George, I read about the resistance of the varieties you mention, but didnÂt imagine that would change so much per location. I have to have those seeds next year to try. Si, el cambio es muy grande, after the 6inches/14.8mm of rain yesterday, I had to wear my wooden shoes to go to see the vegetables LOL! ItÂs sooo strange to walk with them but they help in the mud, and you write so perfect Spanish. How come? Raisemybeds, we covered the tomatoes with that lightweight fabric, although not pretty, till now (cross my fingers) the tomatoes and pepper seem to like that protection. IÂve been earlier shaking the stems and was wondering if the pumpkin pollination would be so simple not so, as per what I read. Bill, yesterday I didnÂt turn the compost pile that I left to mature, since I saw there were some pumpkin seedlings showing up, and I thought, well, you never know maybe they grow nice. This morning guess what, they were gone, disappeared. IÂd eat Butternut Squash every day, casually found a grocer that sells it. Back in Argentina my mother had a piece ready for my arrival from the office nearly everyday Now IÂve got some Butternut seeds popping up in a propagator. Violet, I know thereÂs lots of info. However, last year while I was "researching" what happened that time to the tomatoes raised by me from seed, my husband convinced me to check a bit less ugly bugÂs pictures and diseased plants on the internet, and just try again, strengthening precautions. Pumpkin is not so popular here for eating, but for Halloween, therefore availability of seeds for consume (ie. to grow without chemicals) is just starting. I didnÂt plant resistant varieties, because I simply could not find any offered for sale. Thank you all for such warm welcome! Carol.

I am new here. I built a passive solar greenhouse from a plan I found in The Passive Solar Energy Book. All walls are solid except the south face. I poured an 18" high perimeter foundation, put in chicken wire, then large gravel, and bricked the center area. Under the shelves I placed water filled black barrels. I don't know how well this works as I have nothing to compare it to and I assume it depends on your individual climate. However, here, in the foothills of central California we get sun in the winter (T-shirt and jeans OK outside) though it gets cold as soon as the sun goes down. The GH is not finished and has openings at both ends where I plan to put in an exhaust fan and some intake louvers. Even with these unfinished openings it gets very hot. . .this month it was up to 115 degrees. I don't have the electricity ran to it yet, so leave the door open and can keep it between 90-95. I hooked up a weather sensor in the GH and have that linked to my computer and see that it rarely gets below 45 degrees at night even when it is about 30 degrees outside. Again, I am new to this and still learning what I need to know and cannot say how effective the heat sinks are. I plan to put in an exhaust fan, two intake vents (trying to decide whether to have motorized or gravity louvers for the intakes). I will put in a HAF fan system. . looking at one of those rectangle thermostatically controlled window fans with two small fans both reversible and with speed controls and set one one direction and one the other direction to get circular horizontal air flow - these used be about $40 at Lowes. I also had a spare 6" fan in a section of heating duct pipe so I installed that to duct runs to opposite corners of one side of the GH - about 6" up from the floor and then ran it up to a "T" in the center of one shelf and then and blow air into the center of the GH . . even when it is hot in the GH it is considerably cooler under the shelves - really amazingly so. Still experimenting. Everything I have planted has really grown rapidly even with a lot of heat an no fans as of now. At times in the winter it can get down to 20-25 degrees. . . this may happen a few times a season. I will have an electrical thermo controled heater to turn on when it gets that cold. Hopefully I won't ever need to heat it very often. I think my problems will be to keep it cool enough and air circulation.

That's a nice mix. Do you have any idea what the yellow and red varieties are? The rest are all different. I wouldn't keep them outside until the evening temps are into the 50's. I've never had a problem with transplanting. Mine get full sun and most like to be kept on the dry side. Most of the passies I've grown from seed take about a year to bloom except for foetida which started blooming in about 5 months. Good luck with your passies.

PM, it's too late for me, I didn't get a chance to sit down until now, and the cornbread is already made and eaten. We had black eyed peas and greens, Mother had chicken strips and mashed butternut squash left over from another meal. I do like the idea of adding pumpkin, though, or maybe some of that butternut squash... Elery's two youngest boys will be here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. with their families. Mother is here and that's a lot like cooking with a 3 year old, a lot of "what can I do?", but at least she's still here so I'm thankful for that. Anyway, I spent the day roasting tenderloin, making pizza "rolls", cheesecake, caramel nut tart, baking one more batch of cookies. Mother helped me frost. Elery's oldest granddaughter got her wisdom teeth taken out two days ago, so I'll be up early and making macaroni and cheese for her. Happy New Year, everyone, and may it be a happy and healthy one for all of us. Annie