What's new?

[Hal]

They are right in the thick with the Buttercups, Hal.

I know how I'm often pointing out how one can grow plants from the 3 common squash species and save seed from each. Nah. I often have all kinds of pepos & maximas ! The seed companies are my friends.

Yes, squash, Mary. Winter squash (C. maxima) from a high elevation Indian village in New Mexico.

Steve

Steve if you have no use for the seed due to purity issues would you mind saving it for me please? I'd like to grow it out and see if I get a hybrid of La Madera and Buttercup I could stabilize and select for earliness, flesh quality, small seed cavity and keeping quality. If I ever achieved that goal I'd send the end product back your way.

Now that I think of it La Madera might be useful in some hybrids with the Australian blue maxima to get the growing times much shorter.

 

[aftermidnight]

I'm growing rat tail radishes for the first time, don't have to worry about these one bolting when the heat hits .

Annette

 

[digitS']

I think that the tender pods of radishes are more tasty than the roots, Annette. I have yet to grow the varieties intended for the purpose, however.

It's a deal, Hal! Your idea that I should grow it to begin with !

We should talk about watermelon ... wow, I can almost see Blacktail Mountain from my garden and I can hardly believe I'll get any fruit off my Blacktail Mountain watermelon plants!

Steve
trying not to hijack @MIchael Hibberd 's thread but both squash and melon were new, this year.

 

[MIchael Hibberd]

Gourds for all! Yey!
@digitS'

 

[Lavender2]

Reporting on my new stuff...
Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe -slow growing, but not the best melon weather this year, harvested 5 so far. They are good, small but tasty. Because they don't take up much space and it's a melon I can actually get to ripen I will most likely grow them again...



(the big cuke is 12" long)

Par-cel - easy to start from seed, transplanted well, did not mind being waterlogged in the garden for quite a long period. It looked very nice in the annual border



The flavor to me is very strong celery, good in chicken salad! A bit too strong to eat alone, but I think would add nice flavor to soups, etc. The leaves make a beautiful garnish, again very strong taste, to me anyway. It's still looking good and usable in August.

We have used it enough to grow again, nice edible for the border, AND the deer, etc, left it alone!
Thanks for recommending it, @digitS' !

 

[Smart Red]

Nice job, @Lavender2. Sounds as if you've had a pretty good gardening year. I may have to try Par-Cel in my garden next year. I use a lot of celery and haven't been able to grow that here.

Those MN midgets are pretty nice. With just the two of us here, I like being able to use a whole melon at a time. It hasn't been good melon weather here either.

 

[digitS']

@ninnymary was wondering when I was gonna be cutting into this Alvaro Charentais melon. Since the melon didn't easily slip off the vine (&because so much was "riding" on its quality), I decided to give it a few days.

Then! I realised that this is not how Charentais melons work! Pick them at the proper moment or forfeit the joy of eating them at their best!

This melon is sooo good!

Steve
where I got the seed: Fedco.

 

[ninnymary]

Wow, Steve, that looks like a perfect melon! I could almost taste it with your description. Ha...but still not the same. I think I've asked you this before, can you recommend a melon for the bay area? They are not supposed to do well here because of the lack of heat but I would like to try one in a pot of course. Oh, and if you by chance have that seed for the recommended one, I would greatly appreciate 3 seeds.

Mary

 

[Smart Red]

M-m-m-m, Steve! That looks delicious. All the melons -- cantaloup and musk -- that I have grown here are the slip-stem types. I have learned over time that some melons do not work that way. Do you pick by the smell? the veining? or something else?

 

[digitS']

I have grown Charentais melons for, I guess, about 10 years. Most of those were Burpee's discontinued Honey Girl. I was so happy with that melon. It only failed me once. By that I mean, the plants died during one of our too cool Junes.

If you like cantaloupe, you should try a Charentais. They are not fussy. The complaint I read about them is that it is difficult to determine ripeness. My advice? Get down on your knees and sniff at it! That's what I do, @Smart Red .

Never would these things make good shipping melons. Harvest green and they will be insipid, at best. Leave them too long in the garden and they will split. Too long on the counter, they will rot. So, what is the problem? Nuthin', 'cept just about all melons want early season warmth.

We don't have that here ... this has been a frying pan summer I believe you called it, Mary. My Passport Galia melons are nicer than ever! I don't know how those disappointing Charentais varieties that I tried and rejected would have done in 2014 ... The Alvero may have just lucked out. Or, I may be the lucky one. Just wish I would have planted more .

Steve