First Bud!

Can you see it? The first bud is forming. It's right in the center of the photo, at the end of the yellow ovary, which will turn into a fruit after the flower is pollinated. There are several other buds forming down there as well.

I took the photo at about 1pm this afternoon. The plants have been growing great guns this week. Here is the hill that I've been photographing, and the entire patch, for comparison with my last photo of the patch on July 31.


Monday morning we'll be irrigating the garden, but on Tuesday I'll be back to see how the bud is doing. It has a few days of growth before it will be ready to open.

8 Leaves

My squash plants have grown quite a bit since last Tuesday, July 31. We irrigated Monday July 30, and again yesterday, August 6. On July 31, just after watering the garden, the plant in the above hill of zucchini had 3 leaves, as can be seen in my July 31 post.

Yesterday, August 6, we irrigated again. I took the first photo, the one at the top of this page, on August 5. The second photo of the same hill was taken today, the day after irrigation. Different lighting accounts for the different colors in the photo.

My question is, has there been faster growth of the plant after irrigation than before?

Here's a brief, unscientific test. Last Sunday before irrigation, the plant in the center of the photo had 6 leaves, with a seventh very small leaf in the center. So, the plant went from 4 leaves a week ago to 6 leaves after irrigation. That's two leaves in 5 days, an average of .4 leaves a day.

Today after irrigation there are 8 leaves on the same plant with a ninth in the center. That's two new leaves added in 2 days, or an average of 1 leaf's growth per day. So it appears that my impression is supported by my anecdotal observation.

The plant is on one of the largest in my squash patch. Others are growing at a slower rate. Plant growth should increase once the plant puts down roots and starts to accumulate leaves. The more leaves, the faster photosynthesis takes place, so the fastser the leaves grow. How growth increases with increasing plant size is something I'd like to investigate.

Four Leaves

Yesterday we irrigated for about 7 hours. Today when I went out at noon to check on the condition of the squash bed, some of the plants were up to three leaves with a small fourth leaf starting to expand.

The growth pattern of the squash plants at this young stage is interesting. We irrigate once a week, with occasional additional waterings for a couple of weeks after planting the seeds. The squash plants puts on a spurt of above ground growth for the first couple of days after an irrigation. Then growth seems to be arrested as the soil dries down. I wish I could see what was going on under the ground during the slow growth period. Does all growth slow down, or do the roots continue to grow into the soil at a rapid rate? I'd like to think that the roots continue to grow rapidly even if the leaves and stems grow slowly. But I have seen no data.

Several hills of squash had no seedlings when I last wrote, but now there are only two or three hills with no seedlings. Some of those seedlings are growing very slowly. Here's what the patch looks like today:




I put in another half hour before irrigating to spread straw around the patch.

Total time spent on squash patch so far: 11 man - hours.