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Rotting veg

It's our first year in Christmas Cottage and I got over excited about the overgrown raised beds and cleared everything and planted all kinds!  I've had a very good harvest from most things and my sprouts are showing promise.  However, both my Butternut Squash and Pumpkins are growing vegetables and then rotting.  Am I doing something wrong?  I've read about plenty of water which I've been doing and the weather has helped.  I've not put anything under the veg which some suggest to keep them from the soil - does this work?

Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Straw under maybe the best.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Mel MMel M Posts: 347

    I have never grown squash or pumpkins so I cannot advice. What I can say is that a chap on our allotments, who knows what he is doing, grew a MASSIVE pumpkin, yet when he turned it over there was a huge rotten hole underneath!!

    I grew outdoor melons this year under a 6mtr cloche, placing a piece of wood under each melon. Out of 40 melons only two started to rot and that was at the stem, where insects attacked them. The rest were perfect.

  • FleurisaFleurisa Posts: 779

    They often rot from the flower end, I remove dead flowers as they go all soggy and cause the rot

  • Oooh I like the sound of straw or wood under them, I'll give it a go.  I've got a couple of new ones growing so will try and see what happens.

    Thanks so much!

     

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