Rez Zircon

Should put a bikini on those onions...

I grew some veggie porn myself... here he is with his lady-love:

Sounds great! look forward to seeing pictures once it's set up. Not to mention once it's growing :D

Occurs to me that one could easily prop cattle panels at an angle, to approximate that wonderful Tunnel of Squash, only shorter.

Pearl Sutton wrote:A picture off  the net I have had for years, don't recall where I got it from...
This is what I dream of!! :D

Wow, that's really cool!!

Only problem I can think of is for fruit that turns loose of the vine when it's ripe, like cantaloupe -- would fall down and break open. But a few hanging baskets/buckets hooked to the trellis would solve that problem (at least at the small scale). Or a suspended tarp. Anything so it doesn't go SPLAT.

I never lack for twine, but that does sound like a good use for bindweed... occurs to me to wonder if it might be used to make a fine-textured weaving, like fine rattan. Of course it probably wouldn't have much strength after it dries, but it's fun to think that the durn stuff can be useful.

Last year my bindweed got the creeping crud -- developed holes in the leaves and little black spots, then after a few days the whole plant would turn brown and crunchy, and pretty soon all of it that wasn't climbing on tall grass had died (and much did not come back this year, either).

After some consultation with the county  extension agent, we determined that the 'culprit' was golden tortoise beetles. (Two different species.) These look like little gold ladybugs. One species is very shy and freaks out if it sees sunlight; the other doesn't care.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charidotella_sexpunctata

A nice closeup:
https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Golden-Tortoise-Beetle

I don't have domestic morning glory or sweet potatoes, so if they're going to kill bindweed, the more the merrier!

And I hate pink.

Pearl Sutton wrote:It's also strangling grass where it's on the ground.

When I had the man-eating spaghetti squash -- looked to me like the tendrils actively sought out and strangled competing weeds. Pretty much did away with bindweed and mallow foolish enough to grow underneath it. Left the corn alone, tho wove between the rows.

Rebecca Norman wrote:
Nope, I was hounded by those homeless zucchini this year, for the first time for me over here on the other side of the planet. So it can't be the sunspots.

Maybe zucchini are migratory, and it was your turn to have 'em? :)

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Rez Zircon wrote: stock panels on cinder blocks (laid flat on the blocks), to get the squash plants completely up off the ground.

That's interesting!Wonder what goes on under the panels as far as bugs, rodents and weeds... Hm.. Might try that. Thank you!! :D

Had the same thought, but the biggest panels are 5 feet wide. Leave enough space to work between and at cinder block height, you can rake out underneath to keep it from being colonized. Squash will shade out weeds well enough. -- Pallets would probably work well too, and are piled up free most places (please, take more!) so long as they're not resting on the ground to make damp spots.

Must not be zucchini's year. I planted seeds twice and none came up. Broke down and bought one, and tho the plant looks healthy, it never grew (it's still as small as when I got it in June) and tho it produced a few male blossoms -- that was it. And I haven't seen the usual bags of homeless zucchini roaming the streets, so maybe it's a general thing. Not enough sunspots? wrong magical incantation?? a cure for zucchini poisoning???

Conversely the adjacent acorn squash is trying to take over the world, and has about a dozen big squash on it (not yet ripe). On the other side, the cukes have done well off and on tho gave up early, and the canteloupe has 3 or 4 fruit (netted up but still oblong so may not beat the frost). Feral watermelon (originally a sugar baby) has several fruit in progress (mostly large for the variety); domestic watermelon has just one, a bit small for the variety. Crenshaw melons and spaghetti squash didn't come up at all. So for vine fruit, this year has really been a mixed bag.

In my experience, given opportunity just about every squash but zucchini will climb all over everything. (This year I had a watermelon I had to discourage from climbing the back fence.)

Here's a trick I once saw: stock panels on cinder blocks (laid flat on the blocks), to get the squash plants completely up off the ground. Needed some initial guidance but once they got bushy the plants wanted to stay on top on their own. Didn't need to provide anything to climb on, and with central support, stock panels are strong enough for anyone to walk on (especially if you get the kind with 4" squares -- very stiff). I might overlay it with 2" chicken wire to make sure young fruits don't dangle below.

[This year I made tomato cages from stock panels -- five cages from a $40 panel -- and it's the first thing my killer tomatoes haven't been able to demolish.]