Squash pollination update: not good

See how it is yellowing? Not a good sign. It seemed to grow at first, it's about an inch and a half long, but it has not grown any in the past several days. I fear it will shrivel and fall off soon. The reason may be because the vine "upstream" from it is actually supporting several very large squashes already, and those have grown surprisingly quickly in the past few days. Perhaps the plant is getting maxed out, the squashes that have already set are approaching maturity and are sending out chemical signals that actually slow/inhibit the newly set fruits. Remember what they say about cucumbers, not to let any of them get ripe on the vine, because then the plant stops producing new ones? Seems to apply to squash too.

I also hand-pollinated another of my squashes, and it took right away and is growing nicely. It was actually the first fruit to set on it's vine. I started out thinking I was pollinating a "Type 1" of the Georgian Chestnuts ("Type 1" is growing on a trellis, apart from the "tangled mound"), but on closer inspection, we might actually be in for a "Type 4". There are actually 3 separate vines growing on the trellis, and the female blossom I pollenated was on a third vine, apparently the latest-maturing of the lot. I used pollen from the "Type 1" plant, though. Hmm. Maybe it's getting kind of late in the season to be doing this.

On a happier note, corn has silked!!! Luther Hill on the 24th, Ruby Queen on the 26th. I think now it's only 15-20 days to wait for fresh corn on the cob.

What stupid looks like

No Bolivian Rainbow peppers this year, likewise for the Danubiana eggplant we are 0 for 3 ---both varieties are in the seed trials...Sory Dave!

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This Casper eggplant was getting ready to flower...see the bud? I planted its seed in February.

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9 out of 10 tomatoes in this bed bit the dust, except for this lone Green Giant, which was oddly unscathed.

A glimmer of hope: Instead of pulling these up right away, I think I'll leave this White Beauty and Green Zebra in the ground... maybe they will regenerate from that last sucker branch near the ground that is without damage. Maybe they might even set fruit???

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And this Sweet Cream pepper, another of Dave's trial varieties appeared to have almost no damage. Surprisingly, the peppers fared much better than the tom's and eggplants.

Well, let's try to turn this into something positive for the future. The obvious new rule of thumb: "Cover the plants whenever the forcast overnight low is 40 degrees or less, no matter what." Aside from that, hopefully the seed saved from the plants that didn't die will inherit the hardiness of the parent, and I will be on my way to developing my own frost-resistant tomato strains. There. I feel better already.

You just cant find good help these days

So our neighbor who owns a landscaping business was supposed to strip 1400 square feet of sod out of my backyard last Friday, which he delayed to Monday, which the weather did not permit until the end of the week (which is NOW) and this morning we called him (left a message) as to what time he was coming today, to which he called back half an hour later with a story of how he JUST found out today that his sod-cutter JUST broke and that we would need to pay him an extra $60 on top of the previously agreed-upon price so he could go to Home Depot and rent one. As if!

I got all the raised bed frames put together, some of them out back and some sitting in the garage, I got a shelf full of root-bound brassicas that should have been planted out two weeks ago, and now I have an unexpected date this Saturday with some heavy machinery -I'll rent the thing and do it myself rather than give the bonehead down the street any business after what he pulled. How hard can sod removal be, anyway?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXFU8tHGh3Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yfNamqbBUw&feature=related