Put up about 5 quarts of chopped sweet chiles today. Packed them in pint
bags, just enough for a sauce or gumbo for two, and vac sealed them. I
think the chile crop is about done what with the cool nights and
mornings here, looks like winter has arrived. Well, at least the most
winter we get. Maybe get down to freezing in January, the worse month in
our winter, maybe not.

Getting excited about what to plant in the seed pots for the spring
garden. Usually do this about January 15th each year for setting out in
late February, early March. For sure four or five kinds of tomatoes,
zukes, cukes, and Tatume squash, green beans, and chiles. The chiles and
tomatoes get started under the lamp setup in my office and the rest go
in the ground when the earth temps reach 70F.

Winter garden is growing slowly, cabbage and broccoli seem to be just
standing still, the Tatume squash is still trying to climb over the
greenhouse and into the oak tree.

Hey Bob, how do you harvest these squash when they climb a tree? We
can't shoot them down as shooting is verboten in this town. Vine is too
tough for pellet gun fire, don't have a bow, maybe one or more grandkids
can climb up there and harvest them. This is one prolific squash, see a
bloom today, check tomorrow there's a little squash, day after tomorrow
you pick it and eat it. this is sure a keeper for future use, got two of
them marked to go to full ripe stage for harvesting seed.

George, passing a good time as they say here in Louisiana

George Shirley wrote:
Hey Bob, how do you harvest these squash when they climb a tree? We
can't shoot them down as shooting is verboten in this town. Vine is too
tough for pellet gun fire, don't have a bow, maybe one or more grandkids
can climb up there and harvest them. This is one prolific squash, see a
bloom today, check tomorrow there's a little squash, day after tomorrow
you pick it and eat it. this is sure a keeper for future use, got two of
them marked to go to full ripe stage for harvesting seed.


YOU LET IT CLIMB A TREE??? Oh, deer. You've seen pictures of the kudzu in
the South East? It's about like that. Send the young'uns up the tree to
pick them every couple of days so the weight of the squashes don't pull the
tree down.

Best regards, ;-)
Bob

They're round, ready to eat at about baseball size but still good at
softball size, a medium green with dark green stripes, good stout vine,
heavy blooms, make lots of fruit. I think they're supposed to be summer
squash but DW planted three seeds in early September and they all
sprouted and grew. I know they grow in Winnipeg, Canada and in Fort
Worth, TX and are rated as a good, vine borer proof, winter or summer
squash. Here's a URL: http://www.floridata.com/ref/C/cucu_spp.cfm

All kinds of info on Google but you have to put in Tatume squash.

George

wrote:

Now George, you should know you can't get away with
mentioning things like this without describing them!

What's 'tatume squash' like, please? Winter squash? Summer
squash? Color? Taste? Etc.?

I did Google, but found nothing much and certainly nothing
that would tell me what it's like. Maybe it's something I'd
like to grow?

To be honest about it, I'd like to grow almost EVERYTHING
but there is a limit to what I can cram into the available
space, and there's a limit to my energy and time also. But
anyway: what's tatume squash?

Thanks!

Pat