Topic: Tomatoes

[Palustris]

Anne cleared out the tunnel of tomatoes today, since we are likely to have frost at any moment now (been down to 2c already) 50 lbs or so of toms! in all stages of ripeness. Me boasting, would I do that, never. The Winter squash are still in there ripening away. Hundreds of the things, well dozens, well nearly. Funny though, the best crop of toms was from a set of spare plants put in a frame full of compost. Vitually none from Marmande which got blight, the ............thing.

[tim]

oh! - depressing. Frost? Please not just yet. Though I do know that September is the big 'clearing up' month.

Eric, are you an ace on squashes? Daughter grows them for still lifes and looks for the colourful and knobbly ones. One she grew this year was from Franchi seeds - 'Tonda Padana'. S'posed to have great yellow ribs around it. So what went wrong? No colour at all.

And can you control your things?  After pinching out at 2', do you do that with every shoot? Hers have taken over a 30'X15' patch of my lovingly prerared ground.  All out now because of mildew.  Oh! Maybe that's it? They should have had much longer to colour up?

Toms? So many folk seem to have had a glut but, with 28 plants, though they are all producing, we have unusually had none to sell. Santa (since early June) is virtually over, tho' still flowering at 9 feet. Left the flowers on 'cos they look pretty! Several varieties are fruiting steadily at that height, including John Hawkins, with 8-12 oz fruits. But heavy shade is telling as the sun gets lower. - Tim

[Palustris]

Re-squashes. Not in any way an expert. We just plant them and leave em to it, just adding water when needed. Did get some advice from some one in America (the brilliant botanist type whose name I have ill manneredly forgotten). And I have forgotten the advice too so I am rather useless. One of ours is supposed to be blue, but it is orange. Could be the seed? Sorry.

[Mrs Ava]

I have always been pretty good at growing squashes of all shapes and sizes, had a good crop of odd looking gourds this year.  My biggest success was growing them in the top of my compost heap, directly in the fresh hot and steaming manure!  Piled the manure in, levelled it off, made a small impression, filled with a handful or two of soil then planted the wee plants and off they went!  We were sick to the back teeth of marrows, courgettes, cucumbers and the kids had the biggest pumpkins I had seen to carve!  They do spread like the clappers, like oodles of water, and mine always get mildew!  No idea why on that score.  Hope this is some help.   ;D

[john_miller]

Tim, How anyone grows squash successfully in the U.K. is beyond me. In a cool year, for this area, they can fail. If your squashes didn't colour properly it would probably due to low temperatures and/or low light.

[tim]

thanks for the thought, John - hope the blast is over over there? Our son's flight home from Washington was cancelled yesterday, and another is due to go there  with his wife this w/e - Tim

[Palustris]

Apologies, John. it was you whose name I forgot. I make the excuse that I have difficulty remembering my childrens names so what chance does anyone else stand? We grow Butternut, Delicata, Blue Kurri, Golden Nugget and another one with orange skin which is not a pumpkin. We grow them in a poly tunnel, in a frame and out in the open. This year we have over 25 squashes from  about  10 plants and that is enough to keep us going until next year. Obviously the tunnel ones produce more than the outside ones. And this year has not been particulary good as the lack of water has made things difficult. :)

[john_miller]

Thankfully the blast missed us. After making landfall in North Carolina the storm steered almost due North and pounded Buffalo and Toronto with rain and wind before turning East over the almost deserted Canadian hinterlands. You should be getting soaked in 10 days time? Canada Goose may have a different story from me to tell!
As Alishka has pointed out my modesty would not let me be offended by my name being forgotten. I feel embarrassed that I never brought up the subject of your winter squash again even though I am genuinely interested in how they did. I am particularly surprised that you are able to get Delicata to mature as even here we have to do them from transplants (relative maturity about 120 days compared to 80 for Waltham butternut). Well worth the effort though in my opinion- commonly referred to as sweet potato squash (due to it's flavour) over here should anyone want to try it.