How can I tell when the squash I'm growing in my garden is ready to be picked?
When a squash palnt blooms it is a matter of 2 days you will see tiny squash behind the large yellow flowers....it can be picked at this stage if you want to it is a delicatessan....however for maximum food..dont let it grow over 6 inches long to pick, for it gets too tough..squash will grow as big as small watermelons sometimes if you let it go, but inedible at this stage..it is a gourd..Some people take the tiny squash with the blooms attached, squash being no bigger than 1 to 2 inches long....they spread the blooms open, fill with cream cheese, dip in a batter of your choice, and then deep fry!...Check out my squash plants on my flickr photos....page 11 picture titled 'squash" picture 005..link below..u do not dig squash btw..you pick each one individually..also squash is a morphadike, so you will see some of the flowers on long stems and no squash..these are the male flowers...
Which plants would be best for a child to grow in their own garden?
Here are some of my picks:Nasturtium are a fast growing plant whose flowers are edible. Kids love the idea of being able to eat a flower.Many children like green beans, though some do not. If you children like beans, they are easy to grow, start producing in fairly early and keep producing until autumn frost.If you have the room, sunflowers are a great addition to a kids garden. The grow very fast and tall. They form large showy flowers. The flowers turn each day to follow the sun. If you have enough for cross pollination, your child could even get a harvest of sunflower seeds to eat.Another choice for large gardens are pumpkins. They are huge plants that produce huge fruit (pumpkins) that arrive just in time for Halloween. What could be better? They can even share pumpkins with their friends. Make sure you have enough room as each plant can spread to 25 feet or more.Lettuce grows fast. Kids get early gratification with a vegetable they can start harvesting a month after they plant their seeds. This plant does not do well in the heat so be prepared to pull and compost the plants as soon as they start to bolt in late June or July. That provides the opportunity to teach the lesson, “To every thing there is a season.”These are just a few suggestions, all of which are annuals, which means they complete their entire life cycle in a single year. You might consider adding a few perennial plants as well. Strawberries plants put in the ground this spring may produce a couple berries the first year but will be producing full crops next year. Other fruits, whether on bushes or trees, can take 3–5 years to mature. That can be a long time for kids, but those same bushes and trees will still be producing fruit, and memories, when you children are grown and raising children of their own.Plant things your kids will enjoy. Have fun.
Can loofah gourd be grown in dallas tx?
Hello DontGivaSh** - Certainly Loofa can be grown in TX. It is an annual vine when grown there. You can start them early (like now indoors) and then move/transplant them outdoors. Best to grow in peat pots or Coco-pots where the pot will dissolve away in the soil because these do not like the be transplanted. Give them some support or trellis so the fruits (the loofas) do not rot or get too much in contact with moisture in the ground; otherwise, treat them as any other typical gourd plant. They are rapid growing - my best advice also would be to avoid water the leaves too much - try to trench water or water in a "moat" type water well around the plant. They are easily prone to mildew accumulating on the leaves. Of course, caterpillars are also a concern too. Very easy to grow -- many gourds are native to TX already anyway -- so, you should have little problems. Try: http://www.batnet.com/rwc-seed/ for a few funky loofa seed and heirloom varieties ... Chris "Is that a gourd in your pants or are you just happy to see me?" C
Do plants (vegetables/fruits) die if they aren't harvested?
Thanks for the A2A.Joy has it right. Most plants are actually programmed through their DNA to die under the right conditions. This is called programmed senescence.We used to think that plants, if the conditions were ideal, could/would live forever. Now we know that is not true.If you leave a plant alone, it will grow, produce reproductive tissue, disperse the seeds, Eventually the mother plant will die. The new plants from the seeds will continue.In the case of vegetative parts, like celery, if you don't harvest it, the stalks that we normally eat will grow up, then begin to wither. A central core (what we call “celery heart) will then elongate, produce flowers, seeds, disperse the seeds, then the whole plant will senesce (die).In the case of fruits, they mature, ripen, and drop to the ground. They are eaten by an animal and the seeds are dispersed along with feces, a great fertilizer. Or else they are not eaten and rot on the ground, still, the seeds survive and produce a new crop.For perennials, the mother plant can go through hundreds, thousands sometimes, depending on the species, of cycles. But for most fruit trees, it's decades, or a hundred years, and the plant dies.
After carving my pumpkin, can the seeds be planted to grow more pumpkins, and whats the process?
toss a bunch into the ground where you want them to grown NOW and in the spring you will likely have several of them grow (if they haven't been eaten by squirrels or whatnot) take another bunch and wash them off. lay them out on a few sheets of paper towel or newspaper and let them dry on a windowsil. store the dried seeds in an envelope or jar until spring. as soon as the frost is past, plant them where you want them or start them indoors in very early spring if you want them to grow faster. for the indoor plantings, plant them outside as soon as the frost is past.
What fruits and vegetables grow above the ground?
Some fruits that grow above ground are: berries, gourds (like cucumber, pumpkins and squash), melons, citruses (limes, oranges, etc.), apples, bananas, peaches, pears, kiwi, papaya, pomegranate, avocado, eggplant, okra, etc., etc. Some vegetables that grow above ground are: any edible leaves (like cabbages, lettuces, greens, including dandelion and poke weed), shoots (like asparagus), stalks (like broccoli and rhubarb), florets (like cauliflower), sprouts (like alfalfa, bean, brussels, cabbage etc.) This is but a short list of common vegetables of the USA.
How do we grow miniature pumpkins?
Miniature pumpkins are just another variety of the multi-faceted pumpkin/squash/gourd tribe. The species is theoretically Cucurbita maxima but hybrids are rampant. They all interbreed quite freely with each other, so the main thing you need to do is select seed for the type you want.You can save seeds from your crop, but it’s impossible to predict what will grow from that next year unless you have hand-pollinated and tied off the flowers yourself.Snack Jack is a nice smooth one with lots of plump seeds. Jack-be-little is very popular. Pie pumpkins like Small Sugar have better string-less flesh. It all depends on what you want.(own photo)They are easy to grow, and no different from any pumpkin or squash. They need warm soil, tons of fertilizer and lots of water. In Canada we usually start them indoors in spring because they need 110+ days to mature. We grow them in market gardens all over the Vancouver area too.I grew some in the front yard one year and the long vines pretty well took over the flower beds and I had to move them back off the lawn every couple of days. The vines can exceed 20 feet in length. There was a house on King Edward street in Vancouver that used to grow them in the front yard, and they had vines climbing the hedges and trees, with large pumpkins appearing high above the ground! Very amusing,When you are looking for seeds, check both the “pumpkin” category and the “winter squash” category. Winter squash are Cucurbita maxima also; they are really just more varieties of strangely shaped not-orange pumpkins with hard shells that keep well over the winter.eg Small Sugar Pumpkin SeedsFuttsu Black Early Squash Japanese heirloom variety (winter squash)