Oh, thank you for propping the little guy up. I will sleep easier tonight. ( oddly I was compelled to check back again to make sure he was going to be okay ) Yeah, another plant saved by GW. You could still adjust once you see how it grows. But safe from the Humpty Dumpty problem. Yeah, cucumbers and zucchini plants seem to be born with mildews. It's just one of those things. I have a Star of India clematis that is well known for powdery mildew, after the blooms get going, and before it's over for the year. It's so pretty and so big, I hate the moment in time when it gets going. I've found with the clematis if I catch it at the very first sign, and spray with baking soda ( a teaspoon or a table spoon..forget which), a drop of dish soap, and water ( 4 1/2 quarts is my sprayer... recipe on the internet ) I can most often stop it. Depends on how well I do at remembering, and the weather. Powdery mildew happens with warm dry weather or with dry soil and humid conditions. Downy mildew likes cool, wet conditions. Both thrive with lack of ventilation. So, not too dry, not too wet, not too warm, and not too cool. LOL Hey.. it's going to happen. Don't sweat the small stuff. I do remember last summer I used the same clematis technique on my zucchinis and they eventually came out of it and grew on with new leaves and new flowers. The older parts looked neckid, but that how it rolls sometimes. I've learned if I can find room I plant two zucchinis or two cucumbers just because of this. Generally they act up separately and one will be worse than the other, so I can yank one completely out if needed and all is well. Honestly, this time of year zucchini is super cheap at the market. And if you have a local farmers market, all the better. It's a chance to wander around and see what folks around you are growing now, pick up something yummy. Plus meet really nice people. I don't remember ever spraying for bugs the last 40 years in this garden, though I probably did back when I first started. I'm just about to go to war and actually use a spray for the first time this year. Leaf miners have crossed the line ( yes, it seems there was a "line" I wasn't aware of ). They are mowing down the north east corner..many hostas and my two favorite clematises. Hundreds of dollars. :( After this last clematis ( Clematis 'Yukikomachi') finishes blooming I'll start, since then there will be no flowers in the area to attract pollinators, thus lessen my odds of causing damage to my little bee friends. Weighed dumping the plants , but I'm just not ready to go there yet. So here my beautiful clematis this afternoon ... see ? The leaves are not clematis leaves.. I've picked those off for now. That's worth a war at least for now I've decided. But I sort of want to cry. How dare they !

I've had nothing but trouble with bugs in my veggies whenever I've used any kind of mulch: it provides them with too good a living environment and especially a good haven in the winter. A friend of mine who owns a CSA organic farm says he's done with mulch for the same reason. I've used both straw and wood chips. I would do whatever is easiest to remove the straw. Tilling it in would be OK, but that sounds like more work than removing and composting it.

Here are the results of cooking my second mature, cured-for-seed-harvest, costata romanesco heirloom zucchini... This was treated, pre- and post-harvest, much the same way as a winter squash. I think this post will settle some curiosity, but still open for consideration are the questions of whether all varieties of zucchini can be treated as a winter squash; as well as are the questions of potential storage times. Subject prepared for dissection: Cutting into it was about the same as any winter squash I have ever opened... Does it look like a winter squash? Ready for the oven... After baking... Yep, got the oven on, no good reason to waste sheet pan space! And now for the scooping! The yellow color is much different than the whitish hue these were when harvested as normal zucchini. I would take a guess and attribute it to a significant rise in beta-carotene. Taste is a little 'grassy', but definitely not un-enjoyably so. It's less sweeter than winter squash, and it is not as intensely flavorful as those bred for keeping. I put a little butter and some maple syrup on it and thoroughly enjoyed tonight's "zucchini as winter squash" dinner. Here forward, whenever a zucchini goes beyond the normal harvest stage, I will have no qualms about letting it go for seed harvest and baking. If were to be a hybrid, depending on the results found with other varieties, I would bake the fruit and harvest the seeds for eating instead of saving. As far as the skins, these are definitely thicker and tougher than the banana-type, fairly-long storage winter squash that I have now curing.

We've all been there. Yes, I would've used larger containers. 5 gallon containers are ok for something like peppers plants, but squash plants get considerably larger. You need something like 24" diameter pot for those, which would probably be something like 15-20gal container. Those squash plants look pretty small right now and August 1st is a bit late to start them from seed. If you had planted a seedling on August 1st, you may have gotten away with it, but those containers just aren't big enough for them to thrive. Next year I would start them in late May or early June, depending on your last frost date, and in bigger containers. They are also heavy feeders and will need a good balanced fertilizer of NPK. Container gardening needs a lot more tending to than gardening in-ground. They need to be watered and fertilized more frequently. A good start though! You clearly did some research on vine borers and disease, which is great. You used potting soil, which is good. You would be surprised how many people make the mistake of using garden soil in their pots. Next year you'll have much better results.