Topic: Tastiest squash/pumpkin variety?

[Alex133]

I've still got a Bon Bon (or Cha Cha, mixed them up a bit) and a Crown Prince waiting to be eaten - still perfectly sound and great ornaments.  VERY hard to get into Crown Prince, guess that's why it keeps so well, and each one big enough to feed an army.

Find Uchiki Kuri tastes good but doesn't keep so well.

No success with Butternuts, they mature too late.

[realfood]

Irridium, different varieties will be cross-pollinated by the bees, and any seed saved will not come true to type. Each variety carries both male and female flowers. They are all greedy feeders so give them what you can.

[woodypecks]

This year I am going to try growing  Spaghetti Squash . Apparently very simple to cook ..pierce the top and bottom and boil for half an hour , cut in half , remove seeds , scrape out the hot steaming long spaghetti like fibres , add butter and grated cheese. ooh! Cant wait !  ;D

[galina]

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).


thanks.... :P

rolet -  cucurbita pepo
green hubbard - cucurbita maxima
sweet dumpling - c pepo
burgess buttercup - c maxima
thelma saunders - c pepo
blue ballet - crown prince - uchi kuri - kabocha - potimarron - red onion -  all c. maxima
mixed summer scallop - c pepo
zap something - Zapallito ?  c maxima
badnangnani something.  - don't know what this might be

Any c pepo can cross with another c pepo, any maxima with another of the same species, any c moschata with another moschata.  It is very rare for a moschata to cross with a maxima or pepo (can be done in the lab, but doesn't happen naturally).   Your sweet dumpling will happily cross with next-door's courgette (which is also c pepo) and so on.

1 plant is theoretically enough because there are male and female flowers on every plant and you can (or bees can) pollinate a female flower with pollen from a male flower from the same plant.  If there is any question of purity it is recommended to self-pollinate from the same plant.  For diversity it is better to pollinate with pollen from another plant, but not essential.  It is almost always essential to prevent both male and female flowers from opening naturally, then handpollinating and closing the female flower again to prevent bees bringing other pollen.  These flowers are very large and bees love them and fly a long distance to pollinate them.  Unless you live isolated and nobody for half a mile in all directions grows a squash of the same family, you can't be sure that they haven't been crossed.  This is why isolating the flowers (taping shut before they open naturally) and handpollinating are almost always necessary to produce pure seeds.  

However, there is nothing wrong with growing a squash from crossed seeds, it just is not predictable what the resulting squash will look or taste like.  

Seedsaving instructions for squashes:
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/courgettes.html
(scroll to the bottom of the page)


HTH

[Dandytown]

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

I agree with Betty with regards to Bon Bon.

Last year I grew: Tuffy Sweet, Thelma Sanders, Uchiki Kuri, Hooligan and Spaghetti Squash and the year before that I grew Black Futsu.

Here is my harvest: http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=169661


The only ones that were every bit as good as the reviews were Bon Bon and Black Futsu and Hooligan although my favorites are the first two

Bon Bon is exquisitively sweet but not over sweet and black futsu as amazing creamy/nutty flavour.  I will only grow these for a while now.

The Bon Bon grew very well up a strong support and my two plants yielded 5 fruits.  Hope they do better this year!

Best of luck with whatever you decide

[Dandytown]

This year I am going to try growing  Spaghetti Squash . Apparently very simple to cook ..pierce the top and bottom and boil for half an hour , cut in half , remove seeds , scrape out the hot steaming long spaghetti like fibres , add butter and grated cheese. ooh! Cant wait !  ;D

They are very easy to cook and I yielded a dozen on 2 plants and the fruits can get quite large.

I split mine lengthways, removed the seeds and popped one half in the microwave for 10 mins and then simply scooped and ate.  I even forgot about one I started and when I went to put my milk in the microwave before bed time I found a cooked spaghetti squash that I had forgotten and it tasted just as good cold!

[PeterVV]

This year I am trying Crown Prince, and Uchiki Kuri, the later I am going to try up a wigwam.

[irridium]

rolet -  cucurbita pepo
green hubbard - cucurbita maxima
sweet dumpling - c pepo
burgess buttercup - c maxima
thelma saunders - c pepo
blue ballet - crown prince - uchi kuri - kabocha - potimarron - red onion -  all c. maxima
mixed summer scallop - c pepo
zap something - Zapallito ?  c maxima
badnangnani something.  - don't know what this might be

Any c pepo can cross with another c pepo, any maxima with another of the same species, any c moschata with another moschata.  It is very rare for a moschata to cross with a maxima or pepo (can be done in the lab, but doesn't happen naturally).   Your sweet dumpling will happily cross with next-door's courgette (which is also c pepo) and so on.

