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Cucurbits are king
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Posted by raymondo Armidale, NSW (My Page) on Mon, Feb 13, 06 at 2:58
| Here are some of the cucurbits from the garden.
Melon - "Nutmeg". Absolutely delicious with its green flesh becoming salmony near the seed cavity
and to give you an idea of size
And two pumpkins - "Winter Luxury Pie" and "Waltham Butternut"
"Winter Luxury Pie" is beautiful to behold. It's supposedly the finest pie pumpkin there is. We'll see in a couple of weeks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Hey, Ray, how much space do they require? Maybe you've found your calling in life.
All hail the Cucurbit King. Grub, entertaining wicked thoughts about his sun-drenched front lawn which could take some wandering vines. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Almost no room at all grub. And lawns are a drag anyway! |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Something went well for you Ray, they're gorgeous. Will give the pumkin a go next year for sure. |
RE: Nutmeg Melon
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| Ray, isn't the Nutmeg melon a parent of the Montreal melon? Do you know if we can import melon seeds in Australia, I might make a quick change to an order I've placed this morning. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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I've had a great season too- mostly with cucumbers. Have grown some up a trellis. We've only got a small inner city Sydney garden. They're so easy!
Out of the worm castings, though, have grown a rockmelon vine too. This will be a commercial variety, but I've been so surprised how easy they've been to grow(and how lovely and fresh they taste)! |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| What time of the year did you plant the melons Ray? I haven't tried them here but I know a few who have sheltered spots and done well with them. Might try them next season. I've got a nice Gold Hubbard coming on a treat - will put a photo of it up tomorrow - I love growing these veg. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| lyn you can import melon seeds with no hassle from aqis Helen |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Wonderful, Ray! I'm glad something did well in the garden for you this year. The melons look great! What do they taste like? When did you put in all your seedlings? You seem to be very early with your pumpkins. My Winter Luxury Pie is doing fine, too, but is not ready yet to be harvested. This is a really nice looking pumpkin. My Waltham Butternuts have just started setting fruit. Oh, and I have a Moon & Star Watermelon that is growing bigger by the day. I am very happy with this. Let's just hope I'll get some ripe fruit, too. :) |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Uh, forget about my question re: taste. You had already written how delicious they are. Would you have any spare seeds for those? If not, where did you get them from? :) |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| The taste of the Nutmegs is wonderful - classic melon flavour. Adam has saved plenty of seeds. I'm sure he'd be happy to bring some to M'ville. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| What is your secret? This year I grew three sorts of cukes up a trellis (bamboo double bedhead gleaned from a council chuck-out), plus a self-seeded butternut pumpkin. Some fruit formed (not a lot) on all vines, and then all fell off when about an inch long, apart from one misshapen cuke. I carted loads of water to them. Where did I go wrong? |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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I don't you did anything wrong little digger. Sounds very much like the flowers were not pollinated. Without pollination, the fruit will grow a little then abort. We had good pollination of the melons and cukes because we had lots of native bees around, particularly the Blue-banded Bee. No need to worry about the pumpkins and zukes because the European Honey Bees love those.
The pumpkins and zukes are easy to hand-pollinate if the bees aren't around, but melon and cukes are quite difficult because the flowers are so small. Got to hope that the native bees turn up. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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They look great Ray. I would love to grow some melons but the missus hates them. Cant stand the smell of them, so , to keep things calm.. ish, I dont.
Got two Hercules Butternuts in and they are going wild. Have to hand pollinate them all as we haven't a bee in sight this year, weird. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Thanks for that Raymondo. Now ... how to encourage those native bees. And do they even exist in suburban Sydney? Anything I could grow to attract them to my garden? You post also enlightens me as to what went wrong with last year's zukes. Do you do it with a paintbrush or something? (Pardon the French). |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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To hand pollinate pumpkins and zukes, keep an eye on the girl flowers, the ones with the baby fruit. The morning they open, pick a couple of boy flowers, the ones without the baby fruit attached, peel away the petals, and gently daub the ladies with the boy bits. Not too rough mind you. They're not keen on rough. Just make sure you get a good smear of pollen on the female bits!
To get bees into your garden, particularly the natives, first and foremost, no insecticides, not even the so-called organic ones during daylight hours. And nothing that hangs around. Secondly, plant lots of flowering herbs all over the place - thyme, basil, parsley, borage, dill, fennel etc. The bees love them.
And yes, even in Sydney you get them. I used to garden on a sun-deck in Glebe and always had lots of bees. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| One of the best bee attractants I've found is the purple hebe bush - I have one each end of the veggie garden and they are alive with native bees most of the day. The other useful plant is a flowering plant called 'lambs ears' - Stachys that the bees absolutely love. I'm just about to divide it up and strike some more so I can use them throughout the veggie garden. |
RE: Cucurbits are king
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| Thanks guys ... I'll let you know how I go |
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