Are those x spaghetti squashes? I’ve had some volunteer for these last 3-4 years. I call them Compost Monsters. I like their resilience so I keep them, but keep detaching them from bushes and young trees and reroute them from time to time. They grow like magic beans.
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tromboncino! and there’s a triamble pumpkin, several kuri and a black futsu in there… somewhere???
I just picked a patty pan bigger than my spread hand from there, too. I looked at the melon patch and decided it’s for tomorrow.
my front yard candy roasters are catching up too and covering some ground.
my stepson was watching the garden all week and apparently gave it some kind of young-man vigor that it needed
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Sounds great!
Do you store your tromboncinos? I like them best young, but last year, I used it it as a “substitute crop” on one of my frosted peaches and had surplus. We ate the last one in March.
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do you pick your candy roasters once the vines die back in the fall or once they get a good size? i have 1 right now i believe is 15-18lb range. i placed some cardboard under the fruit to hopefully protect them from rotting under there. its starting to turn from a light yellow to that pinkish color with the green splash at the tip. planted them from seed in mid may.
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both! I usually wait until the color changes on them, regardless of the plant. dry tendril and color change is when I pick em.
my tromboncino I pick some as soon as I see them looking like food, they usually come right before the big wave of yellow crookneck so I’ll eat a few. then the crookneck and pattypans start up and I forget about the trmbos until they are hard skinned, I usually pull the rest as winter squash.
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Yes, Tromboncino is a moschata and NOT bothered by squash vine borers at all. Tromboncino squash is different from the Indian snake gourd; different genus/species. I got my first Tromboncino seeds 2 decades ago from Pinetree Garden seeds (superseeds.com). Cheap and Very productive! I did not have any orders from Pinetree this year and did not want to pay shipping for one packet of seed. So I got my Tromboncino squash from Baker seeds (rareseeds.com) which offers free shipping. Very productive too and Baker seeds refer to it with its other Italian name: Zucchino Rampicante. https://www.rareseeds.com/squash-summer-zucchino-rampicante.
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I’ve keep a few ripe tromboncinos until April and save the seeds. I sometimes grow butternuts nearby, but they usually flower much later and the tromboncinos come true from seed. I buy new ones after a couple years or when some of my cucurbits get the mosaic virus.
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Incredible escalator climbing zucchini. This thing is a monster. I definitely didn’t give it enough room or a high enough trellis. So many zucchini’s coming on—-definitely more than we can handle.
Costata Romanesco—this one is our favorite tasting
Honey nut winter squash- first time growing only set 2 squash
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nice zukes! I got only one plant in, and it’s barely producing - baker seed someone gave me.
I got my trombos from franchi. that and cucuzzi, which I planted last year. franchi has the big bags, I’ll have seed for these forever. my winter squash are mostly all from adaptive or sandhill this year. along with the prolific crookneck, from sandhill, I’ll be ordering more of those, best producers I’ve ever had so far from anyone
these roasters are getting in trouble, I gotta support them. won’t grow these up and over next year I’ll save that spot for the tromboncino.
can’t remember which was planted here, could be anything. definitely a cucurbit of some kind.
the squashes have taken over as is usual. I don’t mind it.
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What is it about growing squash that’s so satisfying? Besides the fact that they look interesting and taste good, I think it’s also that they store well. You don’t have to process them, freeze them, or can them, they just sit in my basement all winter without issue. No fuss.
I plant mostly moschata but I can never resist trying out a few maximas and pepos, glutton for punishment I guess. Personal opinion but maxima squash taste the best, they have smoother, sweeter, denser flesh. I’m always impressed by their ability to set a fruit or two even while they get eaten alive by vine borers. Bless their hearts.
My butternuts did really well this year, some of them are massive. I actually don’t mind the smaller ones as there’s only 3 of us here and we can’t finish a whole one at one meal. Some of my butternuts this year could feed a family of 10. Love those thick necks though.
Once the potatoes, garlic and onions are out, I let the squash take over. I start a few squash plants fairly late (July) as it seems to help avoid the worst of the borer attacks. I did put one buttercup in my mini greenhouse and that seemed to protect it. Might need to level up and get a bigger one.
Got some interesting variations this year. I saved some buttercup seeds from last year and the only other squash I grew next to it was honeynut, which I thought was a moschata. Turns out it’s a hybrid cross between moschata and maxima, so there might have been some cross pollination. My greenhouse buttercup produced only teardrop shaped fruit, and another out in the garden made squash with light green skin. Hopefully they’re edible.
Futtsu’s did pretty well, but a few have only recently set fruit and I’m not sure if they’re going to ripen up in time. Anyway excited to try them for the first time.
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my futsu last year ripened up/aged ok on the counter after cutting- as long as they were staying to color up some before I took them
I had to get them all in before a hard hard frost. I used those only a few weeks after picking and they were fine
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my n. Georgia candy roasters are finally starting to brown their vine tips. tomorrows picking day! going to be in the mid 70’s and sunny until the weekend so im just going to dry cure them in the sun on the deck.
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green striped cushaw?
I leave them as long as I can, but you could I bet. it’ll keep coloring up on the counter
not sure
cushaws!
tromboncino
Hubbard
big roaster
??? staying green and solid as a rock, massive squash.
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I often have to harvest not quite ripe squashes because the weather tends to turn quickly and everything tends to ripen well on the counter, unless the skin is soft like a zucchini. If you can, leave it, if you can’t, harvest without worries. All you loose is a little sweetness and size of seeds.
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a bit sad to see this late in season, this bitter melon won’t turn in time
the regular squashes are climbing through the edge of my fence out to the street. well, hanging next to the sidewalk.
a lot are hanging.
the cushaw have climbed the plum tree to the top this year. the slugs are relentless I should lay out sluggo
the biggest squash in the garden is this mystery. the base is a start with a label that got smudged off. but I planted this from new seed. it’s definitely winter squash, long vines climbing. I had to net it to hold it up, as it’s so massive.
not sure what it is. can’t be gourd, I didn’t plant any. nor any kind of overgrown summer squash. suppose I’ll find out when I finally crack it open.
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