Marina Di Chioggia Pumpkin seeds were planted on June 17. Even if you have no interest in gardening, check out the pictures in the first link. They look so interesting. They truly do take over the area. They’ve grown up into the asparagus. They’re growing on the nearby tomato cow panel. They’re in the black eyed peas.
I’m so hoping at least a few of them will grow to maturity. The one shown above is in the black eyed pea patch.
This one is growing in the middle of the yard. I read somewhere that they were resistant to squash bugs. Apparently, they aren’t resistant to the squash bugs we have here. I’ve been going out almost every evening and spraying as much of them as I can down with Neem oil but I’m not sure that’s helping.
This is the original bed where I planted them and most of the ones in there have died. I hope I’m not being overly optimistic but those big leaves are up on tall stems and it seems that each stem has rooted itself into the ground so I’m hoping that even if the “mother” plant dies, some of the offshoots will survive and I’ll get a few of the pumpkins. I’m so frustrated with the squash bugs. If they want the yellow squash and zucchini . . they can have them (they ruined them very early) but I would love to be able to grow some of the more interesting curcurbits.
I’ll post here whether I get squash or whether they all succumb to the squash bugs.
Joyce says
Squash bugs are a pain in the rear. I had heard once you have them, you may as well quit trying to grow squash, but what I was just reading didn’t sound so dire. One thing it recommended was planting Tansy and/or Nasturtium with them, because the bugs don’t like them. It also said to keep the plants covered until they start blooming. (Those were the easy things…) There were other suggestions too, so just keep researching and see what works.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I planted nasturtiums – lots of them because I started them from seeds and that didn’t help. I planted the zucchini in grow bags and keep them inside under grow lights until they started to bloom, then transferred them outside. Of 6 zucchini plants, I got two zucchini before the squash bugs ruined all the plants. I do believe once you have them, they never go away.