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[Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>]

I bought a spaghetti squash for the first time earlier this year, dried a few 
seeds, and planted one seed just to see if it would grow.
 
Grow it has.  The one plant is now over 7 foot wide (I actually took a 
measuring tape out this morning) and just over knee high and seems to be 
expanding by the minute.... only slightly exaggerating... :-)
 
The thing that gets me is the first squash growing (of 5 so far) is starting 
to look like a monster.  It is just over 10" long and 6" (yes 6") wide !!!  
It is green with some lighter green speckles.  
 
The one I got in the grocery store (from which the seed came from) was yellow 
(and I assume the ripe color), and was only about 7" long and maybe 4" wide.
 
This spaghetti plant was planted about 12 feet away from the monster pumpkins 
and now they have grown into each other.
 
I sure hope there is no way that the bees can cross the monster pumpkin 
pollen with the spaghetti squash and turn the spaghetti squash into monster 
sized squash............
 
 
I planted this 1 squash, 3 pumpkins and 2 watermelon plants in the middle of 
a driveway circle, not expecting them to grow that much, or even do well 
since I didn't till the soil very deep and the sand underneath is very hard.  
I keep having to turn the vines so they don't grow over the driveway.  It is 
a good thing the rabbits and ground squirrels ate the popcorn shoots and 
sweet potato slips, because they would be overrun at this point by the 
pumpkins.
 
 
Curcubits sure seem easy to grow here.......... but it is getting to the 
point (almost)  that every time I see a new baby watermelon, jenny lind melon 
or honey dew I cringe...  J/K, as it looks like I can freeze lots of that.  
 
I harvested the first jenny lind the other day, much to my surprise it is 
green fleshed inside.... but ooooh so good, and as juicy as the watermelon.  
I haven't figured out when to harvest the honey dew, so I just took a chance 
and picked a big one, and it was about 90% ripe, and also very juicy but firm 
also.
 
 
I can't wait to see how big the spaghetti squash gets.  I wish the hubbards 
were producing better.  5 plants, and only 2 squash.
 
 



>From Clansgian AT wmconnect.com  Sat Aug  1 09:46:52 2009
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> >I sure hope there is no way that the bees can cross the monster pumpkin
> pollen with the spaghetti squash and turn the spaghetti squash into monster
> sized squash............

Alas, there is a way, although it is not likely.  Squash flowers are so
large that bees generally get a full load in one flower and don't go from
flower to flower.

A pumpkin might be maxima, mixta, moschata, or pepo .... depending on the
type.

A spaghetti squash is pepo, so it might be the same species as the pumpkin.


James