2009 Catalogue from Marshalls as jus droped on the mat,Squashkin sounds a bit of allright will give that a bash.
Just been drooling over seeds of distinction catalogue... so many squash, so little summer! ;D
;D ;D
Froglegs............I was thinking the same! ;D
Great minds think alike D_P. ;D
Have ordered mine!
Oh and the outdoor melon and some garlic and.................................well you can't just order 1 item from a seed catalogue can you! ;D
How did you get on with Squashkin D_P ?, mine did bugger all :( not one pumpkin,only two seeds actually germinated and they give up the ghost before they even flowered :'( they are not in the 2010 catalogue so I'm thinking I'm not the only one to fail.
FL Mine never made it either....keeeled over, they didn't even make it to teh plot! Tried with the last seed that I had....same thing!
My Squashkin did very well, considering how wet it was here in Glasgow. Three plants from 3 seeds and set fruit a month before Butternuts. Incredibly sweet flesh.
Well done you.Would ya grow them again. ???
Yes, I will grow them again. Just cooked one tonight in the microwave and would describe the taste as like diluted honey. The flesh is softer than a butternut and more like crown prince.
Marshalls phoned me up the other week to ask how I got on with them. Apparently, some people had problems with germination, but using a heated propagator for all my squashes I had 100% germination.
Squashkin is a considerable advance over butternuts for the North of the UK.
The Marshalls 2010 catalogue came today, and I see that there is no squashkin in it :( I must assume that either it did not sell enough or it has not done well with the customers this year.
just looking at kings seeds can get a really good discount with my allotment assocation
squashkin sounds interesting would not mind giving them a go (if i can get them somewhere)
I'd suggest Winter Festival if you have trouble with butternuts. The plants aren't too exploratory and they set good crops of fruit about he size of a big grapefruit, and they are at least a month earlier than my butternuts
chrisc
You folks get your catalogues early- ours don't come until Dec or Jan,. why I don't know.
Perhaps their harvest failed so not included in catalogue.
Just delurking to say I bought two packets of squashkin from Marshalls, germinated about ten plants, grew them in my polytunnel, got a huge number of fruits but they mostly had no flesh - the young ones I picked were all thin watery looking pith and those I left to ripen were mostly seeds and thick skin with a tiny layer of not very interesting flesh. Maybe they didn't like the polytunnel.
All the Winter Squashes are best left to get fully mature before eating. I am at a loss to understand why you did not have a super crop as mine did so well. I hear a whisper that Marshalls may have the seed again some time in the New Year.
Do NOT be seduced by PofD's glossy catalogue - I have had the very worst germination from this company for the last 4 years - yes, I am a fool as I keep living in hope - this years disaster, Red Kuri - not one! also, their flowers are equally duff. I have finally learned my lesson to avoid PofD like plague - but only after 16 or so failures.......and I have never, ever had similar failures with any other company.
I've had plenty of failures, flowers rather than veg, and plenty of successes. I haven't grown so many of their veg, but I've had no complaint about the ones I have tried.
As far as I know, P of D have never sold seed of Squashkin. I have grown a selection of their vegetable seeds(including Red Kuri), for the last 3 years and have never had a germination problem.
I don't think there's a problem either. I try a lot of scarcer flowers, many of which are hard to germinate. I get about the same results that I do from Chiltern Seeds. Very often it's a question of getting really fresh seed, and no commercial supplier will have that. There often are sources, if you can find them!