I need to revisit this thread next year. Would not mind growing a few for wintertime consumption.
Are they longer harvest times or are they planted laster in the spring summer?
It seems they are harvested after soft fleshed melons are?
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I plant mine in blocks in about early March, a few weeks before frost ends. they’re usually busting out by the time of last frost in early May, I usually have to put them in an actual pot in April.
my plants are leafy by the time I plant them out. I have a fairly short season so.
usually I start seeing flowers within a week or two, female after male. then I’ll leave them on the vine until the vine they’re attached to starts to struggle and die back. that’s for long season varieties, for shorter season stuff (futsu were like this for example) I’ll pull them off to cure indoors after the tendril is fully dead and the squash has started to color up. I cure the little ones for a week or two at least, the big ones until I’m ready to eat them.
some I’ll leave on the vine until first frost.
summer squashes I pick as soon as the flower falls off easily/by itself. I don’t like them as mallows, big, etc
edit: summer squash I plant directly in the ground the week after last frost
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Sounds like this far south I can plant the winter squash as late as, say, July. That way my summer veggies and melons/watermelons are done and removed before I start pulling the winter squash.
Average first freeze here is late November to, say, December. Of course that doesn’t always happen. It’s been as early as early November and as late as January.
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A side story… I was overseas on a vacation and my GF was cooking. She put a squash in the microwave (I think a butternut or other long neck kind of winter squash) and it caught fire!
I don’t know what happened, but I didn’t know that could happen. Maybe the skin?
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the smaller varieties for sure in your zone. futsu, Jack/Jill be little, buttercup, maybe even some smaller Kubota. and all the summer squash I can think of, you’d have time.
the bigger ones, some of them need 120 days from seed to ripe. maybe you could be starting some in cells or blocks a few weeks before you’d be planting them out and they’d be ready to start producing ASAP
my first frost can be late Sept-mid October. so I’ve got to consider ripening and sizing up, they need to be on the vine and growing by Sept or they might not make it. my growing region is really extreme though as far as suddenness between seasons. even people in zone 6 that don’t have high desert conditions can probably start and plant way later than I do.
I also like to have some early, I was picking the smaller varieties in mid August they were ready to start curing.
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I don’t have much desire or need to grow large winter squash. I’ll stick with the small ones I can share with family and friends and won’t do much more than a few servings.
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I will guess you’ve never gone down the road of savory pie or winter squash casserole. Also consider stuffed bell peppers whose filling is part pumpkin mash. Now turn it up a notch with winter squash mash.
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Good to know they taste good. I grow Waltham and we are always wondering to use a 5 or 6lb squash. It stores great though, we ate our last squash from previous year in late July.
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I’m just not that great with leftovers so I’m content with smaller portion cooking!
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Great looking squash @resonanteye! I’m interested in the black futsu. I believe it’s moschata, which are more resistant to squash vine borer. How does it taste compared to butternut? Is it fairly prolific and easy to grow?
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it’s delicious. I got a bunch from one vine, it’s nutty? is the best description I can come up with. not overly sweet, bur a good sweet flavor profile. reminds me a little of pine nuts or cashew. they’re small, which I prefer in an early season hard squash. I put nearly no effort into these, I planted them early as I usually do and they were nearly ripe at the start of August. the only fertilizer they got was a little “fruit n blossom” (PK without the N) in June and July, side dressed
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How productive are the black futsu for you?
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I planted two vines, one made 4 and the other still has 3 or 4 on it and I’ve picked two. they’re not massive vines either. not taking over too much.
edit to fix photo
the futsu went up the plum tree. lol. the vines got about 10 feet long total.
it’s got white veins on the leaves and you can see most of the plant in this photo. a Hubbard of some kind is growing right on top of it because those are space hogs
here’s the other plant holding on to one still.
just about the whole plant in this photo
I keep thinking it’s the one I grew on the pea trellis but it’s not
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The Black Futsu is the one I’ve been eyeing for my first winter squash growing next year.
Seems a most on here really like the taste, though it’s a bit of an ugly bugger on the outside isn’t it.
I’ll have to see how to deal with that convoluted skin shape next summer if I do grow them.
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I love the ugly look to it. the skin is fairly thin and I eat it when I’ve roasted or baked these.
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Everyone has such nice squash, this year mine did not do well. I have a couple small long pie and some small pumpkins. My favorite winter squash is Mooregold, creamy,sweet, orange flesh- and it did not germinate this year. Some of the others I set out I think had a problem with a gopher. They are a problem. Summer squash did slightly better. Two green zucchinis are still producing and I have a Goldini II that I’m not too impressed with. I’ve grown Rugosa Friulana for several years and really like it. Will have to visit Green Bluff this year for winter squash.
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Looked up Mooregold.
That’s a cool looking winter squash! I like that it’s pretty small as well.
Damn, I’ve found another rabbit hole…
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my summer squash didn’t go well this year at all. I’m only now getting one or two patty pans from the plants. only got a handful of crookneck and like two zucchini. it was a bad year for them for me
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I cook the whole squash, use what I need for one dinner, then freeze the rest of the squash in meal-size containers for the months ahead.
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It’s a fruit!
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