Nick,

That's an interesting test you did. Only three pumpkins passed and no summer squash.

I think your test may be unnecessarily severe. For example, I didn't grow any summer squash this year, but last year I grew a single Costata Romanesco (from Johnny's) quite successfully. The plant became huge, with really big leaves. It had long vines which I trained up onto a concrete re-mesh support to conserve garden space. It had very good tasting zucchini squash and an abundance of male blossoms for squash blossom recipes. Deep fat fried in a batter is my favorite, but some people like to "stuff" them. Squash blossoms are considered a delicacy in restaurants.

I haven't grown any winter squash yet, but in past years I have grown at least a dozen other varieties of summer squash successfully, with some special care, but not an awful lot. I feed them liquid fertilizer using a soluble formula like Miracle-Gro Tomato Food and I hand-pick any squash bugs that appear. Fortunately I haven't had problems with Squash Vine Borers, but if I do, I will probably split the vine to kill the borers and toss the vines on the compost pile.

I start an early crop indoors under overdriven fluorescent lights and set them out in a fairly advanced stage about the first of June. Some people have reported success with successive plantings, and I plan to try that next year. That worked well with our pole beans and pole peas this year.

As fall approaches, powdery mildew inevitably becomes a serious problem and if frost doesn't kill your plants the powdery mildew will. Next year I will probably spray a lot of a product called GreenCure® to fight the powdery mildew. This year it is working fairly well on our tomatoes, eggplants, and zinnias.

As that link shows, GreenCure is effective against powdery mildew and a bunch of other diseases as well. It is completely non-toxic and safe. I use about 1½ tablespoons of GreenCure in a gallon of water. I need to get a better sprayer, to do a better job of covering the bottom sides of the leaves. With GreenCure, hopefully my squash will survive the powdery mildew a little better next year.

MM

MM,
Thanks for the info.

And yes, the test was severe, but that was the point. I was looking for varieties that would survive to fruition all on their own. Varieties that could adapt and succede in harsh growing conditions. Varieties with the potential to grow like weeds, not that I'd necessarily want them to become weeds, but I wouldn't mind it.

The Connecticut Field Pumpkin, New England Pie Pumpkin, & Sweet Dumpling all developed and ripened fruit quite a bit smaller than they were "supposed" to, but the fact that they fruited at all, I find impressive. All 3 of these varieties are new to me this past year, and I hope that they will thrive that much more so next year when planted in composted rabbit and chicken manure.

-Nick

Nick,

Good luck next year with your pumpkins in Maine.

MM