Posted on 09/01/2024 6:06:00 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Paul you didn’t mention a state where you live. I put my envelopes of seeds in those white containers that dried french onions come in. I have over a dozen and they label nicely with a marker. Separate ones for lettuce and radish,
tomatoes, etc.
Sounds like a perfectly wonderful birthday weekend for anyone! Beautiful flowers and that pie looks awesome!
Since I discovered baking squash that way, I have never again made it mashed. The taste and texture is amazing. Highly recommended!
Sounds like everything turned out just perfectly! Loved it all! :) My Mom will have her 87th b-day on the 26th. She’s coming out this weekend, so I need to get her gifts organized.
I’m baking her an Apple Pie at her request, too. :)
Unique blend of flavors for the pedestrian squash.
You seem like the best person to ask this question:
When I encourage my Opo plants (basically a snake gourd) to bloom by using Schulz Bloom Booster or similar products, I get lots of male flowers but very few female flowers. (Before said application, I was getting some male flowers but almost no female flowers. (Kinda like my ill-fated pumpkin plant.) The Bloom Booster, of course, in addition to high phosphate content has some nitrogen and potassium.
Last week (very late to be trying to do ANYTHING with Opo, as it’s a semi-tropical variety), I finally went back to “Super Phosphate”, which is of course just phosphate, on one plant. (Super Phosphate is not available locally any more, it would seem — will have to order online.)
POW! That plant has now produced several female flowers, a few of which are already growing into fruits.
Maybe female flower making in this case requires a higher ratio of phosphate to the other nutrients than does making male flowers?
I’m in Zone 7a, mid-south USA. Not too far from Rush’s birthplace. :-)
Noted! Great info.!
However, I’m trying for high germination rates after 1 winter, not long term storage. When I get more time I’ll try to re-find the link recommending some moisture for stratification. It does seem to make sense to reproduce natural conditions if attempting to stratify the seeds for germination...?
Ugh. The old copper water pipe just inside where it comes into the house sprung a pinhole leak right in the side of the pipe (not at a joint.) Now I have a mess to deal with, and a serious plumbing project. Quite a bit must change to get out the last of the old copper piping...
Then your shed sounds perfect.
Yes, fertilizing with the Phosphorus WILL help produce more female flowers. N-P-K. You always want a higher ‘middle number’ (P) for blooming and fruiting. In a ‘Bloom Booster’ there is also Nitrogen (N), so if your soil already had enough nitrogen, a bloom booster would give you even MORE nitrogen and that could be the reason for less female flowers; it would be cancelling out whatever the (P) portion of the fertilizer could offer the plant.
Here are some other tips for future squash growing:
“One common mistake to avoid when trying to maximize female flowers on squash plants is over-fertilizing. Excessive nitrogen in the soil can promote lush foliage growth at the expense of flower production. It is important to use a balanced fertilizer and follow recommended application rates to ensure that your plants receive the nutrients they need without hindering flower development. Additionally, planting squash in overcrowded conditions can lead to competition for resources and limit the number of female flowers that form. Providing adequate spacing between plants can help promote healthy growth and encourage the production of more female flowers for a successful harvest.”
https://flowerspress.com/how-to-get-more-female-flowers-on-squash/
N P K
(N) Nitrogen, (P) Phosphorus, (K) Potassium
(K) is Potassium’s ‘Elemental Symbol.’
Suggested trap bait for a woodchuck?
*********
A friend had great luck with watermelon .... me, batting zero. Cantaloupe is suggested as a whistle pig fave ... me, batting zero.
I did catch one using fresh figs off our Brown Turkey Fig bush last year and another one years ago using apples off our old apple tree (cut up so they can smell them).
“Lead” is perfect .... the problem is getting close enough to ‘apply’ .... if the rascals see any movement, they are gone. My brother has a rifle with a scope & being a good shot, has decent luck. I shot one with a pistol last year .... the dog had it treed, then when it made a run for it, got it backed up against a large pine it couldn’t climb .... strange circumstance!
They are a challenging target.
Noted! That Miracle Grow Bloom Booster is 10-52-10: I thought SURELY that would properly stimulate the plants (LOTS of “P”) but apparently even that stimulated only the male flowers, not the females.
(The Opo if they are doing well seem to be able to grow like crazy even when other veggies would need fertilizer (the Opo is weed-like?) but seem to need something like the MG Bloom Booster to flower (not so weed-like!). I just didn’t realize even a bit of nitrogen would hold back female flowers. Lesson learned!
Maybe I should try the “Triple Super Phosphate”?
After loading up the truck/trailer for another trip (later today), I can FINALLY see a dim light at the end of a long tunnel. The rooms in the old house are just about cleared out with nothing left but furniture that will have to be dealt with by movers ... big, strong movers! My guess is that, if I can get movers scheduled, sometime in the first 2 weeks of October is when the “big” move will occur (piano, china cabinet(s), dining room table/chairs, all the beds, sofa, recliners, bookcases, trunks, various tables, etc.).
