Wow! That's a very impressive arrangement, and I love it! May it bring you big, juicy squash and pumpkins. I'm looking forward to your next update.
oubee i often get asked about the tires and leaching. my view is that vulcanised rubber, is designed to deal with hot temps without breaking down. So if it was going to leach into the soil the tires would have to be far hotter than they are. With the tires on the sides as they are water tends to drain downwards so again leaching into the root ball is not likely to happen. I plan to remove the soil every few years, to stop build up of poor soil conditions. and any possible leaching but to be honest compared to all the stuff in processed food i not that worried. If you want to get round it you could always use a large bin liner before filling the tires. Thanks Droopy, i am interested how long the butternut squash will get with them being suspended. As for the pumpkins there all baby pams so no huge ones.
Danj: Very cool project! I just discovered your post and read through it this am. I wish you well with it & hope you can foil the powdery mildew gnome this year.
Np oubee thx cayuga, yup the powdery mildew is my main concern on the project. i'm hoping that earlier start will mean healthier plants to resist it.
update on the project well the pumpkins are running for the framework and just reached the top of the apex of the Aframe. training them up the netting has been surprisingly easy. pumpkin reaching to top of aframe ( photo / image / picture from Danjensen's Garden ) The baby pams are working the best and i'm hoping for a good harvest off the 2 main vines. The larger pumpkin is slow to run due to thicker vines. below is one of the first pumpkins on the netting its about the size of a tennis ball. i am training them to have the vine above and the pumpkin below, if need be i will provide support as it gets bigger. I have another 4 female flowers on this vine. first pumpkin ( photo / image / picture from Danjensen's Garden ) one of the big succeses is the butternut squash, using a different seed supplier and seeing some great no.s of female flowers per plant, currently at 5-6 per plant and its not hit the aframe yet. As always nature teaches you the best way. i had hoped for two plants per tire, but with breakages early on and seedlings not competing well with the mature plants i think its safe to say one pumpkin plant per tire stack is best approach, OR both have to be planted at same time. starting the seeds off indoors has certainly helped compared to direct sowing last year. Finally, the zuchini crop is doing great, we had a harvest last week for zuchini and sausage pasta. Plants are producing well for another harvest this week. Far better results than when they were in my raised beds. I also picked up a cheap water timer at Walmart $5 which makes water very easy with the drip irrigation. normally at this stage i rethink the design for improvements. and i think i would space the tires apart. and build a four post tower on each securing on the outside of the tires and tieing in at the top. Then train the pumpkin to spiral around and up. This would make walking between plants far easier and less likly to damage them. Plus better air flow for reduced powdery mildew transfer. I will trial one this way next year i think. I'll post some more pictures of these weeks zuchini harvest. and of the aframe when the plants startto cover it.
Man, this is coming along pretty darn well, isn't it, Dan? Your set-up is really a good one. I hope that you will continue top post pics and give progress reports as the season progresses.
Thanks buddy, yup i managed to grow 1 pumpkin first year got 3 last year. With the early start to the season (3weeks) i'm hoping for some good results. although i'm getting through the sulfur spraying them against the powdery mildew. :-D will be another few pics tomorrow when i harvest the zuchinis.
Hey Dan...I'm standing in line right behind Carolyn. I keep trying to elbow my way to the front of the line, but she's not having any of that.
Oh Sjoerd, you are so silly, jump on in ahead of me. Maybe Dan will invite us in for tea if we show up together to check out the project.
Count me in on the curious, I'd be very interested to know the outcome of your experiment, Dan... Hank
Sorry for the delay guys not been on for a while... Well the experiment was a bit of an anti climax. Zucchini worked very well, we had a great crop this year which continued well into the fall. I think the simple watering system, and pruning back any sign of powdery mildew really helped keep the plants healthy and producing. Far better results to them being in the garden with the other veg. As for the pumpkins/winter squash. was a disappointment with regards yield, After such a great early start the plants stopped growing and all the female flowers would die off not yielding more plants. So i only had one plant that reached the top of the frame and ended up with 4 small pumpkin and the same in butternut squash. From the results of the zucchini and lots of reading i can only imagine this is due to starting the plants too early. couple of sources have suggested that unlike most veg getting an early start with squash can have the effect of poor yield. Will certainly be doing the zucchini again next year. As for the pumpkins i've got mixed views, I think in areas where the summers are cooler the tires would help a lot (Sjoerd might be good for you), but here where we are 30c + i think they are to hot. Especially if getting an early planting doesn't help. I have a couple ideas for next year the first is to put bamboo canes around the tires and train it vertically above the tires in a spiral. Planting later. The second plan is to plant at the corners of my corn patch, 1. as a deterent to raccoons from eating my corn. but also to try the plants in the ground and allow the suckers along the plant to go into the ground. This might keep the roots cooler yet give baking sun to the leaves. Overall, A big fan of drip irrigation with a timer on the tap ($4 from walmart) and will look to be using this with the toms next year. Pruning out mildew leaves, drip irrigation and raised off the floor all seemed to reduce the damage powdery mildew did this year.
Dan, too bad it didn't turn out like you were hoping. You zucchini crop was much better than mine. I got next to nothing out of two plantings. My pumpkins I planted in the field in black plastic "mulch" and Kevin sprayed them several times with a fungicide to keep the P Mildew at bay, We didn't water except to water them in and maybe once when they wilted due to the drought, but that wasn't much. They did great where they were at. I think I would have rather had zucchini's though. Edited to add: We did spray for cucumber beetles, I forgot to add that earlier. They were terrible this year.
I had a very poor pumpkin/squash season. It was a very hot, dry year and the insects had a banner year as well. I managed to keep them watered, but it the end it was squash bugs, cucumber beetles and vine borers that took the plants. The only vine that did well for me this year was the Sweet Potato Squash that gave me about 10 fruits before succumbing.
