Tromboncino grows great on a 6-8 foot high trellis. The others I've never trellised before, but some of those vines can get pretty long. How high can you make a trellis? I think it would be challenging to make a structure big enough to support these aggressive growers. You might be able to make an arbor. Train them up one side, let them flop across the top and fall down the other. Might work... I guess I've just never trained squashes or pumpkins because the task seemed too daunting. Cukes, melons, tromboncino, yes, but never tried squash. I'd be curious if others have done this successfully. If you try it, be sure to post pictures! If your main reason for doing this is to control PM, then there are easier ways. As you say, dilute milk is an option. Most importantly though, use a lot of mulch so that you don't have to water very often, and NEVER overhead water when it's hot and/or in the evening. -Diggity Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Imperative

Macmex, so this variety is C. moschata? Could I have a try at recovering it from your old seed? I've had good results getting old seed to germinate, I built a lighted, thermostatically-controlled germination chamber for that purpose. The Tromboncino I'm growing this year is from 11 year old seed (and should be a successful seed crop). Any plants which result would be hand pollinated, and seed returned to you. It wouldn't be grown until next year though, I'd keep the seeds in the fridge until then. My SSE listed email is still valid. Worst case scenario, you could probably recover Warsaw Buff from the crossed SSE seed, via hand pollination... although it would probably take 2-3 generations to be certain of its purity.

Nick, That's an interesting test you did. Only three pumpkins passed and no summer squash. I think your test may be unnecessarily severe. For example, I didn't grow any summer squash this year, but last year I grew a single Costata Romanesco (from Johnny's) quite successfully. The plant became huge, with really big leaves. It had long vines which I trained up onto a concrete re-mesh support to conserve garden space. It had very good tasting zucchini squash and an abundance of male blossoms for squash blossom recipes. Deep fat fried in a batter is my favorite, but some people like to "stuff" them. Squash blossoms are considered a delicacy in restaurants. I haven't grown any winter squash yet, but in past years I have grown at least a dozen other varieties of summer squash successfully, with some special care, but not an awful lot. I feed them liquid fertilizer using a soluble formula like Miracle-Gro Tomato Food and I hand-pick any squash bugs that appear. Fortunately I haven't had problems with Squash Vine Borers, but if I do, I will probably split the vine to kill the borers and toss the vines on the compost pile. I start an early crop indoors under overdriven fluorescent lights and set them out in a fairly advanced stage about the first of June. Some people have reported success with successive plantings, and I plan to try that next year. That worked well with our pole beans and pole peas this year. As fall approaches, powdery mildew inevitably becomes a serious problem and if frost doesn't kill your plants the powdery mildew will. Next year I will probably spray a lot of a product called GreenCure® to fight the powdery mildew. This year it is working fairly well on our tomatoes, eggplants, and zinnias. As that link shows, GreenCure is effective against powdery mildew and a bunch of other diseases as well. It is completely non-toxic and safe. I use about 1½ tablespoons of GreenCure in a gallon of water. I need to get a better sprayer, to do a better job of covering the bottom sides of the leaves. With GreenCure, hopefully my squash will survive the powdery mildew a little better next year. MM

I'm genetically incapable of following a precise recipe. But we will shortly be making a few pies with 'Cha-Cha' kabocha squash. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and glop, bake the halves in a 350 oven for an hour - hour &15 minutes until when you pinch them, they give easily, and not burned. Let cool. Then scoop out the insides, throw out the skin. I use a food processor, but I suppose a mixer would do, but anyway, add a couple of eggs, cup-ish half & half, and the squash to the bowl, then spices. Grated fresh ginger, bit of honey, cinnamon, and couple tablespoons of lime juice. The squash itself is naturally very sweet and dense, so it doesn't take much sweetener at all. So what I've discovered is that making a custard isn't that hard, the milk and eggs does that for you with out much measuring. The question comes in with the spices, and we add a lot of cinnamon and ginger - say a tablespoon of cinnamon and a full two inches of ginger. But you're after that combination of cinnamon, ginger, and lime. You could add less, I suppose. I use a store bought crust, then bake at 350 for an hour - hour & a half, using a straw to check for doneness. The custard may split if you cook it too long, but thats not a problem, aside from cosmetics. It's wonderful for breakfast. :-)