Mom and I moved the two biggest rugs in the house last weekend ... whew ... heavy. Fortunately, I can back the trailer up to the front porch of the new house, close enough the trailer ramp comes down on the porch. It’s 3-4 feet from that to another ramp that takes out the one big step up into the house (7-1/2”). This is the ramp we had to get dad’s wheelchair from in the house to down on the porch. If I put a 2x4 under the legs on the highest end, it’s a perfect height. The guys who delivered our new living room/bedroom furniture last week loved that ramp - they could roll stuff right on in the house. I will be making a similar ramp for the front door - the metal (not attractive) one will be used for the shop door. I have been toting the ramp back/forth on my Gorilla Cart so I can’t wait to make one for the front door. The ‘big’ ramp, 26’ & over the steps at the old house, has been invaluable. I had it put in while dad was in the hospital. He only used it 4 times, but it has made it possible for me to get stuff out of the house & down the ramp to load on the truck/trailer. There is no way I could have gotten a lot of what I’ve hauled out of the house without that ramp. “Funny” how things work out sometimes.
The leaves have turned more at Oakwind than here in the flatlands. We have an EGO weed trimmer & I ordered the cordless blower that works off the same battery. Since I have been fighting long extension cords & having to move to different plugs on the patio & front porch (and cannot blow off the driveway at all in most places), I am really looking forward to trying out the new blower this weekend :-) The wind has already been blowing oak leaves (thus ‘Oakwind’) on the porch & patio ... they are piled in the corners & behind the porch furniture. We are on a ‘knoll’ & it’s breezy/windy most of the time ... except when the heat index gets to around 100 ...
Hope all have a good weekend - I’ll be busy, but enjoying some more ‘forward progress’ & if things REALLY work out, I might be able to haul a trailer load of topsoil for the new raised beds, too!
And — It took two days of work and a couple trips to Menards to get water supplied to the house again. I ended up ripping out ALL the remaining copper lines. That took 20 PVC glue joints, 7 threaded joints (includes 2 new unions and the water filter), and a PVC to CPVC conversion.* The house supply shutoff valve and the water filter are in new, much easier to access locations out in the wellhouse. (Gonna HAVE to make extra sure they can’t freeze! Already have a spot in there for a large candles in addition to an electric heat element under the tank and pump, plus heat tape on the piping. Am considering running hot generator exhaust through some sort of heat exchanger in the wellhouse, then, once cooled, the fumes would exhaust into the sewage line air vent. (4” pipe to well above the 2nd story roof.)
I believe I’m going to add an emergency well pump cutoff switch too, in the front of the wellhouse, and maybe interface that with a water-on-the floor sensor, too. (Presently, to kill the well pump one has to either unplug it or trip a breaker back at the main panel.)
I do believe the most annoying part of this was Menards’ dang website. Their search function just plain sucks. (Store organization of the plumbing section could stand serious improvement too. Even their employees have trouble finding stuff. The silly little 1” PVC slip joint to CPVC slip joint adaptor being a great example. The salesman of course uses this to try to sell me first a $13 part, then a $8+ part, then finally turns up the $2+ adaptor. (Which I perversely didn’t use, as I changed my mind and used 2 parts to add a threaded joint at that spot, in case future “take apart” is needed. The new (shutoff) ball valve in the well house got a new threaded “take apart” setup, and the water filter got new unions around it too (the old ones were copper / brass and I eliminated all the copper / brass. Maybe I’ll yard sale the old unions — current price new is ridiculous, and they are in good shape.
And now I am sore, sore, sore, this morning. But, wifey was delighted* to help me test for leaks when she got home last night. (I do first a test with faucets and bath wide open -0 had done that, then test at full pressure with faucets and the bath turned off one by one. At the very end I found one union needed a quarter turn, and then all was ship-shape. Whew!
*Delighted to have running water again, of course! And I got up and did 4 loads of laundry this morning**, dishes are next.
**Run while it’s cool outside.
I’m kinda bummed to have missed 2 wonderful weather days while being a plumber, but, at least I had good conditions: The wellhouse part of things would have been a huge pain in bad weather!
Oh, yeah! Water that garden! (Missed 2 days, as the well pump was mostly “off”, and I was “preoccupied”.)
Check the package on the triple - I don’t remember the phosphate content off top - but that can also be ‘too much of a good thing!’
I think just regular phosphate will help with the female blossoms. You need at least ONE male bloom in the mix if I’m remembering my ‘biology’ lessons! ;)
That is quite the accomplishment! Water in the house is SUCH a luxury, LOL!
Beau still keeps his plumbing & electrical licenses up to date; you never know when a random toilet will need installation or someone needs lighting in their barn. It’s a nice little side-hustle along with his pasture mowing.
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