Mini paulista x king ka ae from Commom Wealth Seeds. No idea when to pick these. the picture on their website shows the green darker, so waiting until it looks more like that. Straight king ka ae isn’t making much to speak of.
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Left to right is Cocozelle, Costata Romanesco and Alexandria Lebanese (a Kousa type). I’ve managed to keep the first two alive through SVB attacks and the plants are probably large enough to fend for themselves now. The Alexandria Lebanese was a late planting that took a small SVB hit and soldiered on. I find if I grow varieties that make bigger plants with thicker stems it is easier to keep them going. Costata Romanesco had pretty bad original damage, but it sort of vines a bit, so I just covered some of the stem 6 inches up and it recovered.
I enjoy growing the various “replacements” for summer squash, but for me the real ones have a unique texture and taste that makes it worth keeping a few plants.
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Oh boy, I don’t let my Costata Romanesco get nearly that big for fear of them getting all tough and gross. Good to know they can take it! Thanks for sharing
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This is about the size I usually harvest at, but it is really only 2 days past blooming, so far from getting tough.
Costata Romanesco is actually often used for drying and harvested at a fairly large size for that use. If I miss any and they get huge I give them to my neighbor who is Italian and likes to dry them for winter use in soups, etc.
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I had no idea about drying! Mine 2 days past flower are maybe 2/3 that size, tops!
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When I have grown the costata romanesco it got as a little bigger than my forearm without becoming inedible. It was very good, actually.
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i picked a futsu today.
my yellow crookneck are only just starting up. July onion and crooks in butter, not this year. bah
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Oh that’s a cute little pumpkin. I didn’t realize they were so small. Would be good for decorations and to cross with some gourds.
I need to make sure no sugar pumpkin volunteers next year. Seems so susceptible to disease. This year. I’ve cleaned out half of it for powdery mildew I don’t want spreading. It died of something last year around now in a different area of my property, can’t remember what. everything else is healthy. Very concerned I’m going to go away for 2 weeks and come back to it infecting the whole patch
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i would never decorate with them because they’re DELICIOUS. haha
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Delicious savory or sweet? How prolific are the vines? Maybe I can do both. I have seeds but didn’t get around to planting this year.
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sweet and nutty. i cut in half and roast them, stuffed with sweet onion, brie, a lil brown sugar.
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I have not cared for brie in the past but this sounds delicious!
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Almost stepped on this one yesterday because it escaped its growing area. won’t know what it is until it colors some more. I just use garden tags that say summer squash and winter squash, so all I know at the moment is it’s a winter variety.
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This 4’ tromboncino decided it was done. Went out to really just water and investigate why I could see some wilted leaves on the tromboncino mess and found this on the ground. Too heavy.
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you can cure it and store it a long time already at that stage.
i picked a sweetmeat (?) today. the stem was dry dry. also finally a few crookneck.
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Thank you so much for this explanation!
I picked this butternut, it looks darker in person and clearly a different shade than my others that set later. The skin doesn’t yield easily at all with a thumbnail. The buttercup I have not picked. The rind feels slightly less hard, and this where historically I trip up - how brown should the stem be?
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She is totally in love with green things (she likes to look/coo at our boxwood wreaths inside) so she’s been having fun when it isn’t too hot!
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The biggest indicator is not the stem, but the tendril nearby.
The tendril should be completely brown and withered, just like picking a watermelon. Your buttercup’s tendril looks like it’s started drying out but isn’t finished yet.
With the stem on the fruit each variety is a bit different. With the moschata type squashes I’ve grown, the stem usually gets a little paler, a little drier looking. But it’s still a pale green. With my honeynut type squashes the stems were the same shade of green as the flange on your butternut’s stem. IDK if all butternuts are like that or not.
With maxima squashes like buttercup the stem looks corky. The more corky it is the better. If you pick underripe it’s usually not a big deal, just cure the squash longer. In both squashes the stem will often leak juice out of the cut end. Some people say juice leak is a sign of underripe squash but I haven’t noticed a difference personally between leakers and non leakers. The juice has a sweet taste.
Really with the winter squash I’ve grown you can let it sit out for quite some time and it will still be fine. Unless frosts or freezes are coming, it’s not something you have to rush to harvest like tomatoes can be sometimes.
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Anyone know if this is a normal, cool phenomenon or another incurable deadly disease like the echinacea I posted in natives? Just thought I’d check…
There appears to be a vine that has grown all along and now out of this fruit (tromboncino)
Edit adding- I had to pull the delicata in my pumpkin patch because it started to look like wilt. I have had just rampant wilt everywhere this year, but this is the first I’ve ever had on a squash. I’m becoming convinced that demon flies are spreading it as I have substantially fewer cucumber beetles and squash bugs this year. The vine was mostly being drowned out by all the bigger pumpkins, but looks like it made a few they don’t looks ready to me, but we’ll see how they taste in September.
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Excellent, thank you for taking the time to write all of that up. There’s a lot in progress and some vines are just starting to really set fruit hard. In the past I’ve grown a lot of squash and then felt very unsure about when to harvest.
I was a bit more confident about these acorn squash since they play by different rules…
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