Hi Steve

When did you plant them? Winter squash takes about 100 days to maturity. If they are that long and have flowers I think eventually they will produce fruit for you. What you describe about the dropping of the fruit it happens sometimes in the beginning, later on they stabilize and produce fruit.

Maybe you will have to do some hand pollination if you have no bees in the garden.

Here is mine last year in August, they will produce in the heat.

September squash

Silvia

Hello Silvia- my tag says March 16, with the cold weather this winter I guess it did take off very slow. I have not seen much bug damage did you spray your papaya squash ? What did you fertilize it with ?

Steve, I planted them in raised bed around beginning of May, yours should have been fruiting already.

The bed was new and lasagna style, it had layers of hay, black cow, peat moss, bagged garden soil.

Because the bagged soil already have fertilizer I did not add any more.

I did not have problems with bugs last season with the squash, this season I planted kabocha type and acorn and they were also good.

I change the crops so my family don't get tired of the same things, also I rotate them, where I had yard long beans I have Japanese sword beans, hyacinth beans and purple Mississippi peas. Where I had the squash last time I am growing yard long beans, lima beans.

Are you growing other veggies? how they are doing? You said the tomatoes are in containers, are they doing well?

One way for me to tell if there are bugs in the squash plant is to water at the base with a hose and if there is bugs they will come up to the surface where I can get rid of them and spray if necessary.

Hope that you solve the problem and get a good harvest!

And this is another topic but did you ask about the banana pups? Well, when I bought the 12 something bananas that I have the going bananas expert suggested that I keep 3 , 1 for fruit and the 2 for replacement after the one fruits. He also said to cut it when fruits leaving some to provide nutrients.

I did that and I did not like the look, everywhere bananas with big roots.

This past winter I thought it will be a good idea and more appealing to the eye to leave only one stalk and cut those huge corms left behind after fruiting.

I don't know how it will be for fruit production, but it looks better and frees the space for planting onions in winter and now sweet potatoes.

If you want to have only 1 kind of banana then is fine for you to transfer the starts to another parts of the garden. Me? I want varieties.:)

Silvia

Sylvia,

I have to agree with you on my banana tree management. I don't like the looks of dead banana tree stumps everywhere inviting the palmetto bugs. When the pups grow around one to two feet high I remove them and plant them in another location. After fruiting the whole banana tree and stump gets pulled out and goes into the chipper/shredder, the chips goes onto the compost pile.

Lou

My Black Cherry still going strong, Green Zebra seeds you gave me did real good but are slowing down now, Celebrity( store bought) still producing good, Giant Belgium did OK, Gogi from your seed- plants did good- fruit odd shape not big,they only got ripe on one side stayed green on other. Stink bugs like everybody else said are bountiful- geeez. I bring in tomatoes to ripen inside and then they get the brown round spots and rot real fast I guess from what I read it is from the stink bugs stinging them. Okra still doing good. I guess it is time to start the fall tomato seeds- correct ?

yes it was me asking about removing the pups, 3 pups plus the parent. So I can remove one pup leaving two pups plus the parent tree- it is growing really fast

Hi Lou

You have a good idea about growing the bananas, I could even smell the stumps while they were rotting in the ground,lol. And good for you to use them in the compost pile.

Hi Steve

I already share my experience with the bananas, now it is up to you to decide.:)

I got rid of all the stinkbugs finally, using the kaolin spray, they were only in some part of the garden. They are bad infestations in other states too like Texas, a friend said that, they had to pull the tomatoes out early.

About the tomatoes Celebrity is a good starter tomato, it is recommended in Arizona all the time, gives nice and uniform tomatoes. And is about time to start the tomato seeds again for fall.

Keep us updated on your progress and start making plans for the fall garden.

Silvia