1 plant is theoretically enough because there are male and female flowers on every plant and you can (or bees can) pollinate a female flower with pollen from a male flower from the same plant.  If there is any question of purity it is recommended to self-pollinate from the same plant.  For diversity it is better to pollinate with pollen from another plant, but not essential.  It is almost always essential to prevent both male and female flowers from opening naturally, then handpollinating and closing the female flower again to prevent bees bringing other pollen.  These flowers are very large and bees love them and fly a long distance to pollinate them.  Unless you live isolated and nobody for half a mile in all directions grows a squash of the same family, you can't be sure that they haven't been crossed.  This is why isolating the flowers (taping shut before they open naturally) and handpollinating are almost always necessary to produce pure seeds.  

However, there is nothing wrong with growing a squash from crossed seeds, it just is not predictable what the resulting squash will look or taste like.  [/quote]

sorry for being a ditz, but that means i wouldn't be able to grow more than one variety from each group, right? so that means just one plant from each group, or can i grow more than one but have them far apart at some distance?

thanks for taking the trouble to help me out here with the self-pollination guide. it looks a bit complicated, but i'll try and make a concerted effort to do that...

[goodlife]

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sorry for being a ditz, but that means i wouldn't be able to grow more than one variety from each group, right? so that means just one plant from each group, or can i grow more than one but have them far apart at some distance? just right..or do 'artificial' pollination by hand. It really is easy to do..just a little hassle to keep tying the flowers but it is quicly done and as long as you remember to keep each pollinated flower labeled you've got loads of free seeds for yourself to grow and swap.. ;)
And you can still eat the fruit after saving the seeds!  ;D

[Jeannine]

I still have a Triamble grown in 2009.. this is a record for me.

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

I still have a Triamble grown in 2009.. this is a record for me.

XX Jeannine

Wow..do you think it is still edible? I'm going to grow some triamble this year..nice to know they are good storers.

[galina]

sorry for being a ditz, but that means i wouldn't be able to grow more than one variety from each group, right? so that means just one plant from each group, or can i grow more than one but have them far apart at some distance?

thanks for taking the trouble to help me out here with the self-pollination guide. it looks a bit complicated, but i'll try and make a concerted effort to do that...

You are not a ditz.   :) You can grow to eat without any precautions.  If you stick a pure uchiki kuri seed into the ground and that plant gets cross pollinated by crown prince pollen, the resulting fruit is still uchiki kuri.  The only bit that gets crossed is the germ inside the seed.  

But, if you want to harvest pure uchiki kuri seeds, there cannot be another maxima squash around for half a mile or you risk crossing by bees.   Because it is normally near impossible to tell whether or not there is another squash of the same species which could crosspollinate your uchiki kuri, it is always safer to isolate and handpollinate.  And the same of course applies to c pepo and c moschata varieties respectively.

You can have as many plants of uchiki kuri as you want, not just the one.  if you handpollinate a true breeding, pure uchiki kuri with pollen from another pure uchiki kuri plant, you will get  true breeding uchiki kuri seed.

Hope this makes sense.

[Jeannine]

My Triamble is not edible, it has sort of dehydrated but not rotted, it sits high on a book case top and looks very decorative. Having said that I have kept one from a fall  harvest and used it very late in the summer the following year and it was OK.

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

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My Triamble is not edible, it has sort of dehydrated but not rotted Ah..like a ornamental squash...you did't treat the skin, but its dried naturally?

[goodlife]

At last...I've foraged through my seed selection.. ::) Played endless game of shuffling into 'no-yes-maybe' piles.
I still couldn't reduce the varieties for the space that I've got allocated for squash this year.. ::)..so I just have to sort something out and visit my good girls for their bedding and get that into ground for extra goodness.
So..2012 its going to be year for;
Lunga di Napoli
Baby green hubbard
Georgia candy rooster
Burgess buttercup
Sucrine du berry
Volzhskaya seraya 92
Triamble
The Warty thing
Zapallito
Gem squash Rolet
....and..then there is all the different courgettes.. ::)

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badnangnani something.  - don't know what this might beI came across 'something' in my seed box..found out it being Benincasa hispida=ash gourd =winter melon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_melon   Could that be it?

[RenishawPhil]

Am rather disappointed with some of the germination of squash i got from a seed place online

[goodlife]

what seeds were those?

[Duke Ellington]

Am rather disappointed with some of the germination of squash i got from a seed place online

What seed company?

[gwynnethmary]

Can anyone suggest the best squash/pumpkin for making soup please?

[galina]

Can anyone suggest the best squash/pumpkin for making soup please?

Absolutely any and definitely the best use for giant pumpkins or Halloween carvers etc, because the flavour of soup is mostly determined by the other ingredients and the consistency comes from 'blizzing' the soup after the pumpkin is soft.  A dollop of cream and/or a splash of pumpkinseed or walnut oil will finish the soup nicely.  

Having said the above, the queen of pumpkin soups must be butternut squash soup, very thick, lots of cream or greek yoghurt on top, ground pepper and a dash of a really nicely flavoured oil.  Yum!