What varieties of squash are you growing this year?

[ako1974]

Butternut and Bush Buttercup. I absolutely want to grow more - summer squash really - but I get tired of battling SVB. Green-striped cushaw is a great one, with thick, hard stems.

[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.

[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

[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.

[Tracydr]

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

What are you using for a pollinator? This squash needs a pollinator.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

What are you using for a pollinator? This squash needs a pollinator.

Kabocha squash for sure which is c.maxima.
Possibly the speckled hound and/or the candy roaster which are also c.maxima.
I think trombocino is a moschata and I may have some sort of butternut squash seeds hanging around here somewhere which could be an option. I’ll plant out some evening this week. Having a miserable heat wave this whole week so I guess I’m going to have to brave the weather and get out there if I want to get anything planted.