Any reason why you can't eat winter squash early?

[Guest]

Sorry if this seems a bit daft but this has never been a dilemma before for me and I can't see why not. I have 2 Georgia candy roaster squash plants that have gone completely bonkers. There are at least 3 decent squash 40-50cm at the moment and wondered if it is worth harvesting/ eating them so it can concentrate on producing/ ripening the other gazillion potentials.

Any ideas/ suggestions would be great.

Thank you as always

[Baldy]

I thought the winter designation was all about standard/usual planting/growing time to harvest. If conditions have led to the squash being ready then I'd go for it. There have to be some who have benefited from another odd growing season.

N.B. I don't count myself as a cucurbit expert - GOURD help you if you listen to me

[Alison]

Yes you can eat them but I think the flavour develops over time so they won't have the depth.

[Snadger]

The winter designation is that they store well to keep you supplied in winter methinks? Like anything else, the fresher the produce the more taste it should have I would have thought?

[Snadger]

Ah well, it seems like i got tht one wrong!

[Baldy]

Ah well, it seems like i got tht one wrong!

Nope - well partly... but mostly you're right.

[sparrow100]

Nothing to stop you eating them early - the vitamins and flavour develop in store so one month after picking is recommended in various places. If they are ready early, pick 'em. My potimarrons are starting to get a corky stem, and they are always the first to ripen.

I envy you the gazillion squashes, this year has been feeble over in the wilds of South London.

[Guest]

No need to be envious, they are the only squash behaving like that. The squash plants have taken over the bottom part of the patch (I am guessing it is because it is pretty much virgin soil) but I think the Georgia has the best spot sun wise. Everything else has the odd fruit that I can see and unfortunately it is not worth hand pollinating most because I can't be sure which plant is which

[happyhumph]

The flavour generally gets better in storage, but if they're ready then why not harvest & store them now?

[Nicos]

So...go on, eat one and let us know your thoughts on the flavour!

As for the skins....if you decide to store them instead, they will still get hard skins.
I always leave the last few corgette to turn into marrows and then leave them in storage through til about January.
They get really tough skins, so I'm sure your squash would to.

[botonchan]

nico how you manage to grow marrow on courgette plants since I thought marrows and courgette where two different plants.

[Nicos]

What I mean is that I allow the courgette to grow to the size of a marrow

[Cadalot]

OK I'm a squash virgin turned to the dark side of the squash by the squash queen who is Sparrow100 so how do I know when to start harvesting butternut squash as they appear to be growing really fast and taking over my plot and my neighbours I have to keep dragging them back.

There is a week between the two photographs, they appear to fatten up really fast, but they are on a bed that was given a heaving dressing of manure.

[Alison]

OK I'm a squash virgin turned to the dark side of the squash by the squash queen who is Sparrow100 so how do I know when to start harvesting butternut squash as they appear to be growing really fast and taking over my plot and my neighbours I have to keep dragging them back

I like to leave mine as long as possible as I think they store better if ripened on the vine so usually don't harvest any winter squash until late autumn, when the plant dies or just before the first frost. By then the stalks have gone corky and they sound hollow when you tap on them.

[Guest]

Just to let you know I harvested 3 squash and ate one last night. The outcome was not good. Raw the squash had a very very faint taste of green melon. Cooked it lost what little flavour it had and didn't take on other flavours either. Will try one of the stored ones in a month if I remember.