Winter squash: Which would you grow again

While the names of the varieties are still somewhat fresh in our minds, which ones would you grow again and those that weren't worth your garden space?!
This question came to mind as the butternut I planted(waltham) turned out very well(taste and quantity) however I had some volunteers sprout. These I believe came from a store bought butternut whose pulp and seeds were thrown into the garden for compost. These produced well but the flavor wasn't there.

Sue :-)

I was disappointed with Bush Delicata. Very low yield, a bit stringy. No substitute for Acorn.

I got a great yield from a new squash called Fairy, but I haven't seen yet how it tastes.

Butternut is the only one with a short enough maturity for me to hope it will ripen. Some years it doesn't because of late frost, cool spring, early frost, etc. This year we had snow on June 10 and a light frost in mid September, about 6 weeks early.

Mary, when I lived in the land of the cold and dark, I had good luck with Gold Nugget bush squash. I usually started them under a milk jug by Memorial Day and had a fair to good harvest depending on when the September frost came. We liked the taste even though they are fairly small.

Mary, have you tried starting them inside?

Yes, I have started them 6 weeks early then covered the baby plants with remay for a couple of weeks because of late frosts. Now they have blankets over them hoping they will finish ripening before we get a 20 degree night.

Fiberholic, I'm in northeastern Or, a very different climate from that of the Willamette Valley which is the land of wet, and dark. I've lived over there too. I found the Gold Nugget listed in the Garden City Seeds catalog, will try some next year, maturity is listed at 75 days vs 80 for early butternut. Thanks for the info. Small is ok, there are just 2 of us.

So far, I like Waltham Butternut the best for taste, ease of growing, and storage. A year ago I also grew tromboncino and Japanese pumpkins; never again. They were only just okay. I've had good luck with green-striped cushaw (tasty!) but they are SO large that I waste a lot if I'm not making pumpkin pies. Small household and a small freezer here!

Next year I am going to try a baby blue hubbard (Blue Ballet) and Futsu Black (a butternut)... if I can find places far enough from each other that they don't cross-pollinate and I can save seeds (if I like them).

I rotate each year what I grow to try for new varieties because I love to try new stuff, but keep acorn and butternut (Waltham) as a standby along with the sugar pumpkin.
What I am interested in is: how many squash per plant other people get in their garden? I realize the weather plays a part in that, but it would be nice to know the ones you like and what the yield is.
Some varieties I like; Uncle David's Dakota Dessert - a Fedco butternut (One or Two per plant for me)
Long Pie- a NE native squash. Can put on several zucchini looking fruit.
My favorite is Delicata, but yields are not great here in Maine.
Like Darius, I am going to try the baby hubbard, and have my eye on the new acorn from Johnny's.

In my dream world of "Next Year's Garden", I want to plant the variety that has the best flavor and the most squash. LOL

I really like the taste of acorns. I don't grow them due to pest problems.

This year I had 12 nice size butternuts from 1 or 2 plants. I thought I planted just 1 (late, and as an afterthought) but I think there were actually 2 in the hole.

I also grew triple treat pumpkins(burpee). Great pumpkin for breads and pies. Also the seeds are hulless so they were great for roasting. They don't store well. I should have realized this do to their sugar content. I lost a few that I had stored in the garage. Just ran out of time to freeze them! Next year I'm hoping to get extra hands to help! The bugs also loved these plants.

cyndiehook, I'm not sure how many butternut I get from each plant. I planted 5 hills with one plant per hill. They end up entwining together so I don't know where one ends and another begins! But I ended up with approx. 20 very large butternut and about 15 two-person size. I have different results from the beginning of the row to the back. This is a fairly new garden plot and I've noticed different areas of the garden are doing better than other areas. Soil testing time!

I used composted rabbit poo under my hills this year. I liked the results.

Honey Boat and Sugar Loaf!

Thanks for the input, darius and saanansandy.
I appreciate it.
It helps to know how many hills or how many plants it takes to get a certain number of fruit. That way, I know that if I plant say 5 hills or only 5 plants, I know that I will only get X number of veggies on a good year.... I am trying to optimize my space for next year.
It is really nice to actually supplement the food budget. I don't have a lot of ground space so I can't fill a chest freezer like I did when I lived in the midwest, but it is always nice to pull out a "garden meal" in the dead of winter.

I like acorn but I wish it were a better keeper.

I hadn't heard of Honey Boat or Sugar Loaf, so I did a search on plant files. I really like the look of Honey Boat.

Link to Honey Boat
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57094/
Nice pics ByndeweedBeth!

And DG's info on Sugar Loaf: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57095/

LTilton is there a specific cultivar of acorn that you really like?

Here's DG links to darius' picks!
green-striped cushaw : http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/61082/
Waltham Butternut: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1192/

cyndiehook"s picks:
Long Pie: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/107139/
I couldn't locate 'Uncle David's Dakota Dessert - a Fedco butternut' but I'm not always very computer savvy!
MaryE I also haven't found Gold Nugget yet.

And a link for my fav pumpkin this year, Triple Treat, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/91431/
I really need to get my camera out more often to help other gardeners see what the end product looks like. The seed catalogues always use their biggest and greatest to represent their product. It's nice to see how other home growers produce turns out.

I got a good yield from Mesa Queen acorn from Territorial.

Gold Nuggett http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57116/ A very nice C. maxima the size of an acorn and much better flavor. Hard rind like a Hubbard tho.

