Topic: Tastiest squash/pumpkin variety?

[gerbera]

With the new lottie, I now have space to grow squashes/pumpkins, but there are so many varieties that I'm spoilt for choice.

What are your recommendations?  ???

[RenishawPhil]

I bought one packet of each of the squashes from here:

 http://www.realseeds.co.uk/wintersquash.html

[realfood]

Have a look at this page for the best that I have grown and tasted:- http://www.growyourown.info/page127.html
I have just cooked Crown Prince tonight and it is superb. Almost too good for my Pumpkin Pie which is in the oven as I write!!

[goodlife]

Every other one from here.. http://www.plant-world-seeds.com/store/view_squashes_pumpkins?page=1 ... ;D
Particularly black futsu, delicata, galeux d'eusine, pink banana, muscat de provence, queensland blue, red warty..and, and,.. ;D

[gerbera]

Errrrr....WOW! You guys grow LOTS of pumpkins!  :o

Can we whittle it down to a couple of 'must-have' varieties? I only have 1/2 plot!  ;D

[grannyjanny]

Could you grow up a trellis or support of some sort

[RenishawPhil]

Errrrr....WOW! You guys grow LOTS of pumpkins!  :o

Can we whittle it down to a couple of 'must-have' varieties? I only have 1/2 plot!  ;D

You should grow crown prince. Last year my butternuts were rubbish! Sowed  first lot of squash last weekend and will sow the rest next weekend if the seeds come in.time.  due to.our new plots which we have taken on.  I am having a pumpkin patch that is about 9 meters by 4 metres

[grannyjanny]

Oh NP you know how to upset a girl, your pumpkin patch is half the size of our half plot ::). Very envious of you.

[RenishawPhil]

Oh NP you know how to upset a girl, your pumpkin patch is half the size of our half plot ::). Very envious of you.

It's a curates egg. We wanted an extra plot. Someone had died and had done some work to create a lovely plot with shed.fruit cagea and a caravan. However attached to this plot was another overgrown plot ( which we had to take) that had been used as a rubbish tip, with some fruit trees.  This is going to be a long hard aloft to get using. However this summer we are dig lots of holes fill with manure then fill with manure for squash etc

[lottie lou]

Could you grow up a trellis or support of some sort

Be careful if growing up trellis.  Lost one of my big uns to high wind - well it would have been a big un if it hadn't snapped off the growing end.

[Ophi]

I mostly grow squash for storage and Blue Banana and Thelma Sanders from Real Seeds did very well for me last year.  I still have a Blue Banana left in storage.  I gave some of the Thelma Sanders away and my work mates roasted it and were surprised that squash tastes so good roasted.

I grew Sucrine du Berry also and though it only produced two fruit they smelled like melon when I cut into them and were tasty.

[Squash64]

My favourites are Bon Bon, Delicata and Tromba d'Albenga.  I grow them all up canes and they do very well.

[ed dibbles]

I grow the lovely red onion and huge pink banana squash. Last year I harvested so many we have been eating them since last october and should finish them in june.   :)

Will be growing the same varieties this year but would like to grow the delicata squash at some stage.

Have fun with your squash they are one of the most productive vegetables (fruits) you can grow.

[chriscross1966]

THe buttercup squash bon-bon is the tastiest I've ever grown (and I've grown a fair few over the years) but the sanest adn most reliable is festival.... Bon-bon isn't sane due to its invasive nature, it grows about a foot a day, sometimes more when it's happy, and is perfectly capable of holding a 4lb fruit on a chickenwire fence... so it has strangle-capable tendrils.... also for me the fruits are a bit big... but it's so sweet I'd be tempted to keep it for making pumpkin pie or cheesecake...

festival makes smaller fruits (easier for me to use) and sets five or six per plant, is getting them ripe by the end of August (so isn't hostage to the weather in September) ...havin issues with space). apart from pumpkins, courgettes adn gherkins it's all I'll be growing this year out doors from the cucurbits... and I have been a keen multi-squash grower in the past....  It tastes better for a few montsh in store, and it keeps for ever... as an experiment I kept a 2010 one to see how long it would last.... it crumpled about four weeks ago.... so that's 18 months sat in my kitchen on a shelf.....

