First the melon. There is only one of them despite having five healthy plants. Surprisingly it's in the garden, next to the blighted tomatoes (but that's another story) and I'm watching over it with the tenderness of a vixen for her cubs although I haven't quite reached the stage of bringing home stunned rabbits for it to play with.
I really hoped it would be a melon year. I'm thinking the the greenhouse plants must have been too hot and/or dry although I thought melons loved the heat and I've not knowingly stinted the water. The other outdoor plant did have a water sufficiency malfunction so it's hardly surprising nothing much has happened there. Is it too late for a last minute fruit to form and ripen before the cold comes? I hope not.
The Uchiki Kuri pumpkin plant has really taken off and I can see about 7 good looking fruit on the one plant, plenty for us. It's a bit of another surprise because it really did look rather weedy when we brought it home and sulked in its patch for a month or two after planting. Clearly quality will out, I've always thought they are one of the best varieties for home growing.
The Blue Banana squash (Guatemalan clone) was new for this year. I have two plants but only three fruit between them (that I can see). Not that this is likely to be a problem, they are huge and we can rarely finish up the pumpkin harvest at any time. I do think they're not really blue though and this disappoints me. Years ago I used to grow Pink Banana squash and liked them a lot because they were properly pink and quite good eating. Anyway, my lovely son has sourced me some more Whangaparaoa Crown seeds from his trip to NZ so I'll be growing those next year.
In the back garden the Sweet Dumpling is only just beginning to fruit and the bought in Moschata looks like it will be a total dud as the one female flower was eaten by slugs early on and it has no flowers of any variety now. Hurrah for Uchiki Kuri is all I can say.
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