Harvesting fresh garden produce

[lbuttke]

Need some advice on how to tell when it is time to pick certain items grown in a garden.
Watermellon, Muskmellon, Acorn squash.
I have a aboundance of these and I have never grown them befor, therefor I have no Idea how to tell when they are ready for harvest

 

[hsimon]

Lonny- Best time to pick a watermelon is a day after it has been "spiked"

or a "hallow" sound and that will mean that it is ready for picking.

Do we need to start locking our vehicles also because ya have too many zuchinni sqaush??

(Message edited by hsimon on August 03, 2005)

 

[lbuttke]

No, you don't have to worry about locking your vehicle doors. I do have way to many zuchini squash for my own use, however so far I have been able to give away enough all my neighbors and co-workers who don't grow a garden.

Thanks for the advice on the watermelon.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Lonny, I've been told that for muskmelon the melon should just "slip off" of the vine, a very slight tug and the stem should break away, in other words you shouldn't have to cut the stem. It's been quite a few years since I've grown watermelon or muskmelon. I was never any good at tapping watermelons to hear if they are ripe. Here are some links that might be helpful:

checking for ripeness

more on the subject

 

[kmcconaughey]

Lonny, how's you throwing arm? Toss some of those zuchinni my way, the deer broke through the deer netting 3 times and ate my plants to the ground. The plants have recovered to the point where they have just blossomed, I'll be lucky if I get any zuchinni off of them though.

 

[bmoore]

Kraig,
The last two years, deer ate the flowers off our zucchini. No flowers = no zucchini.
This year, after the first dissapearance of flowers, I took about a 6-7' piece of rabbit fencing and formed an "anti-dining fly". I just arched it over the top of the plant, letting it look like a quonset hut framework. I bent 4 pieces of clothes hanger wire to peg the corners into the ground. Some of the leaves have grown through, most just stay under the wire. No flowers have disappeared since.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bruce, thanks for the tips. I ended up putting orange snowfence around the garden along with the deer netting. I think in the dark they didn't see the netting and got tangled in it and ended up tearing it out thus gaining access to the "treats". Last year I used some concrete reinforcing wire, aka "rewire", as a fence around the zuchinni patch (easier to temporarily remove than deer netting for tilling around the hills) but this year I needed to make some more tomato cages out of it so I just used the deer netting. For the rest of the garden I have been using deer netting. This was the first time in about 5 years of using deer netting that I've had the deer go though it. They must be getting smarter, scary thought! On one hill, two years ago, I used a curved scrap of rewire as a cover over the zuchinni, it worked well but I've been using that scrap piece as a gate to the strawberry patch. Perhaps I need to buy another roll of rewire, handy stuff. )

 

[lbuttke]

Kraig.
Come on down and help yourself to as much zuchini's as you need, gots plenty to spare, one of the few plants the deer did not bother in my 1/3 acre garden.
Thanks for the links, they are most helpfull.

 

[digger]

Lonny,
That's WHY everybody locks their cars when they go to town this time of year, EVERYBODY has the dang things!

 

[lbuttke]

Charlie,
I know, I have a hard time getting rid of them each year. Each year I plant fewer plants but seem to end up with just as many zuchini.
Next year I plan on only planting 2 plants, and I probly will still end up with more than I can use.


OH by the way, I can not eat much of what I grow in my garden due to a medical condition ( blood clots) I have to take blood thinners every day and the doctors tell me NOT TO EAT any green vegtables, something about they are high in natural blood thickening chemicals.

SO why do I even grow a garden you ask, because I have to justify haveing all the gardening attachments for my cub cadets.

dont tell the wife.