I must have screwed up AGAIN... this is a zucchini, isn't it?

This is my first year gardening and compared to some of my other blunders this is relatively minor, but still a total bummer. This is a zucchini, right?



It's not a Tigger Melon?

Because it's SUPPOSED to be a Tigger Melon. It's tucked into a square at the rear corner of a box, right under the trellis, ready to produce sweet, juicy little... zucchinis?

Oh man... I am sensing a seed mixup about 6 weeks ago.

It's really healthy and thriving compared to the ones growing in a weird hodge-podge of leftover soil and compost, but I think I have to pull it. I just hope it's not too late to try the Tigger Melons. It could still happen in my zone... I think!

Anyway, a positive ID on this guy would be helpful. And if anyone in SoCal wants a big heirloom Black Beauty from Baker Creek seed, you're welcome to come dig it up!

I have a flowering zucchini plant in my bed and this looks just like that - the flower, the leaves, everything. So I'm pretty certain that's a zucchini. However I've no idea how a tiger melon looks!
Looking at this picture http://www.garden-wiki.org/index.php?topic=TIGGER%20MELON, the leaves do look different.

that appears to be the male flower of a zucchini, however I have no idea what the flower of a tiger melon looks like.
Many of the squashes have similar flowers, my recollection is that the melons have smaller flowers

I have gotten my stuff mixed up as well, and lost a few of the markers, and so this summer will be watching and trying to ID some of my squashes.

Gah... this wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't going to shade out the rest of the box. I think I have to pull it.

On the other hand, it's very clear that the MM makes a difference - it's MUCH healthier than the ones planted outside of the box, and bigger, and it grew from seed while those were purchased starts. They probably had a few weeks' head start on it!

I agree it looks like a Zucchini with male flowers....lots of them before the female ones grow their little belly into a squash! With MM my plants grow so large I have to trim leaves encroaching on other boxes!

It's definitely a zucchini. There's a female flower just behind the northwest petal of the male flower.. See the little baby zucchini?

I can relate.

I planted 4 tomato plants. 2 slicers & 2 paste. Seems my paste tomatoes have morphed in to slicing tomatoes And I swear I did a good job labeling my seedlings.

@TN_GARDENER wrote:I planted 4 tomato plants. 2 slicers & 2 paste. Seems my paste tomatoes have morphed in to slicing tomatoes And I swear I did a good job labeling my seedlings.

Oh no!

I had started my stuff in Jiffy peat pots and just charted where they were in the tray - but I guess stuff got moved around as time went on. I also have a mystery pepper that was seeded at the same time.

Gah. I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Good to know you're not alone, one of my jiffy trays got spilled and I mixed up 20 tomatoes and peppers, there was determitate and indeterminates, and about 5 different tpes of peppers. I am still wondering where I should plant these, with my luck I will be trellising bush tomatoes, lol!

Haha!

Well, I have since switched to newspaper pots with seed starting mix, and I found little baby popsicle sticks at Michael's that I'm using for markers. I'm determined not to have this happen again! I should start making a list of the mistakes I've made so far (it's long).

I guess I'm going to try to mix up a new batch of MM this weekend and try to transplant the zucchini into a 5-gallon bucket. It seems like such a waste to just compost it. It's a really gorgeous, healthy plant! This is my first year growing zucchini, so it got pretty big before I realized what had happened.

just last week our baby seedlings of zucchini, cantalope, acron squash. crookneck squash and pumpkins were tipped over and mixed up when our little green house was blown over by strong winds....yikes....they really all look the same.... each of them we planted more then we were going to use....plus....they all had a differnt spot to be planted in the gardens.....like our cantalopes were going to be kept in the bigger green house so they had enough heat....we only wanted one zucchini and a couple crookneck...but wanted as many as we could get to sprout of the acorn squash....or favorite .....so now we are scrambling trying to figure out who is who.....well...it will be fun watching these guys grow and finding out who is who

hugs

rose

lol - I have a few mystery plants coming along, too. Fortunately they are all of the two square foot variety.

Coelli, have you ever grown zukes from a bucket before? I got one and planted it in a bucket to show GWN how it works and would love it if you took pics along the way so we can compare throughout the season!

