Small blue squash at Tesco

[chriscross1966]

I was in the local branch yesterday and whilst walking past the veg section it caught my eye. In the season squash box (mostly small assorted acorns and delicata's though there was a Festival in there) there were a couple of small (ie Dumpling/Hooligan/Festival) sized blues.... not a great shape to them, but they are tiny compared to my Crown Princes... I bought one cos I want the seeds to tell the truth (I can't believe I just bought a supermarket squash, I'm swamped in ones I grew still)... anyone know what it might be.... I thought Blue Ballet was about as small as they got but it's a quarter or less that size....

[chriscross1966]

[manicscousers]

Jeannine sent me some baby blue hubbard, is that a possibility ?
I could spare a couple of seed if you'd like  :)

[realfood]

I grew blue Kuri this year and it was slightly smaller than the Blue Ballet that I grew last year.
I find that the uchiki Kuris are very variable in size, depending on how late in the season they are pollinated and maybe something similar happens with blue kuri.

[chriscross1966]

Wrong shape for a Kuri or indeed any form of "classic" shaped Hubbard.... it's just a blob,, bit of a flower scar to it but not a buttercup (stems not really thick enough either). Not a pepo of any description (stem again). If it had ridges it might be Australian but it hasn't....oh well I'll take the seeds and grow some.... there'll be spares......

[martinburo]

I'm curious about the terminology here. I don't know much about squash, but to me a Kuri fits the description "just a blob". Can you please elaborate?

[realfood]

The Blue and Orange Kuris are often referred to as "onion" squashes as that is their usual shape.

[chriscross1966]

Yeah the Kuri's are "that" shape.... it'sl like the big lemon shaped hubbard with one end smoothed off.... actually this miniature blue has some slight ridging when viewd from the right angle so might well be aa small Aussie blue or even a tiny Jarrahdale.... Not a Crown Prince, Triamble or Hubbard though, shapes deffo wrong for any of those....

Martin, most squash have a distinctive shape, the hubbards (and theior relatives the Kuri) are sort of lemnon or onion shaped depending on how they've sat on the floor..... the really big hubbards (Boston Winter for example) can get a bit amorphous due to gravity effects on theior weight basically.... Some of the Japanese squashes are the most remarkable shapes (and textures) leading to their being prized by growers almsot for their aesthetics over their taste, not that their taste is bad..... I'd suggest some of the buttercups would be "just a blob" if it weren't for their flower scar, but generally a small squash will be the "classic" shape for the type..... I recommend "The Compleat Squash"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Compleat-Squash-Passionate-Pumpkins-Squashes/sim/1579652514/2

It's not a complete guide but it's not too far away and the photography is sumptuous....

[martinburo]

Thanks for the explanations. Chris, sounds like something that I would be interested to try. Maybe you could add them to the squash swap? Except that I have already asked for more seeds than I've been asked for. I've added descriptions in the thread to advertise my contributions:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,63427.40.html