Like darius, I always grow a few Cushaws. Green Stripe is the most reliable, but Gold Stripe is much prettier. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/118015/ Jonathon is good http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/61081/ Tennessee Sweet Potato is far behind tastewise. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56795/

C mochatas are much easier to grow. Waltham as mentioned has as good a flavor as any butternut. I like bush types where possible, so I go with Butterbush. I also like the the cheese types, current favorite Beung Karn, which at 3-5 lbs is an ideal size. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/159643/ Long vines tho.

Again prefering bush types, favorite acorn is the old Bush Table Queen. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/61072/ Usually keep into February for me.

Thanks, LTilton! Have you tried any yet for taste?

Here's an interesting article from the boston globe on Fedco. I came across it while googling Paydon Acorn squash-which seems like it may be worth trying. http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2006/02/22/sowing_the_seeds_of_good_gardens/

I didn't grow any Acorn this year, but I recall Mesa Queen having a good flavor.

Still haven't tried my Fairy squash yet. It's curing on the porch. [talk about long vines]

Thanks for all the links and your picks Farmerdill! I like that the Table Queen keeps for so long. It's so disappointing when you are all set to have one for dinner to find it went south!

http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/mainSearch/detail.php?ID=5855&filterBy=&filterBylocation=&filterByfrostfree=
This Scarchucks Supreme is what I want to try next year, see if it's borer-resistant as they claim.

I haven't had a lot of squash rotting or moldy, but the Acorn goes orange quite quickly and gets shrivelly.

saanansandy, that's a nice article on Fedco.
And a pretty good description. They have a sale in the spring where you can buy plants like tomatoes, trees, potatoes, and anything else left they have not already sold. The warehouse and seed room are open and you can walk through the aisles and pick out packages of seed...A very dangerous situation. LOL Their catalog can be downloaded an is something of a work of art itself. A lot of the seed sold there is provided by small farmers.
I think I have added some new varieties to my list to try. If gold nugget tastes better than acorn, Farmerdill, I have to try it.
Thanks to everyone for all the info. Really good thread.

Sugarloaf for lunch today!

Beth, How are the yields? Is it a bush or vine? looks great, btw.

I called Fedco and they're sending me a catalog in December. I have dail-up and downloading can be a whole day event!! I would love to walk around their warehouse but boy would I get into trouble!
Has anyone cooked and frozen any of these? If the acorn doesn't keep as well, I was thinking about freezing it.
Beth, you are making me hungry!

Sue:-)

Table King and Table Queen acorns. Muscade de Provence and Rouge Vif d'Etampes for big ones. Uchiki Kuri for great soup!

Here's a link to the catalog description of the Gold Nugget. The picture shows a more pumpkin orange color than the pictures posted in Dave's plantfiles for the same variety. I have had good service from this company.

http://www.gardencityseeds.net/product_info.php?cPath=33_140_167&products_id=471

I love the detailed descriptions right down to the yield per plant. Thanks for the link. Adding another catalog request!
I see that seeds of italy offer the Muscade de Provence. My local feed store offers their seeds-I'll have to talk to the manager to see if he'll add this to his order next spring.

Being a market garden, we plant a little different than backyard gardeners. We do acorn squash because it's early & can demand a better price.
The variety we use is Taye Belle. It is a bush type, so takes less room. We plant seeds in small containers. 2401 insert in a 1020 flat. Set them out before they get to large. This year we put them in the garden on June 2nd. Starting using them mid August. I noticed squash was $1.49 a pound at the supermarkets, so priced ours at $1.25 per lb. They sold like hot cakes! Everyone was ready for squash. The only drawback was another vendor started bringing their squash, too. Theirs was not ripe!
I get the seed from Jordans Seed Inc. www.jordanseed.com

I also plant spaghetti squash. Although not a true squash, it is very good. No pests bother it that I know of!

Bernie

Acyually Bernie, The spaghetti squash is a true squash ( C, pepo) same as acorns, delicata, summer squash, Halloween type pumpkins etc. There are several cultivars.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=spaghetti+squash&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search Only insect problem here is the same for all C. pepo and C. maxima SVB.

The stuff don't taste like squash, don't taste like summer squash, don't look like squash. We plant only Stripetti.

Hi, Bernie,
I'm always interested in squash for small spaces. Wanted to check out your Taye Belle, but the link you gave to Jordan Seeds seems to lead only to one of those websites with no content!

I just think of Stripetti as a more stringy Delicata. I am aware of Tay-Belle, prefer bush types, but have not gotten around to it. Still use Bush Table Queen for acorns.

Tay Belle is also available from Veseys http://www.veseys.com/us/en/store/vegetables/squashwinter Stokes http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront Siegers http://www.siegers.com/shop/kind.asp?kind_id=SQ8 and several other vendors. There are two versions , one with Powdery Mildew resistance.

Thanks, Farmerdill. I now see that it's a hybrid, so I could not save seeds, and none of these companies seem willing to ship small quantities of seeds overseas (claiming that we have restrictions here, which is not true). I have checked my usual European seed sources and none of them seem to have it. Ahh, well, like you, I rely on Table Queen [& Table King], as a generous cousin sends me Ed Hume seeds each Spring! These are my most successful "winter" squash here, and, in fact, never seem to contract mildew when all my other cucurbits are turning white!

Now we need a thread on "What Winter Squash Would You NEVER Grow Again!"

I never say never. Biggest disappointment among winter squash that I have grown is Lady Godiva. Have not found many that were absolute duds in all areas. Others have advantages and disadvantages but are acceptable in some circumstances. Even the Turk's Turban, which is not much for eating, makes a great ornamental.

I guess you've never grown 'One Too Many'!?!

Double meaning aside, that thing is a good ornamental along with Goosebumps, Red Warty Thing, Batwing

I have never grown winter squash. Are they really grown in winter or do they just go into winter before they are ready to harvest?