A very delicata situation.

The summer is quickly flying by, and it has now been 14 days since any significant rainfall. The ground is warm and dry, and all of the plants are trying to catch up. Most plants finally look healthy (though stunted), and most are now starting to bearing fruit.

The one major exception has been the potatoes which at first thrived in the cool rainy weather, but then started their die back about three weeks ago; much earlier than normal. At first, I thought that the tomato blight had done the deed, as they showed signs of infection, but I sample harvested from three different plants and though small, the tubers show no sign of infection (fingers crossed). Most of potato plants are completely dead, but I will leave the tubers in the ground as long as possible.

The winter squash have me especially worried. By now, the vines are usually 20-30 feet long with large green leaves and several fruits per plant. Last year we got 19 carving pumpkins and 28 butternuts from 8 plants of each variety. So far this year, the largest of the seven carving pumpkin plants are barely two feet long, with tiny leaves, and just one fruit developed - which I pollinated by hand yesterday but does not look good. From 11 butternut plants, I only have four growing fruits. This year I also tried buttercup squash (two fruits on seven plants), sugar pumpkins (no fruits on six plants), fairytale pumpkins (no fruit on three plants), and a variety from Italy said to have originated in Jerusalem (no fruit on two plants). Again, all plants and their leaves are underdeveloped.

The only winter squash thriving are my eight Cornell Bush Delicata. These are a variety of delicatas engineered at Cornell University to grow in a bush like summer squash, instead of on long vines like other winter squash. I was intrigued at the potential to save space so I bought a packet of seeds from Park Seed. I put in eight seeds into starter flats, and all grew strong and healthy. So far I have 12 well-developed fruits with others showing promise. I've taken to hand pollinating all of my winter squash this year in an attempt to jump-start fruit development, which has been hampered by the cool, wet June and July. I learned about hand pollinating from this blog, and have already applied to to two butternuts and several delicatas (one of which I was able to do in the manner to save for seed!)



As you can see, they really are bushy rather than viney. I'm guessing that these plants did better because they were from select seed, in the highest and driest part of the garden, and get the most sun in a given day (I still have some more trees to fell). According to this news release from 2001, though engineered, they are not hybrids, so I will be able to save seed and propagate. We shall see.



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