Re: [gardeners] Uh oh....

Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 27 Aug 1998 15:00:35 -0600 

At 03:59 PM 8/27/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Well, well, well, I think I got trouble.
>
>Last spring I didn't want to pay the extrodinary US exchange rate to order
>a few packets of seeds from the States. (It was, btw, an exchange rate I
>now look back on with fondness.) So I chose to forgo trying out the
>Zuchinni costata romanesco, aka Green Thighs, the subject of such vitriolic
>prose from Liz. Instead, I purchased an innocuous looking variety from
>White Rose by the name of "Chefini".  As I have a very small vegetable
>garden this year, I planted only one Chefini and one Gold Rush zuchinni.
>Mistakenly, I later determined, I planted the zuchinni only 3 feet away
>from a row of San Marzano paste tomatoes. The tomatoes took off early in
>the season, they grew an easy 2 feet in one week, then they kept going. By
>mid-June they were over the cages and bounding off in all directions.
>Still, the zuchinni were doing well themselves. The Gold Rush got off to a
>weak start but was coming along fine. The Chefini, however, grew
>supiciously large leaves...larger than I'd seen on any zuchinni before. But
>when the first 6 inch fruit was harvested from the plant in late June I was
>delighted. It continued to produce one fruit every other day, a pleasant
>rate since it's just me here. 
>
>However, soon after, the San Marzanos had grown to such a size that the
>cages couldn't take the strain and two plants came crashing down on my Gold
>Rush zuchinni. 
>
>That seemed to make the Chefini mad...  
>
>It's begun to vine it's way down towards it's crushed and ailing comrade.
>It's putting out three, four, five zuchinnis a day. I can't keep up,
>they're becoming huge out there before I can harvest them. Overnight
>baseball bat sized zuchinnis appear, and they keep coming. The Chefini
>alone is holding up 4 San Marzano tomato plants. These huge leaves are all
>tangled in amongst the tomato vines.
>
>Now it's heading for the beets...................
>
>Marianne
>Southeastern Ontario AgCan zone 5b
>
The war of the --OIDS!!!  Run for your lives, it's the giant mutant
squashoid!  Tomato vines ensnaring unwary veggies (human and otherwise),
murmuring "Feed Me!  Feed Me!"  And the breeze whispering, "Next time pay
the exchange rate.  Where do you think you are, Russia?"  Margaret