok at the moment.

[Small pumpkin]

How did I nearly miss this brilliant thread.
There's some stunning varieties of cucurbits being grown, I will have to go and gooooogle some of them later
All of the seeds will be started in the tunnel, sowing time depends on who's who some March, most April. I don't use heated propogater for any of the seeds. sow them on there edge, just below the surface of the compost, cover with fleece as needed and talk nicely to them. Pumpkin,squash & courgette will all be planted in raised beds. Cucumbers in polytunnle raised bed. Melons in big tubs ( fish boxes ) in polytunnel.
Here is my grow list for this year.

Courgette de nizza _ Nice round variety always grow
Courgette astia. _ Grew last year, liked it growing again
Courgette Tuscany. _ As above
Courgette Tromboncino _ Never grown before ( VC recommendations )

Pumpkin small sugar. _ Always grow love it
Pumpkin hundredweight _ Grew last year, massive fail! Trying again
Pumpkin wee-be-little _ Never grown before
Pumpkin cushaw green striped. _ As above

Squash vegetable spaghetti. _ Grew last year, now an always grow
Squash acorn table King. _ Never grown before
Squash Queensland blue. _ As above
Squash warted Hubbard _ As above
Squash red kuri. _ As above
Squash jumbo pink banana. _ As above
Squash Turks turban. _ As above
Squash sweet dumpling _ As above
Squash summer sunburst f1._ Grew a couple of years ago, liked it, having another go

Cucumber femspot _ Very good heavy cropper, great taste, grow every year
Cucumber crystal apple _ never grown before
cucumber marketmore _ grown before, didn't really like it, but I have seeds.

Melon garla. _ Grow every year, seeds from shop brought fruit
Melon honeydew. _ As above

[Small pumpkin]

Courgette Tuscany & astia were March sowing. So they have germinated and are doing very nicely

[Xepher]

I'm planning on waiting another week before sowing most of my Curcubits, I've only got Melons in the heated propogator so far. This year I'm planning on growing;

Melon - Green Nutmeg and Golden Sweet.

Cucumber - Kheera, Wautoma, Muncher

Winter Squash - Blue Hubbard, Chicago Warted Hubbard, Black Futsu, Turks Turban, Dishpan Cushaw, Kakai, Sibley

Courgette - De Nice a Rond, Tondo de Piacenza.

Pumpkin - Luxury Pie, Rouge vif d’etampes

Cucamelons, Kiwano and Bitter Melon.

[seasprout]

Hello

I've only been gardening a few years but squash are my favourite things to grow since they are easy and productive. I just sowed everything today. I'm doing green bush courgettes, sunstripe courgettes, a random green courgette, fruit rond courgette, trombocino, sunburst patty pan, golden crookneck, Autumn crown, Waltham butternut, Hunter butternut, Jack o lantern pumpkin, random other pumpkin, cucamelon and zeina cucumber. I might have gone a bit overboard. Last year I did green and yellow courgettes, patty pan, trombocino and a butternut squash. The rest are new.

Hi SnowWhyte, and welcome.

I spotted you sneaking in there.
That's an impressive list of cucurbits growing, I've been told Trombocino although impressive looking tastes a bit uck, have you found that..?

[seasprout]

But which to grow..?

Nope - I will have a look back through my notes though. It came from a few sources as snippets in bigger articles, as much of this kind of stuff tends to, that I have then forwarded with a request for confirmation. So perhaps I am being a bit previous about saying they are 2 strains - but that would seem likely. This is one of them, which is from a Telegraph article in 2012 and was very easily re-found:

'The red onion squash, 'Uchiki Kuri’, is sometimes known as the orange hokkaido squash. It also crops well, even in cool summers, and in a hot season will produce eight fruits per plant. On average, fruits weigh just over 2lb, a good size for one meal.

'Kuri’ is Japanese for chestnut and 'Potimarron’ (another red kuri) means “chestnut pumpkin” in French. They are similar to each other, but 'Potimarron’ produces larger fruits of roughly 3lb each, but perhaps the flavour is not quite as good.'

Maybe we should grow them side by side and see what the differences are, if any, for ourselves?

Sparrow100, which of the two would you say is the better chestnutty, creamiest flavoured one in your opinion...?

I'd like to grow some next year.

[Small pumpkin]

What does everyone feed their cucurbits? Especially pumpkin & squash.
I want to get the best harvest possible, so going to pay much more attention to watering and feeding this year.
Things usually have to look after them selves once they're established in the raised bed
( very like kids when they've left home )

[Snowwhyte]

Hi SnowWhyte, and welcome.

I spotted you sneaking in there.
That's an impressive list of cucurbits growing, I've been told Trombocino although impressive looking tastes a bit uck, have you found that..?

Last year was my first year growing the trombocino. I got a few of the free plants from, I think, Suttons when they had an offer. Only one survived and i planted it in a large pot on my patio. I only got two fruits so it wasn't a particular success but the taste wasn't that different to my regular courgettes. I am trying them from seed this year and will give them more attention and possibly trellis them so we'll see how they do.

[seasprout]

What does everyone feed their cucurbits? Especially pumpkin & squash.
I want to get the best harvest possible, so going to pay much more attention to watering and feeding this year.
Things usually have to look after them selves once they're established in the raised bed
( very like kids when they've left home )

Tomato food.
(Spell checker just changed that to Tabasco.).....

[seasprout]

My selection

This is what I'm sowing this year.:

Melon Blenheim orange
Gherkin hokus
Cucumber euphya (long one)
Cucumber magnum F1 (mini)
Cucumber la diva (mini)
Cucumber mini munch F1 (mini)
Courgette coucourzelle (yellow one)
Courgette midnight F1 (green un)
Butternut squash hunter F1
Squash crown prince F1
Squash Galeux d' Eysire

And some cucamelon that were sent as tomato seed.

[mic]

im using this, quid a tub. seems ok but cant get on the website for some reason

[vixylix]

I haven't sown any of mine yet... hopefully that will be done this coming weekend. But I am planning on growing:

Cucamelon
Cucumber Marketmore 76
Gherkin - Mohican
Pumpkin Wee Be Little
Courgette Midgnight
Summer Squash Sunburst
Winter Squash Waltham Butternut, Spaghetti and Turks Turban

At least that is my starting list, I'm sure others will sneak in there as I go

[Chris11]

First courgette popped up today

It's an All Green Bush, and it's been in the basic heated propagator for 8 days.
Seed was from an old packet I bought a few years ago, saying sow by 2014.

[Small pumpkin]

That gives me hope for my small sugar pumpkins, they had 2014 sow by date as well. Mine aren't in the heated propagator.

[poly]

I'm still working on my squash list, just so many varieties I'd like to be trying

I've sown some courgettes, Partenon F1, Cavli F1, Goldmine F1 and Zephyr F1. Partenon was first off the mark. I've also sown a couple of Bylina squash seeds, they are not up yet and a bit early to sow perhaps but I don't mind bringing them on for a while in the greenhouse.