How are everyone's squashes doing?

[Ms-T]

Hi folks , can any one tell me what is one is , please.

thanks

[ameno]

Hi folks , can any one tell me what is one is , please.

thanks

The pictures aren't displaying.

[Ms-T]

Oh thats funny i can see them.

[Ms-T]

Trying again

Hi folks , can any one tell me what is one is , please.

[Plot70]

Some of mine are ripe and are at home for eating or freezing.
I lost one fruit to a split stalk causing it to rot.

[ameno]

Those aren't 100% ripe. The stem should be completely brown, with no green or yellow, when fully ripe.
They should ripen the rest of the way off the plant, so I'd leave them at least a month before eating them. The flavour and texture should appreciably improve. Indeed, both flavour and texture usually improve with storage, anyway, ripe or otherwise.

Trying again

Hi folks , can any one tell me what is one is , please.

I've never seen that one before, but it's definitely a variety in the species Cucurbita moschata (same as butternut squash, but not all members of that species have the bottle shape which butternut has). You can tell by the relatively thin stalk on the fruit - a squash that size in either C. maxima or C. pepo would have a stalk twice that thick.

Where did you get the seeds? That might help narrow it down.

[Ms-T]

I just found the packet...it was a extra in a seed swop. looks like it might be kang kob pumpkin .. i have 6 big pumpkins on it and a few smaller ones..they are very heavy. all my other squash's are dyeing back .. but not this one.

[ameno]

I just found the packet...it was a extra in a seed swop. looks like it might be kang kob pumpkin .. i have 6 big pumpkins on it and a few smaller ones..they are very heavy. all my other squash's are dyeing back .. but not this one.

I did think it might be that one, as it looks quite like the ones posted by another user in a topic about a month ago, but I wasn't sure as other pictures of that variety have it quite lobed, which yours aren't. The shapes of squashes can vary a fair bit based on growing conditions, though.

[Plot70]

Those aren't 100% ripe. The stem should be completely brown, with no green or yellow, when fully ripe.
They should ripen the rest of the way off the plant, so I'd leave them at least a month before eating them. The flavour and texture should appreciably improve. Indeed, both flavour and texture usually improve with storage, anyway, ripe or otherwise.

I have spotted that one of them has a hollow stalk and will use it ASAP after seeing what happened to one that had a split along the side of the stalk.
With a split in the stalk flies entered the fruit and spread rot in so that it rotted on the side facing the ground so that I did not spot it.
The others only have a little star where they have begun to dry out.

[ameno]

I have spotted that one of them has a hollow stalk and will use it ASAP after seeing what happened to one that had a split along the side of the stalk.
With a split in the stalk flies entered the fruit and spread rot in so that it rotted on the side facing the ground so that I did not spot it.
The others only have a little star where they have begun to dry out

Speaking of flies, I remember one time I was in Japan I bought a small squash from an unmanned roadside stall (there was just an honesty box). When I cut it open back at my hostel that night, intending to cook it for dinner, it was completely full of jumping maggots. Clearing them all up afterwards was a pain, as they kept jumping everywhere.
The fruit looked perfectly good on the outside, so the only way to tell was to cut it open (although presumably it would rot in storage). I'm glad we don't have those in this country.

[Plot70]

Jumping maggots.
I had to look them up. They look like they are a right pain to clear up. The adult flies just look like ordinary irritating flies.
I did not see any maggots. There was just the flies that took the rot in.

[bikermike]

We tried open pollinated this year. Planted 14 plants, had three fail to grow, and got 13 squash. Most look just like butternut, but there are two that are round and green (turning yellow later) and two which are butternut shaped but with very long tops.

Three of the butternuts have got cuts/tears in the skin just on the shoulder (ie where it starts to turn in to top and the stalk), they seem to have healed up, but I assume they won't keep well.

[ameno]

Three of the butternuts have got cuts/tears in the skin just on the shoulder (ie where it starts to turn in to top and the stalk), they seem to have healed up, but I assume they won't keep well.

Depends how well they've healed up. Squash fruit sap dries into a corky substance which protects wounds. If the crack is fully sealed by this corky substance then they should keep just as well as an undamaged fruit.

[Plot70]

You can see the corky stuff in posts #110 and #114 especially on the orange ones.

[ameno]

Picked 4 squashes today, as they seemed to be ripe and the dry stalks were starting to absorb rain water, which I was concerned about: 2 pink banana, 1 Marina di Chioggia, 1 Galeux d'essynes.
They weighed just over 20kg between them, and the Galeux d'essynes was a whopping 8.3kg.