Good squash

[annie8]

I had a rotten year for winter squash / pumpkin. grew crown Prince and onion squash again and got very few from the plants and the crown Prince were small. Am wondering whether to bother next year or accept that they just don’t grow that well up north (I’m in Scotland). What do people think, is it worth trying a different variety?

[Plot70]

Mine were variable and took a long time to get growing due to a cold start.
I would try again next year.

[ameno]

Mine did so-so this year, too.
A plot neighbour, however, did very well. I gave him one plant of Marina di Chioggia back in May, and he harvested seven fruits of around 7kg apiece. That's about 50kg from one plant. He did have it growing right next to his manure heap, mind you.

As for growing squash in Scotland, I would recommend trying two other types. One is the aforementioned Marina di Chioggia. It's a very strong grower, has very good disease resistance, and always gives at least one or two 5kg+ fruits per plant. The flavour is excellent and it keeps a very long time, too (I've had them keep until the end of May).
The other I would recommend is a banana squash of some kind. I have found Georgia Candy Roaster to be the best, but Pink Banana and Blue Banana are good, too. The reason I recommend these is that, in addition to tasting good and cropping well (usually 3+ fruits of 3-5kg per plant), they are noticeably and consistently more precocious than other types of squash, producing female flowers and setting fruit a good few weeks earlier than any non-banana varieties. This may be useful with your short growing season. The one downside of banana squashes is they never seem to keep well. Don't expect them to last beyond Christmas, so it's best to use them up first, then move on to other varieties afterwards.

[Snoop Puss]

Great recommendations, ameno, thanks. I'll look at those as well.

I've given up growing Crown Prince. We too have quite a short growing season, though perhaps not as short as yours annie8, and my impression was they didn't have time to grow satisfactorily.

[Andraste]

Hi Annie8,

You're not on your own with a disappointing squash year. We tried Uchiki Kuri for the first time this year as I read they're supposed to be a good 'do-er' & had a grand total of 1 small fruit from 2 plants (others started growing but either rotted in the wet or got damaged by slugs). I was reassured that even Monty was disappointed with his in balmy Herefordshire this year (GWorld episode on Friday).

If we'd had 2022 weather I think ours would have been better so I'm having another go in 2024 & hope the weather gods are in a gardening frame of mind.

I'm going to try warming the feet of mine in pots next year after some advice from the vine's resident hotbed genius Penellype in the thread I started with my 'Idiot Question About Fresh Horse Manure'. Maybe something along the hotbed lines might give yours a boost next year too?

[Penellype]

I think that's the first time I've ever been called a genius !

This year has been very poor for some types of veg. I don't grow squashes, but courgettes are very similar and they haven't liked the cold spring, dry June and wet and cool late summer. This year I grew 5 plants - 2 at my friend's which is an open, sunny site, 2 in my net tunnel which is shadier and damp, and an experimental one in the compost bin at the allotment, also shady but much less damp. The plants at my friend's (Defender) usually grow huge and cover the path but this year they are barely more than a foot across and have produced only a couple of fruit each. I blame the cold and then dry start followed by exposure to chillier nights than usual in summer. The plants in the tunnel grew bigger and produced plenty of fruit, but a lot of it was damaged by slugs and woodlice, almost certainly due to the wet summer. I probably only harvested about 5 useable fruit between the 2 plants. Normally this variety (Sure Thing) produces a fruit almost every day. The plant in the compost bin (Defender) did really well. I was concerned it would dry out as it was 3ft above ground level, so I watered it religiously every day unless it had rained heavily. The compost sank down as it rotted, so the sides of the bin protected the young plant from wind and the compost probably provided some warmth. The result was a huge plant that reached ground level by autumn and produced a new courgette each day. I was harvesting them into October.

I think this demonstrates well that in a poor season you will get better results from courgettes (and almost certainly squashes) if you give them a sheltered position, plenty of nutrients, a bit of extra warmth from underneath and protect the fruits from wet soil if you can. A hotbed would certainly do the job if you can source fresh horse manure that has not been contaminated with weedkiller.

[Andraste]

Credit where it's due Penellype