Cucurbit conundrum

We built a new greenhouse this year which has held up reasonably well to spring time in Northern Vermont.  A few of our early season thunderstorms have proven that PVC cross connectors are nowhere near as strong as I thought they should be, but the 6 mil plastic covering has held up extremely well.  Properly watered plants are thriving inside, not the least of which are the cucurbits which we started from seed in late May. 

These 'seedlings' shot right up and were far past transplant stage, but we gave it a shot anyway.  I watered them and then carefully dug rows of blue hubbard squash and two types of pumpkins and transplanted them into mounds on the hill in front of the house but above the garden.  The first day it appeared as if I had killed them.  I was dismayed that all this seed was going to be wasted because more sleep wasn't sacrificed to ensure their survival by transplanting them earlier in their lives.  Sad, seemingly lifeless vines lay withering on the hill in the sunshine.  Sufficient water was provided by both Mother Nature and supplemented by me, but they languished there anyway.  I watched them for three days while it rained and DH and I added a little extra water - still nothing.  Lesson learned, no more than two weeks in the greenhouse before transplant and then it needs to be marked on the calendar much like we track our rabbit breeding dates.

DH and I learned our lesson with poor record keeping a few years ago when we attempted to raise meat birds.  These were Cornish crosses who are bred especially for meat and are meant to be slaughtered at eight weeks, no more, no less.  We started these guys inside the house in an extra bedroom - as I have mentioned before DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME - and then moved them outside to the chicken tractor.  Eight weeks came and went as DH and I discussed how heavy they were getting but both of us certain we had another week or two before we needed to put them in the freezer.  We had an early warm spell when the birds were between ten and eleven weeks old.  Upon opening the tractor in the morning we found several of the birds barely clinging to life when the outside temperature had barely reached seventy degrees.  A couple had perished in the night as they were too heavy to carry their own weight around any longer.  Plans for the humid, warm, late spring day changed to cleaning and dressing the remaining twelve meat birds.  Normally one plans on dispatching chickens on cool mornings keeping not only the smell down but stray feathers from sticking to your sweaty person.  Neither worked in our favor this day.

Now chicken, pig and rabbit birthdays are tracked in either a computer spreadsheet or in my calendar (someday I will go completely electronic but there remains the feeling of a nice piece of stock and the rolling of the ball point as history is recorded while it is made). This year I have learned that cucurbit birthdays will also have to be recorded especially those started in the greenhouse.  Just over a week after transplant, the vines are beginning to perk up.  Half of them are showing signs of life.  Those 'seedlings' remaining in the greenhouse include a variety of pie pumpkins, a couple different gourds, some spaghetti squash and hybrid acorn squash which still have a fighting chance.  Weather for this week is forecast to be more summer like, I will wait until later in the evening to transplant the remaining vines.  Wish me luck.