My Tiny PlotAutumn Harvest
Yes I know, I’ve been incommunicardo for the last few weeks. I blame the evils of work and my over-demanding boss (no wait, I work for myself, doh!). Well, whatever the reason, I’m back. I’ve been a-harvesting this week. The last of the raspberries are in and the purple French beans are just dying down. But the pride of mtp this year has to be the pumpkins and squash. Maybe it’s just me but I find them really easy to grow. I just put the plants in and they did the rest. I hardly watered them at all and yet I have harvested around 10 butternut squashes (from one plant). The Uchiki Kuri triffid is still pumping out fruits and even though the Futsu pumpkins look nothing like they are supposed to, I have been reasured (by extensive Google research) that they will turn golden brown in storage. As you see in the picture I did manage to harvest some of the strawberry sweetcorn that I planted earlier in the year. The yield was disappointing – only two cobs per plants, if that. The cobs are very small and fat which is I guess the shape sweetcorn used to be before F1 varieties. We plan to use it to make pink popcorn but with only 6 cobs in the bag we won’t be growing fat on it. I’m not sure what went wrong. Maybe, yields are just small with Heirloom varieites. Anyone know?
Great to have you back – I was starting to get worried! Your picture is lovely and I really envy you your butternut. I too found my squash plants needed little looking after – if they survived the beaing eaten by slugs while seedlings stage. Which is why I have no butternuts! Next year, I’m planning to grow quite a few more plants, and with my organically-OK slug pellets, I expect success. Having finally overcome my courgette thing, I fell I can do just about anything!
Lovely pictures, as usual. Good to see you posting again.
I am dead envious about the squashes. Wish I knew how to make mine work. I got one squash per plant this year: that’s it. I can only assume it’s something to do with pollination. I tried hand-pollinating, but it didn’t work.
Superb photo – and what a huge Butternut!
What yield were you expecting from your Sweetcorn? I grow the normal Sweetcorn and I’ve only ever had 2 cobs per plants.
Fantastic photo, very autumnal looking. I too would say that squash are easy to grow once you’ve got past the seedling stage. I know what you mean about squashes not looking like you think they are supposed to. I have a butternut which s almost round, and a West Indian Pumpkin that is a different shape to what I was expecting, but it makes it more interesting I think especially in trying to guess which is which!
I love the look of the strawberry sweetcorn, I shall have to look out for some to try next year. I too only seem to get 2 cobs per plant on normal F1 varieties, and this year I have finally won the battle in protecting the cobs from the resident rat :-)
Hmm…well I would say 3 cobs per plant is normal for me. I think the strawberry sweetcorn looked a bit thin on the ground because the cobs are so small – an optical illusion maybe?