[manicscousers]

Hooligan and jack be little will climb, potimarron and uchi kuri are really reliable and taste nice , too  ;D

[gerbera]

Seeds ordered   :)

I have opted for Crown Prince, Delicata and Uchi Kuri.

Might need to think about building supports to preserve some of the plot for other crops though!  :-\

Thanks for all of your help guys!

[galina]

The buttercups are superb, for example BonBon if you grow F1s or buttercup Waltham or bush buttercup if you want open pollinated varieties for seedsaving.  Smaller fruits and very tasty indeed.  Still have  one storing on the windowsill, they last well too.  They are cucurbita maxima and will cross with other maximas.

Thelma Sanders is nice too, but should be eaten before Christmas.  Again a smaller squash one of the acorn squashes, a cucurbita pepo.  This type is sometimes called 'autumn squash' because they don't last as well as the winter squashes.

Uchiki Kuri are nice too (aka onion squash), Potimarron, Queensland Blue, Marina di Chioggia and the hybrid Crown Prince.  These are bigger, family sized, very tasty and long storing.  For eating after Christmas.  All are c maxima.  Some of the fruits here store without problem until the seeds are sown for next year's crop  :)

We also love Tromboncino aka Tromba d'Albenga, Trombetta etc.  These are cucurbita moschata (the same family as butternut squash) but a bit easier to grow than butternuts as they don't require quite as much sunshine and warm weather.  They make large 'snakey' fruits with a bulbous end.  All the seeds are in the bulbous end, the very long neck is very easy to slice.  They can be used both as summer squash (like courgettes) or left to mature as winter squash. As winter squash they have bright orange flesh. I still have a couple on the windowsill at the moment, they keep well.  The fruits grow straighter if you grow them hanging down, on the ground they will curl.

Lots of favourites here  ;D  they are so tasty and help with year round food gardening because many store so well.

[Digeroo]

Another vote here for Tromba d'albenga.  Great flavour. Seeds up one end so lots of flesh to eat.  Can be eaten in slices for days.  Can be grown up support. Keep well,  I have still got one left to eat.  

[antipodes]

Best Storer has to be the Qld Blue - I only just finished my last one, in great shape but stored so long it had gone orange!!! It has a beaut taste. Although goodlife put me on to black futsu last year and I admit they are also great eating.
I have not tried Crown Prince but this year will do a Marina Di Choggi and a Uchiki kuri.
Canes sounds adventurous, but a couple of pallets dug in and leaned together at a steep angle has worked for me. It does save a little space. I also plant very close to the edge of the plot and let the vines run down the side.  They spill a little onto teh path but no one seems to mind and they get good warmth that way too.

[irridium]

thanks to a few of you kind, generous folksters on here (elsie, davejp, anemone, winecap ;D ;D) i've got a few that i can sow this yr. here are my choices (some i had already and gifted elsewhere) :-

rolet - green hubbard - sweet dumpling - burgess buttercup - thelma saunders - blue ballet - crown prince - uchi kuri - kabocha - potimarron - red onion - mixed summer scallop - zap something - badnangnani something.

what someone said to me recently was that i would have to plant 2 of each variety in order for them to not cross-pollinate and if some groups are different, then they should be grown separately from each other. is that true, and how far apart. can someone classify which of the above are from diff groups. i do know that most of the seed is saved, and i don't think they were hand-pollinated. only 2 have been shop bought (new this yr by myself).

orig. i decided i'll grow about 10 of them, then realised that'll be far too many for just myself to cook for, but then realised that the reason i liked them is their ornamental aspect and lastly that that they'll last for a long time in storage. so with a mixture of these factors, i'm going to grow about 6 or so. four down the edge of a bed and trailled along a hedge.  the other two varieties i'd like to do the same along another bed and trailled/forced into a spiral along the grassy path. how much manure do each plant like to produce a decent crop? do some larger varieties fare better than others yield-wise (potimarron, blue ballet, sweet dumpling, red kuri, rolet/buttercup/kabocha?

thanks.... :P