Squash help

[Rose willow]

Hello all, I only started growing veg this year and have had lots of successes and some learning points! My latest is squash ID. They have grown beautifully and are now about the size of small footballs. I thought I had planted mr fothergills small sugar which are orange but the ones growing are all green and striped. Will they turn orange or are they completely different plants and I somehow labelled incorrectly?

[burnie]

I'm not sure, I only grow Butternuts and those leaves are very different, how big are they?

[ameno]

I would be almost certain those are not squashes, sadly
That speckled skin is very characteristic of Cucubita pepo varieties, which would make it a pumpkin. Pumpkins are rather less tasty than squashes, and don't keep nearly as long.

[Rose willow]

The leaves are huge. Much bigger than my hand by about twice. If they are pumpkins and not squash as I thought could you tell me when I can harvest them. I am guessing September. . They will be humongous by then. Lol.

[ameno]

The leaves are huge. Much bigger than my hand by about twice. If they are pumpkins and not squash as I thought could you tell me when I can harvest them. I am guessing September. . They will be humongous by then. Lol.

When they have turned orange and the stalk is dry and hard. Same as squash, really, only squash stalks turn brown when they fruit is ripe, whereas pumpkin stalks stay green (although the shade of green does get a bit darker and duller).

And that leaf size is normal for pumpkins or squashes. The larger leaves will easily grow to a foot across or more.

[Rose willow]

Thanks for the help. Wether they turn out to be squash or pumpkin I will have bloomin loads of them. Just got to google what I am going to do with them....... lol

[Jungle Jane]

Well done with your first year,you’re doing well,a natural gardener. When you google mr fothergills small sugar squash it comes up with a load of links for mr fothergills small sugar pumpkin,maybe they were pumpkins all along they look good put a little straw underneath to keep it nice,when there’s a lot of rain the straw helps keep it dry like you do with strawberries. They might ripen by next month tho,it’s just a wait for the orange colour to develop.

[ameno]

Oh yes, I overlooked that, but you are right. "Small Sugar" is indeed a pumpkin, not a squash. They are meant to grow to around 3kg and 20cm across, so by the looks of the picture these probably are actually the variety they are meant to be.