Squash Wrap Up

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Jay White

Another front came through last night. Since this is the second significant front to come through in November I realize that the end of growing season is at hand for a lot of things in my garden. The last front actually brought a little freezing weather with it so I had to cover up the tomatoes. I also had a few winter squash that were not quite ready so I covered them too. I also harvested the winter squash that were ready.

The last of the winter squash. Top wrung – Red Warty Thing, Black Futsu and the unidentified squash. Second wrung – Turk’s Turban. Third wrung – another unidentifed squash. Photo by Chris Rue

I planted five varieties of winter squash back in August. I bought the seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com). Even though I planted five varieties of squash, I wound up only harvesting three of the varieties I ordered. This was due to a couple of strange things that I have never happened to me before.

The cucmber beetles ate everything – leaves and flowers included!

The first were the cucumber beetles. OMG! They were terrible. In addition to being a general menace they completely destroyed all of the vines of the Lakota winter squash. I really wanted this variety so that was pretty disappointing. However, that is nature. Bugs happen. Since I have never had cucumber beetles before, and since they COMPLETELY ate all of the Lakota vines, I can only assume that the Lakota squash brought the bugs to me. I will never plant this variety again.

This image of Galeux d’ Eysines is from rareseeds.com. This what I wanted to grow. The green and orange squash in the first picture is what I got.

The next thing that happened was truly strange. I am convinced that Baker Creek somehow messed up their packaging. I ordered a variety called Galeux d’ Eysines. As the season progressed it became clear that I had none of this variety growing in my squash patch. Instead, I had a large, oblong squash that was mostly green but stripped with a little orange. To this day I have no idea what variety this squash is. I have gone through all of the pictures on their website and I can find nothing that resembles the squash I grew. Very strange. I know accidents happen but I have never bought a package of seeds and then had them turn out to be something other than what was advertised.

This lovely Tatume’ was grown by MOH reader Sherry Westphal in Michigan.

On another note, I recently got an e-mail and pictures from Sherry Westphal of Michigan. She grew Tatume’ on a trellis in her garden. Tatume’ is my favorite squash of all time. Tatume’ is the rare squash that can be grown as either a summer or winter squash. I grow it in the spring and eat it when it is young. However, if you leave it on the vine it will turn into a mild winter squash. So glad Sherry enjoyed her Tatume’ and took the time to send pictures and tell me about it.

All of this cold means the end of what I consider prime gardening time. The tomatoes are done and the last of my winter squash will soon be on the porch. However, thanks to my mild climate, I have enough greens and brassicas growing in the garden to keep my hands dirty until February.

The Red Warty Thing

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Jay White

I love garden surprises. This fall, my surprise came in the form of a massive squash called The Red Warty Thing (formerly called Victor). Back in July I pulled down my cucumber vines. This left me with a 33’ trellised row in need of planting. So, I ordered 5 varieties of heirloom winter squash from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com). In all honesty, I didn’t plan on eating any of them. I wanted to use them in the fall decorations around our house.

I have never enjoyed watching anything grow more than I did this Red Warty Thing

When I ordered The Red Warty Thing, I thought I would be growing a lovely orange, bumpy, softball sized decoration to mix in a bowl with my gourds, acorns and leaves. I was very surprised when my “decoration” turned into a 16 pound pumpkin!

Watching this squash turn into a pumpkin has truly been the highlight of my fall garden

I have grown very few things that I enjoyed as much as this squash. In fact, watching it grow became a part of our evening routine. It produced huge vines with huge, beautiful leaves. After that came the huge yellow flowers. Once the bees did their thing, we enjoyed watching the light yellow football shaped fruit that was about the size of golf ball turn into the huge Red Warty Thing. For the first month, it kept its yellow color. Once it got about as big as it is now, the skin started to change. Then it developed slight ribs like a pumpkin. Then the bumps started forming and the color started changing ever so slightly every day.

This baby Red Warty Thing has gone from golf ball to softball size in less than a week

As much fun as it was to watch the squash grow, I will probably not grow it (or any other squash) for a couple of years. The reason I have finally decided to give up on squash for a while was a little green bug called the cucumber beetle.

This little green bug has finally convinced me to put away my squash seeds for a couple of years

Now I am a pretty experienced gardener. However, I have never experienced insects that were this invasive and this destructive. While I am accustomed to squash bugs and squash vine borers, I have never encountered anything like the cucumber beetle before. As soon as the foliage reached the top of the trellis, these guys showed up. And not just a few either. They came en mass. Over the next few weeks they systematically stripped all of the foliage and flowers from my 15 plants. The only way I could keep ahead of them was to let the squash vine on the ground. For some reason the bugs only ate the foliage on the trellis.

The cucmber beetles ate everything – leaves and flowers included!

Since I grow organically, I didn’t have any means to fight them. I never noticed a larval stage. One day I noticed holes in the leaves and the next day the trellis was covered in a swarm of green bugs. These beetles finally showed me that as an organic grower I am truly defenseless against a determined invader.

Since this is going to be the last winter squash I grow for a while I decided to do a little research and see what I could do with a 16 lb squash. Turns out, I can do a whole lot. According to the internet, the Red Warty Thing has a flavor and texture that allows you to use it in all of your pumpkin recipes. So I can puree it and use it to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup. It can also be cubed and roasted just like an acorn or butternut squash. Since I really like all of these things, I am looking forward to helping my wife convert our “decorative” squash into a plethora of pumpkin dishes for all of our Thanksgiving guests.

