Is there a season to start pumpkins or is it too late?

[GardeningCook]

You can definitely grow bush-type squash varieties in pots; the vining types may get too unwieldy grown that way.

As far as longevity of pumpkin seeds - buying them now (& probably at discount prices) for sowing next year will work just fine, as if stored properly the seeds can remain viable for years. I've had the seeds from rotten Halloween pumpkins sprout the following spring all on their own after having endured the weather & frigid temps of winter. I've also had pumpkin seeds sprout in the yard after having - ahem - worked their way through the digestive system of a dog. Now that's some diligent germination - lol!

[JohnnyB60]

You can definitely grow bush-type squash varieties in pots; the vining types may get too unwieldy grown that way.

As far as longevity of pumpkin seeds - buying them now (& probably at discount prices) for sowing next year will work just fine, as if stored properly the seeds can remain viable for years. I've had the seeds from rotten Halloween pumpkins sprout the following spring all on their own after having endured the weather & frigid temps of winter. I've also had pumpkin seeds sprout in the yard after having - ahem - worked their way through the digestive system of a dog. Now that's some diligent germination - lol!

Thanks so much for the information. I'm learning so much here.

[jal_ut]

On the ground? Hey plant those squash on the ground not in a pot!

https://eartheasy.com/raised-beds-soil-d ... ments.html

[GardeningCook]

On the ground? Hey plant those squash on the ground not in a pot!

https://eartheasy.com/raised-beds-soil-d ... ments.html

Hey - to each his own!!!! I've had wonderful results planting squash in containers. There is no ONE WAY to garden.

[jal_ut]

You are right GardeningCook. Now here is the test: since you have both a pot and some ground, plant some in both places and later see which did better? We learn to do by doing.

[JohnnyB60]

Well my squash has come out only it looks like I managed to get two seeds in the hole. I’ve never grown anything from seed before so I hope this isn’t going to cause problems. I don't know if I can separate this into two plants at this time or not.

[Taiji]

Just out of curiosity, what did you end up planting? Zucchini? It looks like it will be a little difficult to separate those 2 without damage at this point. Maybe you just need to choose one to keep. You are planning on planting them outside, or into a bigger pot, no?

[JohnnyB60]

Just out of curiosity, what did you end up planting? Zucchini? It looks like it will be a little difficult to separate those 2 without damage at this point. Maybe you just need to choose one to keep. You are planning on planting them outside, or into a bigger pot, no?

Oh I bought a package of summer squash at HomeDepot. They really didn't have much to choose from in the way of vegetables, so I just grabbed one of these. I didn't want to wait for one to mailed to me. I was almost just about to forget about the whole thing, but figured it might be fun to see if it would grow.

The funny thing was that after I went through all the trouble to buy these seeds, I noticed some larger seeds laying on the kitchen counter while my wife was cooking diner. When I ask where the seeds came from my wife told me she just cut up some squash for dinner.

Anyway I am going to replant this plant in a larger above ground planter when it gets a little bigger. I'll keep the rest of the seeds to plant in the spring.

[HoneyBerry]

You could grow some carrots ir lettuce this year.

[JohnnyB60]

You could grow some carrots ir lettuce this year.

Thanks Joy, I don't remember if I ever tried to grow carrots, but I have tried lettuce once. I didn't have much luck with it because something was eating it.
It does bring something else to mind. I stopped buying lettuce because I started to question the nutrition value of it and replaced it with spinach. I looked into growing spinach a few years ago, but it was too hot here so I was thinking about trying to grow it during the winter. A lot of people thought I may not be able to and I can't remember what the problem was at the moment.

[HoneyBerry]

Oh well. Gardening can be fun but it is challenging at the same time. Carrots are easy to grow, at least that was my experience. I had the problem with slugs eating my lettuce. I like your idea about postponing until next year.

[rainbowgardener]

depending on your soil and climate, carrots may or may not be easy to grow.

You should be able to grow spinach in the winter. Swiss chard is a green you can grow in warm weather, though I'm not quite sure how it would handle desert summer. But it has a way longer growing season, bigger range of temps it grows in than spinach.

[JohnnyB60]

The only reason why I was interested in spinach is because I eat a lot of it every day in almost everything and it seems a little expensive around here, but I'm just in the wrong place to grow it.
We’ve had a garden every year for over twenty years and have grown a lot of different things. I have a lot of snails that eat most of the leafy vegetables and I'm constantly fighting off horn worms although this year has been pretty good. (Knock on wood)
I was looking for old photos of our early years when we grew corn, pumpkins, squash, peppers and zucchini to see if we ever grew carrots but couldn’t find anything. I’ll have to ask my wife when she gets up after a late night of babysitting.
I really didn’t start taking photos until I got a digital camera and then it became of everything. This is the earliest photo I can find which isn’t too long ago and you can see we’ve had lots of trouble with the heat for a long time. I even tried to use umbrellas during parts of the day to keep things from baking on the vine.

[rainbowgardener]

Do you grow flowers for the braconid wasps?

https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/arti ... nid-wasps/

they are a tiny, stingless wasp whose larvae parasitize the hornworms. The adults are nectar feeders, who need to have flowers that have nectar in tiny florets. Sweet alyssum, all the carrot family stuff (carrots, parsley, dill, fennel, etc), chamomile, daisies, buckwheat are all food sources for them.

If you ever see a hornworm looking like this:


https://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/128624 ... 6rw5ddjt1y

leave it alone. It has been parasitized; those are the cocoons of the wasp larvae. Eventually you will find them empty with little exit holes and you will know you have another generation of braconids on the job. In my garden, I have few hornworms and every time I find one, it has already been parasitized.

[JohnnyB60]

Thanks for the link! I read about wasps eating the hornworms and had many wasps flying around my garden, but found out later that I had the wrong kind of wasps. This is the first I’ve heard of plants that attract them so no I guess I don't have the correct flowers.

I can’t view the photo you have. It says restricted.

The photo below is the only way I’ve ever seen hornworms and is one of the reasons why I moved my tomatoes out in the open so I can get all the way around them to look for the hornworms.

[rainbowgardener]

sorry about the photo. This one should work:


https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/ins ... 4-1-lg.jpg

parasitized hornworm with braconid wasp cocoons.

And no, you would have to be watching very closely to ever see the braconid wasps . Braconid is a family name and there are a number of different ones (which also attack things like cabbage worms, etc). The specific braconid that parasitizes the hornworms is about 1/8 of an inch long.

You can order them commercially, but if you have the right flowers for them, you shouldn't have to. If you don't have the right flowers for the adults, once they emerge from cocoon, they won't stay in your yard anyway.

[JohnnyB60]

Wow! No I have never seen anything like that and I think I would have been freaked out by that.
Thank you very much rainbowgardener.

[Peter1142]

What a coincidence, I saw that yesterday, flushed it down the toilet, then kicked myself when I figured out what it was.

My pumpkins have set many nice fruit and several are full sized and nice deep green.