Solstice garden update, plus questions on watermelon and peppers

Hey all, how is your solstice garden growing??

I am really glad I have kept a lot of photos of my garden, because now I know I am not hallucinating. Using the info from the photos here, on average my Zucchino Rampicante really IS growing almost 6" a day! It has grown 46" in 9 days, and in the last week I've had to adjust the upper tie morning and evening just to keep up with it.

I think I need to give it a name.












Here is the watermelon (Golden midget) and early (!?) yellow crookneck squash:



Here is my question about the watermelon: The lower leaves seem a little yellow. Is that just bottom leaves, or?? (Hope I am not being paranoid....)



Here are the taters with their brand new 12" riser, not yet backfilled. This will bring total depth to 26"-28".




Here is the chocolate pepper plant I bought. The fruits are supposed to get about 2" across and turn brown when ripe. It had blooms and some fruits on it when I got it. It seems a little unhappy and some of the leaves are curling inwards.... what is going on here? I have peppers started in-ground (and indoors) from seed adjacent and they seem happy enough (though small.) (Also, I have NO idea what that weed is in with the chard in the lower right corner... it looks almost like an amaranth plant, but not quite right for that.)


Here are the peppers I started in-ground, between the chard and the trellis. Their leaves aren't curling.


Another shot from the other side.

Gorgeous! And you are right. When I put my trellis up the pumpkin was up to my chin. The next day it was as tall as I am and today it is about 6" taller. Maybe you can name it Audrey II.

Maybe so! I need advice on how to turn it around and back down the trellis without breaking it.....(!) Also, I came home today and discovered a baby squash on it. It's been holding out on me; I didn't think it'd started blooming yet!!

Megan, do you think if you do nothing to your zucchino it will just keep growing longer when it reaches the top of the trellis, and it will eventually fall back down on its own? Then you should be able to sort of thread it through the trellis and it will probably begin growing back up again.

Great photos.

My pumpkin has reached the top of its 6' trellis and I am wondering about the next step too.

Mine is at the top now, too, Chopper.



@ Ander217 : I thought my pole limas would do that, too, but they kept reaching for the sky and the wind broke them off against the trellis. I gave them a bit more pole to grow up and they kept going up. I just today tried to train them back downwards. (See before and after training attempt below.)





As for the Zucchino... I now realize I should have trained it upwards a little closer to the middle of the netting. I could try to bring it down the middle, now, but as the corn grows it's going to be hard to access it. That, plus the fact the top stem is leaning a little to the left decided me. I retied that stem to anchor the starting point of an arc, and used a second nylon footie to try to convince it to go crosswise.... and I think I may be able to bring it down along the conduit. (The vertical conduit is JUST out of view to the left in the photo below.)



In doing all that, I was stunned to discover that the plant had branched without my realizing it....the branch was hiding in among the potato greens on the back side of the trellis netting. Sneaky Zucchino!! So, I may have a good use for that center zone of the trellis netting after all!

This photo is a little hard to make out, but the big leaves belong to the main stem. Potatoes below. The nylon footie tie in the middle of the photograph is holding the branch to the netting and the branch itself is pointing at about 10:30 p.m. on a clock dial.



Anyway, I sure hope this works!

I really wanted an arch but couldn't pull it off. I will try and see what happens - pictures to follow no doubt.

@ Chopper : My backup plan (going over top of the trellis) was to cut a 2-liter soda bottle lengthwise and put it over the top of the trellis to try to soften the bend and give some support to the vine.

Very clever and better than my backup plan which is nothing.

I am still struggling to convince the zucchino go grow down. It wants UP!!

In the meantime, I have discovered that this crazy plant is apparently sending out a NEW BRANCH with each female flower. I have never, ever seen a squash do this before in my life! I was worried about being overrun before. Now if I'm not careful I may have trouble getting out the front door....

I was lucky as my pumpkin had enough of a turn in its stalk to start it going down the trellis. So far so good.