Butternut Squash Flowers

The big butternut squash plant has gotten over six feet long now and finally we have a female flower.  At first I was thinking it was pollinated already and forming the squash.  I haven't grown these in such a long time.

In case you didn't know, there are two kinds of flowers on a squash plant (as well as many other plants). Both of them can grow on the same vine but there are many more male flowers than female flowers.  As you can see the female flower has the fruit already started, just waiting for pollination to produce seeds.

The male flowers are the ones you eat.  Just wait for them to get big enough, snip it off, and fry it up, usually with some sort of batter.

The cantaloupe also has a female flower on it.  The little melon ball is barely noticeable though.

The large squash plant also has some new runners near the base of the plant.  It's preparing to really take off with 3 new shoots.  The plan is now to just keep watering and feeding it.  Adding a little more dirt to help with the growing root system it needs to keep up.

Sprout Survivor

As hoped this guy is springing back!  One of the leaves is still shriveled up and drying out but the other one has new life in it and the new little leaf in the middle is getting bigger.  And of course it's standing up as well instead of just lying on the dirt....

Several of the other plants are also now springing up out of the ground.  Nothing too showy yet but hopefully soon it will be worth its own post.

Working on a few other things seeing what I can come up with on taking care of the inside plants.  So far some of the small trees have died.  I think the shock got to them.  Claude (the big cacao tree) has a new leaf coming in though and seems to have finally acclimated to his new home.  Just keep 'em fed and watered and remember to open the blinds during the day I guess.

Also still dealing with fungus gnats.  Can you have humid loving plants without them?  Any tips would be great.

Butternut Squash Transplant

This is the attempted transplant of a seedling.  When I pulled it up it had what I though would be plenty of roots for it to transplant well.  This is it a day later.  Kinda shriveled but still pliable and still a new little leaf in the middle.  I mounded the dirt up a little more in hopes it would keep it from baking when the sun hits it today.  I'll go look at it late this evening when it's shaded again.

This is one of several that I was going to pull out anyway since the area is quire crowded.  I didn't know how many seeds might sprout so I planted way to many.  Still only about half of them sprouted.  If I had planted 5 or 6 then I may have only ended up with 1 or 2 plants, maybe 3.  As it is, I can pick and choose which plants will keep growing and get rid of the weaker seedlings.