Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - [Market-farming] Winter Squash Harvest

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: pam AT twinoaks.org
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Winter Squash Harvest
  • Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:42:00 -0400

Alison,
I think it was you, asking a few days ago about maturity
signs in winter squash. I found a few notes I took from an article in
the September 2000 issue of Growing For Market! Acorn-type
squash (Carnival, Festival etc) are ready when the ground spot is
earthy - "the colour of pie filling when the cinnamon has been stirred
in" (!) The stems are still green. I never bake pies, but maybe you
do. Buttercup and Kabocha type squash are ready when the stems
are 75% corky - they're the varieties with the fat roundish stems.
Butternut and Cheese are ready when they are an even peanut
butter colour, with no mottling, and preferably none of those vivid
green lines radiating from the stem down the squash.
Our winter squash this year all looked like they were dying
early. I thought it might be downy mildew. But then we had a dry
week and fresh green leaves appeared. Now we have tropical storm
gaston and another inch or so of rain, so who knows the fate of the
squash plants now?
Pam Dawling, Twin Oaks Community, Louis, VA. Zone 6b





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page