baymule

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@Ridgerunner, your flock was beautiful, I know you put your heart in your birds. I hope you found them a good home where they would be appreciated. That had to be a difficult decision to make. We are blessed with good neighbors, but things can change, as your circumstances have. I'm sorry you had to give them up.
 

catjac1975

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I grew them, told everybody about them. @Ridgerunner bought seed and planted them, so did @catjac1975 She posted a thread titled A squash bigger than 2 little boys. She updated it this year, comparing her grandsons to the size of the squash.

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They do make big vines that will trellis or run all over the place. One thing I discovered, they will root at the leaf joints if allowed to run on the ground, so if squash borers get to them, the newest growth keeps living. The long neck is seed free, the seeds are in the bulb at the end.
I don't think the borers and squash bugs like them. You can eat them tiny and tender, medium and they last and last, or you can eat them as a winter squash.
 

Zeedman

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Count me among those who grow & enjoy Tromboncino (a.k.a Zucchetta Rampicante). I first started growing it because of its purported resistance to borers... which it has. Occasionally a double whammy of borers & squash bugs kills a plant, but only when young. The established plants seem completely immune to borer attack. For that reason - and because I enjoy the flavor - Tromboncino has permanently replaced zucchini in my garden.

I tried them as winter squash, but found them to be inferior to their better-flavored cousins, the Butternuts. The young squash are really great for freezing, though. Since 90% of the squash is seedless, there is no soft, seedy interior to get mushy. When blanched, the slices turn a beautiful light green throughout. Froze about 40-50 pints this year, which should last us through the winter.

Been trying for several years to renew my seed, but bad weather has gotten in the way. Fortunately, the seed has a long life... my present stock is from a 2009 crop, and still has good germination. Hopefully I'll be able to plant early enough in 2018 to get mature seed.
 

Beekissed

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Plan change. Gonna scale down tomato numbers and put in another hay bale raised bed for planting of spuds...our family eats lots of 'em but not so much tomatoes anymore. Now I can't eat them much at all, so not much need for growing them except for giving away.

Also going to plant a lot of sweet onions again, in hopes that this year I'll crack the code of how to grow them here. I've grown them elsewhere but can't seem to get a handle on it here.

Will concentrate more on veggies we eat a lot of instead of those I like but can't have. We eat tons of romaine lettuce here, so that's going to be my main succession planting in the garden this year and I hope to finally plant it in August for a winter harvest too.
 

flowerbug

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Plan change. Gonna scale down tomato numbers and put in another hay bale raised bed for planting of spuds...our family eats lots of 'em but not so much tomatoes anymore. Now I can't eat them much at all, so not much need for growing them except for giving away.

Also going to plant a lot of sweet onions again, in hopes that this year I'll crack the code of how to grow them here. I've grown them elsewhere but can't seem to get a handle on it here.

Will concentrate more on veggies we eat a lot of instead of those I like but can't have. We eat tons of romaine lettuce here, so that's going to be my main succession planting in the garden this year and I hope to finally plant it in August for a winter harvest too.

that is what we are doing here too, trying to get away from growing things we don't eat much of and shifting to more things we like.

as for onions, sweet large onions which store for several months, we grow the kelcey large yellow/white onions. i've found out that they should not be planted too deep, from starts (actively growing plants, one per cell, flats available at our local greenhouse, we don't do starts). i plant them directly into a layer of worms/worm poo/worm pee enhanced garden soil (that i keep for a year in my room here where all food and paper scraps get chewed up) and then covered by an inch or two of regular garden soil. plenty of regular watering and kept weeded. about 8 inches apart for spacing.

we get onions between 6-8 inches across, a few smaller here or there, but most do well.

if you leave a few of the small ones over winter or replant a few in the spring from the previous season you'll have flowers and plenty of seeds. :)
 

henless

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Will concentrate more on veggies we eat a lot of instead of those I like but can't have. We eat tons of romaine lettuce here, so that's going to be my main succession planting in the garden this year and I hope to finally plant it in August for a winter harvest too.

I'm wanting to plant greens for this fall/winter myself, plus a few other things.
 

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