The vine has some damage leading up to the one fruit, and their is leader in front of it that I have buried and is rooted. So hopefully the squash vines can transfer nutients and water toward the leader tip and back. It may be time to just remove the tip (about 8 or 9 feet away) so the plant can concentrate on the fruit.
Now...I just checked my sweet potatoes and found that chipmunks or mice have been digging up and devouring some of the tubers. Very disapointing! So, time to dig up anything that they have not eaten. (They were not large and I would have given them another week in ground.)
(Diving....you were a helmsman once I think on a ship that went up and down? Your viewing "port" hung on a metal bulkhead? ;)
“Now...I just checked my sweet potatoes and found that chipmunks or mice have been digging up and devouring some of the tubers.”
I feel your pain!
Back in the day at my other farm the boys and I had planted Yukon Gold potatoes...back before you could buy them EVERYWHERE. We were SO excited to harvest them! They were planted in a spot that used to be a wood pile, so that soil was really rich and lovely and we just KNEW there would be the Best. Potatoes. Ever. EVER! underneath.
Yeah, well, every CRITTER that USED TO LIVE in that woodpile that we moved to plant taters proved us right! EVERY tater that we dug up was already half eaten!
Nature always wins. :(
Ah, I see! It “should” work, SFAIK.
I “should” whack back some of that Opo that’s up into the Mimosa tree, but that Mimosa grew fast and very spindly, so I don’t think I can safely affix a ladder to it. I “could” get out the 3-section manual pole saw my Dad gave me years ago, but, the odds of not damaging the Opo near the fruits (all under 10’ off the ground) seem low. There’s just no clear access now, for that. So... I’ll likely just “let ‘er (the Opo) go” from where it’s at now, prune anything getting into other plants, and see what happens. If a few more fruits fire up, and the fruits keep doubling in volume every day, I’ll have a lot of Opo to use shortly. I’ve seen them 5’ long, grown in tropical locations, and one year we had one 4’ long, ourselves! They aren’t so good when fully grown though - I suspect the best bet is to harvest them as soon as growth of the fruit slows, leaving one to produce seeds for next year.
That’s a bummer on your sweet potatos! On our end, I have a problem with moles — they don’t eat the plants, but they do tear them up if tunneling under them. :-(