Allotments 4 All

I cut quite a lot of leaves and shoots off my squash plants today to get some more light to them, but I was a bit worried that this may encourage disease as the stems are hollow. What do other people do?

Well I have done the same thing today Caroline so if it is wrong we are in the same boat!
As the leaves are the ones that always seem to go spotty and manky first I thought it was a good idea, but I've left most ot he stems and just snapped thhe leaves of which was surprisngly easy.

I have always snapped off old, yellowing, blotchy leaves. It makes the plants look better and I am sure it does them no harm.

....and I'm really lazy and don't bother with extra work..never taken any foliage off..I just let it do its thing and die off when ready and discover all the hidden 'gems' then. The fruit will carry on ripening in storage anyway.
This year looks like I'm going to end up with whopping 5 fruits out of 20+ plants..not much to munch but suppose 'almost nothing' is better than 'nothing at all'.

BUT..ALERT!! ...
my 'normal' sweetcorn has FINALLY ripened  ..its only about 6 weeks late but it has made it and I had tummy full of steamed cobs yesterday for dinner...    ..couldn't help it..it just poured out of my typing fingers 

I have a bed with pumpkins in it and though many of the leaves are yellowing they are not totally done yet. I'm itching to lift and ripen the fruit but don't know if I'll lose any last minute benefit by doing so.  The Uchiki Kuri have been bright orange for over a month or more now. I've had a reasonable crop I think. I've cut a green skinned pumpkin from a saved supermarket seed and it was 7lb 9 oz and there are 10 or so more assorted pumpkins still there though most are smaller. (I don't grow for size).
Someone tell me to be patient!

All mine are coming off next weekend whether they're done or not, that said the foliage is dying down of its own accord now anyway, pumpkins starting to surface like orangey-yellow whales.... was mildly surprised to see how many of them are pretty large.... As well as the hoped for 100-pounder and a couple of other decently proper big ones, there are a lot that look like they'll be 15-20lbs

Have never cut brown leaves, or moldy leaves, off winter squash. The less I touch, the less likely I am to trample the vines. One good thing about leaving the vines alone, they keep producing young squash which we cook like summer squash.

Quotethey keep producing young squash which we cook like summer squash.

Hm..I never thought of that!..thanks..I shall try them unless I'm still dealing with mountain of courgettes

Quote from: goodlife on September 30, 2012, 17:10:57

Quotethey keep producing young squash which we cook like summer squash.

Hm..I never thought of that!..thanks..I shall try them unless I'm still dealing with mountain of courgettes

Lucky you. We can't grow courgette because the squash borers kill them just when they begin producing. but they don't bother some of the winter squash. I'll have to post a picture of the Pennsylvania Crooknecks this year. Well it is posted sideways for some reason. That's as good as it gets. The bigger squash is 12 lbs, not really large for a Penna. Crookneck which can reach 20 lbs, but it was hard enough to hold at 12. One person reported getting 15 from one plant after using a lot of manure. Next year I'll have to find me a horse.

I have been harvesting hunter, starting with the biggest and leaving them to mature on a sheltered cill. There are still a fair few smaller ones left and no yellow leaves so am leaving the leaves. They did respond well to a drink of comfrey a couple of weeks ago

Quotehe bigger squash is 12 lbs

That's good looking squash!..and plenty of seedless neck there too.
Are you making harvest display near door there?

Quote from: goodlife on October 01, 2012, 11:05:20

Quotehe bigger squash is 12 lbs

That's good looking squash!..and plenty of seedless neck there too.
Are you making harvest display near door there?

Yes, just some fall decorations. This year was a first for Indian Corn which grew nicely from some seed plucked from last year's wreath. The cobs are on this year's door wreath and I'm waiting to see how soon the squirrels find it and start munching. But I have to learn some trick to keep worms from eating the tip of the corncobs- but that should be on a different forum. The orange squash is upside down because of borer damage-  .

Looks a smashing collection, I just thought that you were laid down!

Quote from: pumpkinlover on October 01, 2012, 13:04:07
Looks a smashing collection, I just thought that you were laid down!

Yes , they DO look nice and yummy!

I'm with goodlife and don't pick off leaves.  I have been tempted when mildewed leaves looked really bad, but then thought that even a diseased leaf will do some photosynthesis, which benefits the ripening fruits, so in the end left them.

I think it is tomatoes that benefit somewhat from removing leaves in our northern climate where sunshine is scarce and skies are mostly milky rather than blue.

I trim off the mankiest leaves and it never seems to harm them.
I picked the 2 PinkBananas last week and yesterday started eating one - excellent! Definitely will do them again (2 fruit from one vine, about 2 kilos a fruit). And one of my Queensland blue came off teh vine itself! So that one has come back home - it's at least 3 kilos I would estimate.

removing the oldest leaves seemed to prevented diseases on my courgettes, will be doing the same next year.
since squash is a close relative similar principle should apply......
we've cut some courgettes last Sunday, and there are still some small ones there, so it seems that cutting the old leaves prolongs the season.
now just waiting for the pumpkin....