Garden Evaluation: squash, cucumbers, peppers

Box 3: zucchini, cucumbers, cayenne peppers, tomatoes (see earlier post)

planted May 16

Zucchini: 1 hill / 9 sq. ft x 3-4 seeds per hill

Variety: Elite Hybrid

Yield: enough to eat fresh and enough to make several batches of zucchini bread

Pests, Problems, Diseases: powdery mildew

This disease came on pretty strong toward the end of the summer, cutting back yield quite significantly in August/September. Almost all of the big leaves had to be removed at some point. What remained was still vigorous enough to produce a few more squashes, but not nearly what we had been getting. You can see the whiteness of the leaves on the last picture for this box, below. Not sure if they just weren't getting the air circulation needed with the tomatoes crowding in the box, or what.

Finished: end of August

Comments: One hill gave us all we wanted for eating fresh and baking. I did a post earlier in the summer about it being a space hog, but to recap: finding a variety that would climb the trellis would be a definite plus, leaving more space for other veggies in the box itself.

Cucumbers: 2 sq. x 4/sq. (one square in the corner of each box, next to the trellis)

Variety: Don't remember, and didn't write it down. But I need to try a new one next time, so I hope I will recognize it by the description!

Yield: Enough to eat fresh and some to give away, while they lasted.

Pests, problems, diseases: of the 4 plants per square, at least 1 in each box wilted away completely before its time. Not sure if it was lack of nutrients in the soil from all the other veggies crowding in, or what.

Plus, not really a problem per se, but growing them up the trellis produced several that were deformed, as they would grow through the netting and then get tangled up in it as they got bigger. A couple of them had to be cut off the trellis in a few pieces.

Finished: end of July--they finished rather abruptly, which surprised me. I had just given some away feeling confident I would have more within the week, only to find they were done.

Comments: This variety produced foot-long cucumbers with a good flavor. I want to try a different variety next time--it was huge or nothing with these. Maybe one square with a different variety of slicers that would grow to a more medium size, and one square of the variety especially for pickling. I was hoping to do some pickles with the ones from this summer, but they were not ready for picking until they were extra-long, and I let that intimidate me.

Cayenne Peppers: 1 sq. x 1/sq.
Variety: Cayenne, Long Thin
Yield: Several little peppers, about the size of my pinky finger.
Pests, problems, diseases: Just overcrowding by tomatoes and squash. Once they grew above the tomato vines they started producing.
Finished: end of season
Comments: I used some of these in the salsa I made this year, and some in other dishes. As mentioned above, they didn't really start producing until August or so, as the tomatoes weren't letting them have any space. Used our old tomato cages to hold them up which seemed to work well (again, it would work better if they weren't also supporting stray tomato vines!) For hot peppers, we like these. I might be tempted to try jalapenos at some point...we'll see.

Box 4: yellow crookneck squash, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes (see earlier post)

Yellow crookneck squash: 1 hill/9 sq. ft x 3 plants per hill

Variety: no special name, just yellow crookneck

Yield: for as big as the plant got, yield was a bit disappointing. We got an occasional squash from the plant--one or two every couple of weeks maybe.

Pests, problems, diseases: Lack of water? An earlier post mentions that after a week of rain there were several little squash growing, where we hadn't harvested any for a few weeks up to that point. I did water faithfully this summer, but perhaps the squash needed more than they got.

These also had powdery mildew problems, though not as bad as the zucchini.

Finished: end of August

Comments: as with the zucchini, I would like to find a climbing variety to free-up some space in the box. I would like to try a straight yellow squash, also, rather than the crookneck. The neck was always really tender, but the bulbous part would start to get mushy by the time they were big enough to pick.

Bell peppers: 1/sq. x 3 sq.

Variety: Banana Supreme, and The big Early

Yield: finally toward the end of the summer we harvested a handful of banana peppers. It wasn't until mid-to-late August that we got any bell peppers. We probably harvested 4 or 5 total of the regular bell.

Pests, problems, diseases: overcrowding by the tomatoes kept these from producing as much as they could have. They flowered regularly through the summer, but it wasn't until fall, when the plants were tall enough to peek out above the tomato vines that we got any peppers coming.

Finished: end of season

Comments: more space for these! Good flavor, but really no time to ripen from green as they didn't produce any peppers until August/early September. I bet I could be more successful with these next time, as the garden box layout will be planned differently to give them a bit more room.