Been meaning to do an update on my polytunnel for a while but It's kinda embarrassing to be honest. But I promised a warts 'n' all gardening blog so here goes.
All was looking so great in the tunnel. It was sprouting everywhere. The squash had reached the other side of the tunnel!!
But then I spotted a brown spot on my Itchi squash.
I did see this on the first one but thought nothing of it but it seems to be happening on every one so something was amiss. Needed to get my thinking cap on.
What was it? A lack of air (tried opening the vents much more), a lack of pollination? Too humid? (same solution). It's a fine line because all these things can cause the same problem.
Turns out doctors say it is a lack of calcium. I know my soil is limey so it's not a lack in the soil so I figured it must be a lack of water to carry the calcium to the buds.
I have been underwatering. I'd been lugging a heavy watering can to do the job and it wasn't enough. SO I've invested in a hose pipe and it gets a thorough watering every day now dull or sunny. Sadly too late for the Itchi's.
Tomorrow is the day. I'm going in to cull. I will cut them all right back. There are new shoots near the ground which might fair better. We'll see.
Not only the squash but the courgettes were not looking very happy.
Trying to train them up has also put a massive strain on the stem and two have collapsed. Wondering if I should have cut more of the huge heavy leaves off? They are just too big to grow on the ground in there. I have belatedly planted one outside to see how that fairs.
I think I will also cull the courgettes tomorrow. I have a mishmash of babies in pots with no home to go to yet. I think I'll avoid the cold weather plants like cauliflowers in the tunnel in future too. They just get bigger and bigger but no flower heads yet.
ENOUGH DOOM AND GLOOM, it's not all bad in there. I've had 3 juicy fat cucumbers already and can't eat them fast enough before the next one cometh. Am so pleased with them I planted two more. Too late? We'll see.
The sweetcorn neighbours are starting to sprout cobs, won't be long now.
I've had a few helpings of green beans a week to go with my mad volunteer baby potatoes -
and most exciting of all (for me anyway) is a baby watermelon!!! It seems to have survived the drought and is busy making hundreds of watermelons all on it's own.
So here was I being all smug about being a lazy gardener and thinking everything will be ok. Just goes to show. Gardening teaches us so many lessons for our wider life too. I also know for next year what works and what doesn't. Learning from your mistakes is called EXPERIENCE.
Onwards and upwards eh......
I wonder why your squash got so high , like it is stretching and reaching for more light or something . Like my squash outside had trouble growing , got almost blown of by a stormy day but now has pretty yellow flowers and is producing fruits all over .
Flowers you can fry and eat , not that i did , as i ain't that desperate yet .
Good thing i planted two rows of 4 plants so at least ill have some kind of harvest .
Yep growing food is a learning process , and trying to grow stuff that really wants to be closer to the equator might not always work . No red hot chili peppers for me this year , the plants are after months still about 4 cm high doing seemingly nothing other then being green a bit .
Good thing the forest is exploding with berry's this year , providing a daily breakfast . ;-)
Yeah as I commented I think you have hit the nail on the head by planting enough for disease, pests and hopefully something is left for your table.
They grow so high because I trained them up with string to save space. It's called vertical growing.
No it's not as sunny here in Ireland but it's enough, I was very successful at vertical squash on my horticultural course. The north end of the tunnel gets full sun so that's where they were planted. I have a chili pepper in there, it's about a foot high now. I think I'll see some chili peppers soon.
I have had a lot of issues with squash and pumpkins also. They are very prone to pests, leaf miners on the leaves and beetles boring into the fruit. Also when there is too much rain, powdery mildew.
I think you should try pollination first. Find the male flower remove the leaves and stuff it in a female flower.
Then when you get some fruit I have been told wrapping them in cheese cloth helps to keep other pests off.
Best of luck if you find any solutions lets share them. I have had a lot of my squash rot off at the tip, but when I took them for dissection I found that they are still growing on the inside and might still mature and be ok. I also found that just growing more helps as you will loose many and keep some. I let them run around where they want and I let the vines take root again. This helps them to outrun other diseases and leave behind the old part with new roots on the vine.
The butternut squash I am growing now seems to be more disease resistant than a carribean pumpkin I tried growing before. I have learned also that the beetles and some other pests can actually give a disease to the plant and this could even manifest in the seed and next generation. I was growing the carrib pumpkin from seeds that I go from one from the super market so this could also be part.
I don't buy into the germ theory as you know, bugs only come and eat already diseased plants. There are no bugs in the tunnel except a few clever snails who get swiftly evicted. Mildew I've seen before in another tunnel and it didn't affect any healthy plants.
In this case it was definitely lack of water.
It's all good learning experience to produce better next season 😀
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