@Coelli wrote:This is my first year gardening and compared to some of my other blunders this is relatively minor, but still a total bummer. This is a zucchini, right?



It's not a Tigger Melon?

Because it's SUPPOSED to be a Tigger Melon. It's tucked into a square at the rear corner of a box, right under the trellis, ready to produce sweet, juicy little... zucchinis?

Oh man... I am sensing a seed mixup about 6 weeks ago.

It's really healthy and thriving compared to the ones growing in a weird hodge-podge of leftover soil and compost, but I think I have to pull it. I just hope it's not too late to try the Tigger Melons. It could still happen in my zone... I think!

Anyway, a positive ID on this guy would be helpful. And if anyone in SoCal wants a big heirloom Black Beauty from Baker Creek seed, you're welcome to come dig it up!

I have some zuchinni in a raised SFG bed and they are at the edge of a 3 foot fall .. rather than let them crawl all over the remaning bed I've cut the runners off and placed two old plastic kitchen serving trays around the two plants to stop them and am allowing the free untouched runners to progress over the side of the bed where I will train them to grow down a wire frame .. I will be also doing the same with my apple cucumbers which are in another bed at the end of a run of beds.



Alison is already refering to them as the hanging gardens of courgettes and cucumbers

Alison is already refering to them as the hanging gardens of courgettes and cucumbers

Plantoid, would love to see a photo of this..

cheyannarach

Coelli, have you ever grown zukes from a bucket before? I got one and planted it in a bucket to show GWN how it works and would love it if you took pics along the way so we can compare throughout the season!

OKOK I am going to plant a few zucchinis in buckets. So are you using 5 gallon bucket or something broader?

I just remembered that 2 years ago I planted my zucchinis in those large bags of potting soil.
You just cut the top off the bottom bag then put a second bag on top and punch lots of holes in the bottom of it, cut a hole in the top of it.
I grew about 3 zucchinis well in this.
It was this tip I saw in the Mother Earth news.

I'll take pictures, sure!

I have another zucchini (actually it's probably two, I got "it" as a start) growing in a cement mixing tub in a mishmash of different composts, vermiculite, peat, and sand. It's doing okay but not fantastic. The one in the box is in MM and was grown from seed and is healthy and much bigger than the one in the tub which was planted about a week after the other's seed was stuck in a Jiffy pot.

When I transplant it, I'll put it in MM in a bucket. I was considering another cement mixing tub but am running out of space!

Welp, I transplanted the zucchini yesterday. I was really careful, but still had to break a couple of lateral roots. The root ball was still pretty much intact.

However, by the time I had it in the bucket (only a couple of minutes) it was already wilting and within the hour, looked like it was dead with all of the stems hanging limp over the sides. Wow!! SO FAST!

I don't think it's going to make it, but I cut off most of the stems and leaves, leaving only the new leaves in the center, and put it in semi-shade for now. We'll see if it ever comes back. We have a long growing season so I guess it could happen. I'm also considering planting a couple of zuke seeds in the bucket; if the big one comes back, I'll pull the small ones and if it doesn't, I'll pull the big one and let one of the babies have the bucket.

Lesson learned! Don't try to transplant a mature zucchini!

WATER water water water... and some more water.

Well, the zucchini isn't dead. It SHOULD be dead, but it might be bouncing back. It's in intensive care but it ain't over yet!

I'll keep this thread updated just in case anyone cares, and in case there's a miraculous recovery.

Unfortunately I don't have any more "before" pictures than the one I posted originally. Here's what it looked like yesterday... this is not for the squeamish... !



But look... those little leaves in the very center show no signs of dying yet... so could it be?



I am thinking about taking off that clearly dying leaf stalk in the back but don't want to shock it any more than it already has been.

The saga of the sad zucchini. I hope it makes a comeback. It looks like its really trying and deserves every chance.

You know, I think it actually looks pretty good and will make it.

@camprn wrote:You know, I think it actually looks pretty good and will make it.

I hope so.. considering how fast it wilted, I figure if it hasn't completely died yet it might actually come back! *crosses fingers* It really was a beautiful plant, I hated to dig it up but didn't really have a choice. It was only 6 weeks from seed and was already overtaking the box!