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Squash General.
Italian zucchini like our Striato d’Italia, Genovese, Albarello di
Sarzanza, etc. have a more distinctive taste than American varieties. They tend to be big plants with lots of flowers.
Use the flowers as well as the fruit.
Winter squash like Padana and Marina di Chioggia have a sweet dry flesh
and store well. They are excellent in soups, roasted, in gnocchi or with
pasta. In our trials, they appear
to have exhibited good resistance to downy mildew and powdery mildew. Culture.
Squash like a loose fertile well drained soil.
They really benefit from a few shovelfuls of compost or composted
manure mixed in the planting hole. Direct
seed a week or two after the last frost date when the soil has warmed up to 65-70
degrees. Plant 5-6 seeds ½-1 inch
deep in a hill. (Actually a 10-12
inch circle. Space ‘hills’
three feet apart and rows five-six feet apart.
Thin to 2-3 plants per hill. You
can also use transplants for earlier crops if you are careful not to disturb the
roots when you set out. Two to
three weeks before set out date, sow 4-5 seeds in a six or eight inch pot.
Thin to two or three. Carefully
transplant into a hole taking care not to disturb the roots.
Zucchini are ready in 50 or so days from direct seed, 10 days or so less
from transplants. Zucchini will
bear prolifically for 6-8 weeks, then production will fall off but continue.
It is a good idea to make a second planting five or so weeks after the
first and rip out the first planting when the second begins to bear.
This will (1) continue production (2) take care of any plant loss from
squash vine borers or squash bugs. For winter squash, plant 4-5 seeds in hills
six feet apart in rows six feet apart. Insects & diseases.
Cucumber beetles can seriously defoliate young plants.
If they are present, control with lightweight remay cloth or rotenone or
pyrethrum. Check the underside of leaves for egg masses and destroy
them. For vine borers, cut the vine
borers out and pile dirt around the wounded area. Rotenone around the base of the plant will also help to
control vine borers. Harvest/storage/use. Harvest zucchini when small-four to six inches, although the eating quality of Italian squash remains quite good up to about twelve inches. Pick round zucchini when about the size of a baseball or softball. Pick Tonda di Nizza before they change color from light green to dark green. Make sure you pick plenty of flowers. They make excellent eating. Store in a refrigerator in the crisper. Cook the flowers in frittata, dip in egg & bread crumbs and fry or stuff. See the recipe list for more suggestions. Harvest winter squash when full grown and completely colored up by cutting the stem with a sharp knife leaving about an inch of stem. Harvest before the first heavy frost, although they will take a bit of a light frost without damage to fruit. Leave in the field a few days to cure. Store at 50-55 degrees with some air circulation. A cool basement will normally work as will an attached garage (if it doesn’t go much below freezing). Go through periodically and cull out squash which are showing some spoilage. Roast with carrots, potatoes, onions, rosemary, sage and some olive oil. Use in soups, gnocchi or cook with pasta. Cucumbers General. Italian cucumbers tend to be very mild tasting. Bianco primaticio is a small white cucumber which is excellent in salads but also makes a very nice pickle. in our trials, it has exhibited good resistance to wilt spread by cucumber beetles. Tortarello is a very sweet long green cuke; 1/2 long of Puglia is a classic green pickling type good fresh or for pickles. Culture. Cucumbers like a loose well drained and fertile soil. You can either direct seed or use transplants if you are careful. Cucumbers do especially well when grown on a trellis, particularly long ones which are straighter when trellis grown. Cucumbers are heat lovers and should not be started until two or three weeks after your last frost date and when the soil temperature has warmed up until at least sixty degrees F. If growing on a trellis, direct seed 2-3 seeds every six to ten inches and thin to one or two. If growing in beds, plant five or six seeds in a hill (actually a twelve inch circle) and thin to three. Space hills three feet apart and rows five or six feet apart. Keep well watered. For transplants, put 2-4 seeds in a four inch pot and thin to two. Start transplants three weeks before set out date. Carefully transplant taking care not to disturb the roots. Insects & diseases. The bane of cucumber growers is the cucumber beetle. They can seriously defoliate young plants and they spread a wilt which is usually fatal. Prevent by covering young plants with remay cloth; cucumber beetles are usually gone by the second or third week of June. You can also spray with rotenone. Bianco Primaticcio seems to exhibit resistance to wilt. It is a good idea to make a second planting about four or five weeks after the first. That way if you have problems with the first crop, you can still have cucumbers. Try not to touch the leaves when they are wet from morning dew or after a rain; this also encourages the spread of disease. Harvest/storage/use. Pick cucumbers when small. Do not allow them to get large and develop seeds, since this will stop or slow continued production. If you grow cucumbers on the ground, look carefully since it is easy to miss one. Try and pick them when the foliage is dry. Store in a refrigerator in the crisper section.
Melons General. Home grown melons picked when dead ripe are a treat not to be missed. The taste is nothing like the bland supermarket melons. Our charentais is the classic European melon and has a great taste, texture and smell. Culture. Melons like a loose well drained and fertile soil. If you have some, put a few shovelfulls of composted manure or good compost in the planting hole. You can either direct seed or use transplants if you are careful. If you live in zones five or four, you really should use transplants. Do not plant until the soil has warmed up to sixty-five degrees or so and night time temperatures are at least in the mid-fifties. Here in Southern New England, that is usually around the beginning of June, three weeks after the last frost date. They are real heat lovers and do very well when grown on black plastic mulch. Plant 5-6 seeds about an inch deep in an eight inch circle. Thin to three plants. Space hills three feet apart and rows five-six feet apart. You can also start transplants like cucumbers, taking care not to disturb the roots when transplanting. Keep well watered throughout the growing season. Pests/diseases. Similar to cucumber. Harvest/storage. When the little pointed leaf closest to the melon turns color, the fruit is ripe. You can also use the sniff test, which does not always work with charentais melons. Harvest by cutting the stem with a knife (don't just pull it). Store inside out of the sun; if the fruit is becoming too ripe. store in the refrigerator.
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