I want smaller squashes!

[ChingfordHarry]

This year my Uchiki Kuri (aka Hokkaido, I think) squashes all grew to between 3 and 5 kg - previously 1.5kg would have been big. These jumbo-sized beasts are just too big to eat at one (two, three, four...) sittings. Also, I only got a couple from each plant.

where did I go wrong?

[Snoop Puss]

Nice problem to have!

I guess fewer fruit meant they grew larger. Out of interest, do you hand pollinate? If not, I wonder if doing that would give you more fruit of a size that suits you better.

[Peanut]

I had the same problem with my potimarron this year, lots of fruit set but only one developed into a massive single squash, which is a complete pain when there is only me to eat it.
Bob Flowerdew posted in the Summer about making sure you remove most of the other flowers so you can get fewer but bigger fruit, so I deliberately left them, only for them all to abort and leave me with the one 3kg fruit. Like you, in the past they have been no more than half that size which is why I loved them.

It probably wasn't helped by me not being able to keep up with enough watering during such a dry Spring/Summer.

Roll on next year!

[ChingfordHarry]

Nice problem to have!

Out of interest, do you hand pollinate? If not, I wonder if doing that would give you more fruit of a size that suits you better.

Oh, no. I plant them then leave them to their own devices, apart from watering and an occasional liquid feed. A few seemed to set, grew to a few centimetres across then rotted off.

My butternut squash plants have produced about 3 or 4 a plant that are of a reasonable size - ~1 - 1.5kg - but they were on a friend's plot in the "Mediterranean" part of the allotment site (out of the frost pocket in full sun all day). I treated these pretty much the same as the Uchiki Kuri.

The one plus to all this is that the local food bank has benefitted.

[Snoop Puss]

A few cm suggests they didn't set. Like courgettes that haven't been pollinated, growing a bit before rotting from the end up. ameno, do you have a view on this?

That's good of you to donate them, by the way. Me, I roast them and then freeze what I don't want to use immediately.

[ameno]

Yeah, that sounds like poor pollination. If they start growing, reach maybe cricket ball size, then stop and rot off, it's usually incomplete pollination. Each seed actually pollinates separated, and a certain minimum number of seeds need to pollinate successfully to sustain fruit growth. So if only a small number (but not zero) seeds pollinate, you will see the fruit begin to swell, but then give up.
It would be worth hand pollinating next year. Also bear in mind that butternut pollen will not pollinate Uchiki Kuri, as they are different species. You need pollen from squash of the same species (although it doesn't need to be the same variety).

Fruits can also abort of the plant is under water stress, which is more likely to happen if the weather is hot, the plant is too close to other plants (the roots, that is), and it already has fruit on it.

For using up the big ones you have, cut squash lasts about 2 weeks in the fridge. Any left over can also be cut up and frozen.

[ChingfordHarry]

Good to know that butternut and Uchiki Kuri are different species - after all the fuss about cucurbitacins (and trying to avoid cross-pollination so I can try saving the seed) I was growing my different squashes well-separated, but from what you say I might have been over-cautious.

Storing in the freezer would be an option if there was any room in there! The option that works for me is to cook the things in a variety of dishes and gorge myself on squash-related comestibles until I'm sick of the stuff, wait a few weeks then repeat. Today being Hallowe'en I'm planning on rolling out some shortcrust and making a better-than-pumpkin pie (note to self: buy some double cream).

[ChingfordHarry]

ameno - prompted by your remark about the squashes being different species, I looked up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_and_squashes which conveniently lists different varieties by species, which should be useful when planning which to plant to avoid cross-pollination.

[ameno]

Good to know that butternut and Uchiki Kuri are different species - after all the fuss about cucurbitacins .

I think you might be being over-cautious about those, too.
If this were the US where wild species of squash were about then it would be a different matter, but in this country toxic fruits are no more likely to occur from crossing between two varieties than they are from inter-pollination within the same variety. Any open-pollinated (as opposed to F1) seeds could potentially have them, but it's very rare as it requires a mutation in the genes to occur.
Just taste-test the fruit before eating. If they are bitter, don't eat them.

Also, characteristics of the fruit, including bitter, toxic fruit are based on solely the genetics of the plant bearing the fruit So even if this where the US where a wild toxic variety might have provided the pollen, the fruit produced from that pollen would not be themselves toxic. They would be perfectly good and safe to eat. It's the seeds inside that fruit which would then be carrying the gene for toxic fruit, and thus the next generation would potentially be toxic.
So if you're not saving seeds the cross-pollination is a complete non-issue, even in countries where toxic squashes are more common.

[ChingfordHarry]

So if you're not saving seeds the cross-pollination is a complete non-issue, even in countries where toxic squashes are more common.

I am, I do .

As with many health scares, the reality is usually not what it's hyped up to be, so your input here is very useful and interesting.

many thanks

[ChingfordHarry]

Also bear in mind that butternut pollen will not pollinate Uchiki Kuri, as they are different species. You need pollen from squash of the same species (although it doesn't need to be the same variety).

This is interesting - I saw a recipe in the Guardian this morning (https://www.theguardian.com/food/202...s-samin-nosrat, second recipe) that uses "honeynut squash", which is apparently an interspecific hybrid of butternut and buttercup squashes (the latter is the same species as Uchiki Kuri or Hokkaido) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeynut_squash

I won't pretend to understand these things at all, but this is the second time in as many days that I've come across things that are interspecific hybrids (the other was the Shipova pear, a hybrid between a pear and common whitebeam (though there seems to be some argument about this latter parent)). I imagine that things have to be "just right" or it would be a lot more common.

[ameno]

This is interesting - I saw a recipe in the Guardian this morning (https://www.theguardian.com/food/202...s-samin-nosrat, second recipe) that uses "honeynut squash", which is apparently an interspecific hybrid of butternut and buttercup squashes (the latter is the same species as Uchiki Kuri or Hokkaido) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeynut_squash

I won't pretend to understand these things at all, but this is the second time in as many days that I've come across things that are interspecific hybrids (the other was the Shipova pear, a hybrid between a pear and common whitebeam (though there seems to be some argument about this latter parent)). I imagine that things have to be "just right" or it would be a lot more common.

Yeah, crosses do exist but they are made between two specific varieties which have been bred to be more compatible, and it also requires one specific species to be the "mother" and the other to provide the pollen; pollination apparently simply will not occur the other way around.