Help needed with my squash, please

[Yasai]

My blue kuri plants are on their way out. Hopefully, I will get three fruit out of them...was looking to be loads more but, despite the abundance of male flowers, the female flowers have all been dying off. Not sure what to do differently next year... other than build a bigger frame and move somewhere a lot hotter. Ho hum.

[Snoop Puss]

Zelenina, I bought Futsu seeds from MoreVeg. I've got two plants, one of which has conventional male and female flowers, but the other is a kind of mutant: it has flowers that grow like males on a long stalk, but inside it has both male and female flower parts and a gert big round thing (as we Bristolians might say) below them that isn't quite a proper female fruit but more than you'd expect to find in the base of a male flower. Very strange!

[Zelenina]

That does sound strange, Snoop. have you taken any photos?

[Somerset_newbie]

That's an interesting idea, adding chopped banana skins.

I add lots of banana skins to Dalek compost bins with the hope of upping the potassium levels, but I don't know how quickly the nutrients would be released if applied more directly. Might give this a try

It's an idea I came across online while googling about non-flowering squashes. It does make me feel slightly like a mad person, going out there in the morning with the banana skins from breakfast and burying them around the roots like a sacrificial offering...

[Somerset_newbie]

Will they eat apples? Seriously thinking though,I worry about what insects you might attract with them,maybe bury them away from flies & wasps? Would the kuri flowers pollinate the musquee flowers?

Well you know what they say, an apple a day and all that ;-) I can't really bury the apples, as there are far too many of them (cue sinister laughter) - the beds are a very convenient place to put them, out of the way of the mower and my big lummox feet. Can the wasps do any harm, other than sting me?

[Somerset_newbie]

My blue kuri plants are on their way out. Hopefully, I will get three fruit out of them...was looking to be loads more but, despite the abundance of male flowers, the female flowers have all been dying off. Not sure what to do differently next year... other than build a bigger frame and move somewhere a lot hotter. Ho hum.

Sorry to hear you've been struggling too. I think that despite the seed packet's instructions, I maybe simply planted my plants out too late (mid-June). They got lots of sun early on, but the weather's been pretty rubbish ever since late July, with only occasional sunny days in between lots and lots of rain and cloud. So next year they're getting planted earlier, and I'll maybe build each plant a mound, as many people suggest. Or use tyres maybe, like this chap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdjiuIgrtE&t=861s. I'm spending far too much time watching Youtube vids and looking at different trellising ideas. And I did 0 gardening up until two months ago...

[Snoop Puss]

Squash... you do realise they're a gateway drug?

[Jonnyt]

Somerset newbie, I sowed some Pumpkins in early April, planted out early May and they have produced to date 3 Pumpkins between 2 plants.

I bought a Crown Prince plant with 3 leaves at the Axminster show in the middle of June and that's got 3 bigger pumpkins growing despite being 2 months later AND the wet weather through July and August to date. It's a total triffid taking over my allotment.

Therefore my conclusion is the polar opposite to yours. The Crown prince was grown on a plot following First Earlies which had been given plenty of manure. I think that's the reason it has prospered.

[Somerset_newbie]

Squash... you do realise they're a gateway drug?

And here's me with an addictive personality

I have already been eyeing up some local allotments, but my girlfriend suggested that I could start out small - by mowing our lawn more often, say...

[Somerset_newbie]

Somerset newbie, I sowed some Pumpkins in early April, planted out early May and they have produced to date 3 Pumpkins between 2 plants.

I bought a Crown Prince plant with 3 leaves at the Axminster show in the middle of June and that's got 3 bigger pumpkins growing despite being 2 months later AND the wet weather through July and August to date. It's a total triffid taking over my allotment.

Therefore my conclusion is the polar opposite to yours. The Crown prince was grown on a plot following First Earlies which had been given plenty of manure. I think that's the reason it has prospered.

Maybe my musquees are just lazy then? It surely can't be the soil if my red kuri is busy producing flowers and fruit.

[Yasai]

Or use tyres maybe, like this chap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdjiuIgrtE&t=861s. I'm spending far too much time watching Youtube vids and looking at different trellising ideas. And I did 0 gardening up until two months ago...

Thanks for the link. Yes, YouTube gardening videos can be very addictive. Just skimmed my way through the numerous videos this guy has made about his pumpkins. The biggest problem I have with squash plants is that they always succumb to powdery mildew, which is what is killing them off now by the looks of things. Am already looking forward to having another go next year...

[Zelenina]

I have already been eyeing up some local allotments, but my girlfriend suggested that I could start out small - by mowing our lawn more often, say...

Lawns are boring. Dig it up and grow vegetables there instead.

[Zelenina]

Maybe my musquees are just lazy then? It surely can't be the soil if my red kuri is busy producing flowers and fruit.

It's probably because they are two different species. Musquees are Cucurbita moschata and red Kuris are Cucurbita maxima. The moschatas really need hotter summers than the maximas to do well.

[Somerset_newbie]

Thanks for the link. Yes, YouTube gardening videos can be very addictive. Just skimmed my way through the numerous videos this guy has made about his pumpkins. The biggest problem I have with squash plants is that they always succumb to powdery mildew, which is what is killing them off now by the looks of things. Am already looking forward to having another go next year...

That's the slightly frustrating thing about my musquees - they look in very fine fettle, apart from the fact that the damn things simply won't flower for love nor money. Though when my girlfriend grew spaghetti squash last year, powdery mildew was a real problem. I remember helping her snip off all the affected leaves, it was pretty grim.

I hear you on looking forward to next year, I'm already drawing up a shortlist of what I want to grow. If only our garden was 3-4 times as big...

[Somerset_newbie]

Lawns are boring. Dig it up and grow vegetables there instead.

- Don't tempt me! Our landlady would go ballistic