Has been warm fall; now some cold nights, but no frost yet

September was really nice, warm and sunny.

Lately we've had some cooler nights, single digits.  And the forecast now is more seasonal, cooler.

No frost yet...

Lots of ground cherries, making pies

Harvesting lots of ground cherries, yay.

Borers in a butternut and banana!!

Argh, a borer got into the top of one of the nice butternuts, right near the stem.  Removed him/her; provided I eat the squash soon I think it will be fine.

And, a borer got into the stem of one of the banana squash (the stem close to the fruit).  I think it was only one (removed).  Will have to eat this one too sooner than later.

All zucchini and almost all squash plants pulled

Pulled the two remaining zucchini because they were clearly not going to produce anything else.

Pulled the squash except for the vertical vine.  The vines were dead in a lot of spots, including the butternut, not sure if because of the cold, or borers, or something else.

Apples at CM

Peak time for apples at CM! 

Many varieties/trees had already fallen to the ground, but many others will still loaded up in the trees.  I took almost exclusively from the trees, rather than the ground.  A lot in really nice shape!

Brought home a big bag, for apple sauce.

Next year, try going a few weeks earlier than this, to try to catch the earlier ones that had already fallen to the ground today.

Praying mantis in backyard!!!

Jasper found a praying mantis in the backyard!!  He was standing on the back step looking into the window well.  So, curious, I looked to see what might have caught his attention.

It was a huge, brown praying mantis, stuck in a spider web!!

Used a stick to retrieve the mantis, placed him/her on the zinnias.  Took a bunch of photos.  Later I moved him/her in the north back bed, just east of the cucumber trellis where I don't harvest anything and there's probably a nice diversity of critters. 

I've only ever seen a praying mantis once before (while walking dogs in west greenbelt).   So neat!

Hopefully I won't accidentally kill the mantis while moving about in the yard, harvesting, and putting things away... 

Harvested a zucchini today -- and more on the way (slower growing now)

Like the title says.  Neat!

Weather has been really nice, warm sunny days.  Nights go down to ~5 to 10 degrees.

Green zucchini succombed to SVB -- harvested its last zucchini today

Amazing it lasted so long, given I never used any btk or did any intervention at all on this plant.  Harvested the last of its zucchinis today.  I wonder if the ridiculous amount of leaves helped protect it, by making it harder for the moths to land closer to the stem?  Who knows...

So, down to 2 zucchini plants now:  The yellow by the air conditioner (harvested one from this today as well), and the last yellow in the west bed (some small ones on the way, we'll see if they make it).

Reference: Squash vine borer-resistant varities / links

Here are some varieties to try, which are supposed to be resistant to SVB:

• Ronde de Nice summer squash, similar taste to zucchini
• green-striped cushaw
• Canada crookneck
• Trombocino
• Butternut
• article with borer-resistant squashes:  http://uncgarden.web.unc.edu/files/2013/01/Squashing-the-Squash-Vine-Borer-by-Chelsea.pdf
• this article has a long entry with details of most to least attractive to borer: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2106981/squash-vine-borers

Harvested a zucchini on Sep 1st! From a plant that I've not intervened re: SVB!

Wow, my goal of harvesting a zucchini in September was achieved!

Ironically, it came from the green zucchini plant that I never intervened at all re: SVB (no btk etc).  The one by the kitchen door.

Two other zucchini plants are still around, have been harvesting recently although seem to be slowing down.

I've been very busy with work so haven't been monitoring closely anymore, so they might succumb soon.

Harvested the first butternut squash

The one from the vertical structure.  This was the first butternut to set, and the first harvested.

It sure is huge...

What will I do with all this squash!

Butternut vines have signs of SVB trying to get in, but couldn't! Yay!

I've noticed several places along the butternut vines where it looks like a SVB tried to get in, but couldn't make it in beyond half a millimeter or something like that.  Yay!

Pickling website

Good info on quick/refrigerator pickling, including flavour variations to try.

https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2019/08/quick-pickled-vegetables.html

Harvested second pink banana squash, but underside has holes

I was sad to see on the second pink banana squash that I harvested, that the underside has some holes in it.

The smallest hole/damage was clearly a SVB -- it was sort of frassy, and featured a tiny dead SVB caterpillar, I guess starved to death after not being able to bore all the way in.

Two larger holes are a mystery, not sure what caused them.

All of the holes are in the section closer to the stem.  So, I will try cutting into it half-way, to see if the other half is usable.

Two cucumber plants wilted/died, don't know why; have harvested ~10-12 cukes total so far

Not sure why the two right-most cucumber plants wilted and died. Not a huge loss, as there's only so much greek pasta salad and pickles I can enjoy.

Hoping the green butternut squashes will finish maturing...

Hmmm, most of the ~9 butternuts that have set/grown are still green.

Only the one supported on the vertical plant looks very close to mature.

The one on the SE corner of the central bed will mature in time, I think.

Maybe the two along the north edge.

But the others are all still SO GREEN.  I hope this is normal, and that first frost will be a ways away... although going down to 8 tonight!

Powdery mildew: Applied a more-diluted baking soda mixture

Today's application:

8 cups water
2 Tbsps baking soda
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Let's see if this works... or, if it's again too strong...

The remaining zucchinis are really starting to get hit with the mildew.

Pulled several zucchini plants

Pulled several zucchini plants / off-shoot vines.  Found one or two small to medium-sized SVB in each, but certainly not an infestation.  Hadn't applied any BTK in several weeks and had stopped monitoring particularly closely other than the main remaining ones.

Still looking great are the one north of the air conditioner, the good one in the west bed, and the green one near the kitchen door which I must say has really come around and produced a nice amount (and is my ONLY green zucchini plant this year, just because none of the other green ones took).

Powdery mildew: Oops -- too strong of a baking soda mixture -- leaves burnt!!

Last night I applied the following baking soda mixture since the apple cider thing hasn't been working.

Well!

Today after work I came home to find the leaves burnt through!  OMG!  On the bright side, it certainly addressed the powdery mildew in those spots! 

This is what I used --
DON'T USE THIS RECIPE BEC IT'S TOO STRONG.
- 4 cups water
- 6 Tbsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil


NEXT TIME, try putting at least twice as much water as this, see if that works better:
- 8 cups water
- 6 Tbsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Harvested 13 pound jumbo pink banana squash!

Finally decided to harvest the first of the jumbos that had set, in the NW corner.  Weighs in at 13 pounds!

Hoping it will store well since zuke/tomato harvest continues strongly and freezer is verrrry rapidly filling up!