What varieties of squash are you growing this year?

[gorbelly]

Thx, Fred. Chirimen is definitely on next year's grow list! I hear it's very productive as well.

[Dak]

I've been looking up some of the varieties people mention here and wondering about Chirimen.

Fred, I found two very different looking Chirimen, is it the variety from Kitazawa



Or Sustainable seeds that you like to grow? Both are called Chirimen.

[Fred Hempel]

I have used Kitazawa.

There is some variability in the fruits (between the two photos), but most have tended to look more like the Kitazawa photo.

Also, the Sustainable Seeds photo, seems to in part reflect that the fruits lighten in color for a month after harvest. Eventually they fade from very dark green to almost fully tan, with varying amounts of spotting evident.

[Dak]

Thanks, they looked so different to me, interesting that they fade to a tan color. Are they good keepers?

[Fred Hempel]

No.

What we have found is that there is a window of peak flavor between 3 and 5 weeks post-harvest. Flavor gets better for about a month, and then starts to decline after 6 weeks.

The soft, edible skin is also correlated with poor long-keeping, but good flavor. We try to eat and sell most of this variety within the window when they are best, and we keep other squash for later in the winter.

[Dak]

Thanks Fred, I think I'll have to put it on my list for next year.

[stevenkh1]

I am growing Blue Hubbard & Spaghetti squash as well as BlackBeauty and Golden Zukes. Golden Zukes are prolific!!!

I wamted to grow Neck Pumpkins (aka PA Dutch squash) but ya cant buy seeds up here, and Mike/Victory Seeds and Mike/Ohio Heirloom Seeds do not carry it.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

Blue Kuri is great too! It's advantage being that hard skin which gives it a 6+ month shelf life at room temperature.

Good flavor too.

I'm looking forward to them. The immature fruits are very pretty! The first one is about ready for a sling (I'm growing all my vine squash up trellises because of limited garden space).

I was worried about pests, as it's a C.maxima, but I haven't found any borer eggs on it. I've been checking daily and spraying BT every few days on the base, so keeping my fingers crossed. The squash bugs and cucumber beetles have been moderately interested in it, but they haven't destroyed it the way they did one of my Rugosa Friulana bushes. The BK is my largest and most vigorous vine so far, as the moschatas are slower to get going (though some turn into rampaging monsters late in the season!).

[greenthumbomaha]

I'm a big fan of the Lebanese summer squash that Jeanie Anne suggested. Sweet mild and soft and very productive! I didn't know I that I truly liked winter squash until this past year.

I was hooked on winter squash as soon as I cut open a heavy blue pumpkin that I purchased in October for decoration and saving seeds for sharing. I roasted and froze 5 bags! Prior to this I had grown traditional small pumpkins for show, acorn squash and spaghetti squash. The taste of those never wowed me, and I only got one or two per year. Either they got disease or if they managed to survive but not mature save for a handful, and I sadly neglected them cause they weren't faves.

I'm following this and the Lofthouse thread, but I'm really not familiar with any of the varieties mentioned here. What would be close in flavor to that amazingly sweet blue pumpkin (it looks like Blue Doll). I don't have a high tunnel and I'm in Zone 5 do dtm is a concern.

[AlittleSalt]

I still have not been able to grow a winter squash plant - much less get a squash from one. We have an infestation of squash bugs and borers here every year. Using dish-soap water only works on the ones you can see.

However, I do want to grow some yellow crookneck or straight neck summer squash in 2018.

[kath]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

I still have not been able to grow a winter squash plant - much less get a squash from one. We have an infestation of squash bugs and borers here every year. Using dish-soap water only works on the ones you can see.

However, I do want to grow some yellow crookneck or straight neck summer squash in 2018.

We have infestations of the same pests up here, Salt, and the only winter squash I can grow is butternut because their vines are resistant. The early maturing varieties usually give us a decent crop before the plants are killed.

[greenthumbomaha]

Tetsukabuto (F1) Hubbard Squash

Tormato gave notice in the MMMM this variety is a very large plant. Indeed it is. It has left the squash bed, growing through the tomatoes,expanding into the lawn, and is now covering the porcelain garlic. I need to harvest this garlic now, before the squash is mature.

How can I move several vines growing in one direction, some with small (about a golf ball) fruit? It is growing on black plastic but attaching to the garlic and all sorts of random weeds breaking thru the fabric. Last resort is to prune, but would that kill the entire plant?

- Lisa

[AlittleSalt]

In the containers I'm going to try two varieties this fall. Dark Green Zucchini and Early Yellow Straightneck. I haven't had any luck in the past, but soil problems will cause that along with squash bugs. In the containers, yeah maybe? I hope so as I look beside the keyboard to see the seed packs.

[Whwoz]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

Tetsukabuto (F1) Hubbard Squash

Tormato gave notice in the MMMM this variety is a very large plant. Indeed it is. It has left the squash bed, growing through the tomatoes,expanding into the lawn, and is now covering the porcelain garlic. I need to harvest this garlic now, before the squash is mature.

How can I move several vines growing in one direction, some with small (about a golf ball) fruit? It is growing on black plastic but attaching to the garlic and all sorts of random weeds breaking thru the fabric. Last resort is to prune, but would that kill the entire plant?

- Lisa

You should be able to move the vines around without a problem, just nip the tendrils that are coiled around the garlic and slide the vines about as you move along the garlic rows. As long as you are careful you should not break off the new fruit.

I would not think that pruning would kill the plant unless you get a disease of some sort in the cut. You will find that the plant will out out one or maybe two new leaders near the cut. We often prune runners if they are getting uncontrollable or if we want to prevent late setting fruit that we know will not mature on what we grow.

[greenthumbomaha]

Thank you, Whwoz. I usually grow bush squash, or winter squash not quite as sprawling. I too get a useless rush of late setting fruit on melons in the summer heat, but sadly squash bugs generally take care of that situation for me. I once saw a video, peas perhaps, if the tendril didn't find something to attach to it would wither and die, and not grow the vine properly. I am all set to go but the heat may limit what I can get done this weekend.


- Lisa