Summer squash are up. The variety I planted is called "Butter Dish". 7-8 inch butter yellow fruit with mild flavor. Open plants with few spines are easy to harvest. Disease tolerant. They are container friendly in a 12 inch container. A five gallon bucket should work for them. Will transplant when they are up a couple inches.

I got to thinking about why the first set of zucchini and summer squash did not come up. They were last years seed purchase and I could have been watering them too much. I purchased new seed this time around and paid more attention to how much water to use.

I have my five pepper plants in 2 1/2 gallon pails which dry out quick. I went out today and covered the top completely with burlap mats to control evaporation from the top. The pails are plastic so there should be no evaporation from the sides or bottoms except where I have holes drilled.

Went out this evening and dusted the butternut squash plants for bugs and disease. Used dual purpose dust in same can. The last time I used the dust container it came in I had a difficult time controlling the amount of dust coming out. I got thinking about when I was back on the farm when I use to help my father dust plants and remembered we used a bag to shake on the dust. What I did with my one pound dust container is opened up the top side with the large opening for pouring out. I took a piece of burlap and folded it onto itself creating a double thick layer. Folded it onto the shaker can and held the burlap on with a strong rubber band. Went and dusted the squash that way. The dust shakes out giving just a fine dusting where applied. Just work the can a little bit and when the burlap appeared to be plugged I tapped the can with a short stick to loosen the dust plug in the burlap. Used recommended safety precautions while using the dust.

I did not think much of the acorn squash plants being in the butternut squash box. Yanked them out and threw them away. No big deal or loss.