Monday 5 September 2016

Harvest Monday: Sept 5, 2016


This is my submission to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. Despite my earlier efforts at managing the squash bug population, they are now too many to keep up with.  At this point, I'm just taking what I can get and some things are going to be harvested early so I can get the vines cleaned up.

The large pumpkin on the right is a Dickinson.  It should be a bit darker in colour, but the bugs particularly liked that plant.  The rest of the lot includes two Marina di Chioggia, three Long Island Cheese pumpkins, two small spaghetti squash, 1 acorn squash, 5 Sweet Dumpling squash and a Cinderella pumpkin.

And more peppers ... these are all King of the North.  The small ones were from container plants in the greenhouse and those two big ones are from one of several plants I put into hay bales outside.

King of the North peppers

1 Xanthia pepper, rest are Gypsy

And San Marzano plum tomatoes.  These went into a batch of salsa.


I also have harvested a few side shoots of broccoli and one kohlrabi - or at least one that I could eat.  The remaining kohlrabi came out very woody and went into the compost ...


I look forward to seeing what other gardeners are doing this week!

10 comments:

  1. That's a nice haul of squashes, given the bug problem. I discovered a population explosion of them around my zucchini, despite all the squashing and scraping of egg masses.

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    1. They certainly are a challenge. And with more organic growers, more opportunity for them to spread. Ugh! We all must do our duty to keep them down, but sometimes it gets pretty gross with all the squishing ...

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  2. I am duly impressed by that winter squash harvest - and so much variety! I'll only be harvesting 2 or perhaps 3 squash from the bales as the fruit was just so late in setting...my fault as I didn't water the bales as much as I should have at the beginning of the season so they had a slow start. At least the butternuts growing in the beds are doing ok - they should make up for the sparse bale harvest.

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    1. A couple of mine in the bales got a slow start as well - just seeing my first tromboncino this year and it should have been a fast grower. Oh well, lessons learned every year. Hope you get a good yield on the butternuts!

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  3. That is a lovely assortment of squash! And what a difference between the hay bale peppers and the greenhouse ones. I would have thought the two bigger ones were a different variety. The squash bugs were bad here this year. The population just seemed to explode, and then before long all my plants were toast.

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    1. Yes I guess the outdoor "bale" peppers just had more room to grow roots versus those in containers. Although these particular King of the North peppers are from one plant that seems to have smaller than average fruit.

      Argghh, squash bugs!!

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  4. That is wonderful variety of squashes, especially with the squash bug problem. Nothing good to say about squash bugs. Yuck. I think Long Island Cheese pumpkins are such beautiful pumpkins. How do they taste?

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  5. Um, I hesitate to mention it, but the Marina di Chioggia and Long Island Cheese squashes don't look like the ones that I've known and grown... Yikes.

    Interesting, the one time I grew King of the North they all came out like your small ones. Too bad about the kohlrabi, they probably didn't like your hot summer weather. Hot summer weather - I laugh, it was so far from hot here this summer. I haven't even harvested enough tomatoes yet to make a batch of salsa. Maybe this week!

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    1. Ha ha, well I tend to agree on the squash but ... the Marina di Chioggia do look right except they are usually green not orange. But the right shape (might be hard to tell from the pic). But could be something else - it is from a plant I bought. And the Long Island Cheese should be much bigger and rounder and ORANGE. So I think they are just immature and I pulled them due to the pile of squash all over them. So maybe not edible - I will soon find out!! The trials of gardening!

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  6. Your peppers are ripening really well, I tend to get antsy and pick them when they're mottled. And you're getting lots of paste tomatoes, we never have luck with those I don't think they like our hot weather or clay soil.

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