Go Vertical With Winter Squash

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Jay White

I grow squash almost year round. Since there are literally hundreds of varieties of them it is very easy to find several that will do well for you no matter where you live. Right now I am growing three little bushes of yellow crook neck. However, the stars of my fall garden are the five varieties of winter squash that I am now growing.

A lovely little acorn squash that I grew vertically last year

Now I am going to make a bit of a confession. I actually enjoy eating yellow squash and zucchini a lot more than I do winter squash. However, winter squash gives me three things that the bushing types never will – 1) It is visually stunning when grown on structure 2) It is almost 100% immune to the squash vine borer and 3) I can decorate with the fruits.

Growing Vertically – Winter squash typically grow on vines – BIG VINES. It is not uncommon for many varieties to produce vines that are 20 to 30 feet long. Because of this, a lot of folks don’t grow them. While there is no way to stop them from going big, you can control the sprawl by growing them up a structure. I grow my winter squash on a 32’ length of cattle panels. The large scale foliage of these plants cascading off of the structure makes my garden look lush and almost tropical.

I love the large scale foliage of winter squash

I planted five varieties of winter squash (see image at bottom of post) on August 15. I could have planted any time after the soil temperature was above 70 degrees. If you plant when the soil is too cool, many squash seeds will actually rot in the ground before they get a chance to germinate. Squash is also very tolerant of all types of soils. It can grow in soils that are slightly acidic and soils that are slightly basic.

Since squash grow so well from seed, and many varieties mature in 50 to 60 days, you definitely do not want to waste your money on transplants. Plant your seeds in a sunny location when night time temperatures are in the sixties. Plant them about an inch deep in soil that has been well worked with compost. Squash are heavy feeders and need good drainage to thrive. Compost will provide both of these requirements to the plants. Most squash plants sprout in 5 to 10 days. Once the true leaves appear you can thin your plants to 36” for vining types.

A baby winter squash awaits it’s flower’s opening and pollination

Because squash are big, fast growing plants they require more water and nutrients than many other vegetables. While 1” every five days may be sufficient in heavier soils, squash in sandy soils will require more. Watch your plants. It is normal for them to wilt a little on a very hot day. However, if they are wilting heavily you may want to increase the frequency of your watering. Also, since they use so much water, squash will definitely benefit from mulch. Mulch with compost and it will help the soil retain more water, keep the roots of the plant cool or warm and feed it all at the same time.

As you can see from the pictures, winter squash produce stunning foliage. Some of the leaves of my heirlooms are as large as elephant ears. These large vines also produce lots of large yellow squash blossoms that really bring in the bees.

Squash Vine Borer – If you are going to grow squash you are going to have bugs. I can deal with squash bugs. While annoying, they don’t really set my plants back much. However, no matter how hard I try, I just cannot beat the squash vine borer (SVB).

SVB damage on last year’s winter squash. Even though a SVB obviously attacked the plant, it did not effect fruit production

Luckily, winter squash are almost immune to the effects of this horrible little pest. Notice I said almost. The SVB can devastate summer squash because it only has a few stems to produce leaves and fruit. The ugly little caterpillar can borrow through these few stems and destroy the plants entire vascular system. Winter squash, on the other hand, spread out and put down roots every place a node lies on the ground. Because of this, even if the SVB caterpillar gets inside the base of the plant, it cannot destroy the entire vascular system. All of those rooted nodes ensure that the plant can continue to thrive even if the base gets infested with the SVB.

If you grow vertically you will be limiting the number of nodes that root on the ground. This can limit its SVB fighting power. If you are really worried about the SVB I suggest letting one or two vines grow on the ground and then let the rest grow up over the structure. Winter squash is designed by nature to grow over things. They produce tendrils that are long and strong. Because of this it is very easy to get them to grow up and ove something. If you just lay your vines on the structure for one night, the tendrils will take over. After that there is no more need for help from you.

Beautiful Fruit – Even though I don’t really love eating winter squash, I do love looking at them. With the exception of the cushaw, most of the winter squash that I am familiar with produce very attractive fruits. When you go to the store to buy “gourds” for your fall arrangements, there’s a good chance you won’t be buying gourds. All of those textured, oddly shaped red, orange, green and gold “gourds” are actually the fruits of several varieties of winter squash. Without getting too botanical, know that if it is woody and hollow, it’s a gourd. If it is solid and has some weight to it, it is a squash (or a pumpkin which is also a squash but that’s another post). One of the most commonly used squash in fall arrangements is the Turk’s Turban. I love this funny looking squash so I am currently growing three vines of it in the row garden. I am also growing Lakota, Galeux d’ Eysines, Black Futsu and The Red Warty Thing (not making that up folks, that is its real name).

The five varieties of winter squash I am currently growing.

Another reason that these lovely squash make such good decorative objects is the fact that they store really well at room temperature. This storage capacity is why people grew them before refrigeration. If the skins and the stems of your squash are not damaged they should stay fresh and attractive in an arrangement for three or four months. I plan to harvest mine toward the end of October. They will then be used throughout the house until after Thanksgiving. At that time, the Christmas decorations will go up and I will be free to eat all of these lovely squash that have served me so well.