How's everyone squash doing

[Lumpy]

I have 2 pumpkin plants both Table King? and 1 of them has 2 iddy biddy fruit on it the size of walnouts.

Courgettes were shoved into the compost bin last week, 1 Crysatal Lemon and 1 Marketmore Q have given us 5 between them but starting to look like they have given up.

[NatalieCooke]

Slug eat two of my pumpkins, I've got two more growing so fingers crossed they don't get attack.
Noticed two flowers on the butternut squash and two females flowers should be open in the next couple of days.

[Ovce domácí]

Our Hokkaido plants have been rampant, spilling out onto the grass, crowding out half the leeks and the later peas. Just started munching through them at the weekend in a mostly from the garden curry with courgette, onions, coriander, carrot, jalapeno.

[roitelet]

Butternuts have set 5 fruit so far. They are making a take over bid for the path at the back of the veg plot!

[GreaterMarrow]

Takeover Bid

I planted Cha Cha squash and Jack o Latern pumpkins and they are set to take over the world!

As it was my first growing season I had covered one half of my plot with black plastic and thought I'd just grow a few pumpkins/squash through it so the space wasn't wasted. They are like triffids - I'm going to have to chop the growing tips and perhaps limit the fruit so some grow to a decent size.



If anyone could advise - how do I know when the squash is ready to harvest? Can you eat them early if they have reached a decent size? Kings seeds suggests they should be ready Sept/Oct but some are getting quite big already.

[treepixie]

Well what a difference a few weeks make, my squash has grown like triffids and now have quite a few squash on them, let's just hope we get the sun to ripen then

[sparrow100]

Check the stems. Cha cha is a cucurbita maxima - the stems on these go corky when the squash is ready. Usually they are cut with a 'T' handle to help increase storage. But only if you haven't got squashes still growing further up the same vine.

Jack o'lantern is a cucurbita pepo - the squash should have changed colour and be deep and even. If/when you cut it off you may need to stick the earth-side in the sunshine on a windowsill to get that side to change to orange.

Tbh you can leave them on the plant till the end of the season (before the first frosts) unless you want to take them right away to use. They may look big and ready, but sunshine and warmth are needed to ripen them. They develop more sweetness and richness of flavour the longer you can leave them.

Having said all that, I've 2 small sugars and a potimarron that are ready to cut now, as I put the plants out very early.

[seasprout]

My courgette managed 2 fruits before being covered in snow. (Mildew). And my mini pumpkins have managed 1 fruit as all the others were slug ravaged.

Have basically written this year off. :-(

[Jay-ell]

Well, mine are producing a couple of fruit

[Penellype]

Courgette Green Bush going great guns, producing more than I can deal with. Have resorted to giving them away, but my friends are starting to say no thanks.
Goldmine has plenty of fruit, and as they are slower growing they are about right.
Piccolo produced 2 fruits and appears to have gone on strike. Baby fruits appear, but go rotten and fall off.
Melons are impossible - yet to produce a flower that lasts long enough to be pollinated indoors or out.
Cucumbers produced 3 fruit in my friend's greenhouse, but then decided it was a male only plant. It now has the cucumber equivalent of man flu and is going yellow. The 2 plants I have outside are looking happier but have decided to go all girly, with no males to be seen (same variety). Attempts to introduce them to male flowers picked from my friend's greenhouse have so far failed to produce anything that looks like a cucumber. Its like running a damn dating agency

[Lumpy]

I have 2 Table Kings. One has 1 flower on it and the other has 4 fruit that would fit into an egg cup at the moment. I know the description said that they were small enough to put into the oven but that's re-dicci-doo=dalus.

[bussinspain]

You wouldn't want to see photos of my butternut squashes They are peppered with holes from the hail storm last week - it was HORRENDOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Elfeda]

DH strimmed half the length of 2 sqaush plants. is it any good

[hamamelis]

Unless something really gets a move on, it looks like my total winter squash this year will be two tiny Jack Be Little (even by variety standards) and one respectable spaghetti squash. The Peanut is giving it a half hearted go, the Waltham Butternut and Golden Hubbard have not a girly flower in sight.

The courgettes and summer crookneck don't seem to know what they're doing, they all keep stopping, then starting up again, but I've had maybe 10 fruits from the two bush cougettes, a few tiny crookneck, and the Tromba is just starting to produce. It's covered in flowers, female and male, so hopefully it should be good!

I've had a few cucumbers, from the most pathetic looking straggly outdoor plant imaginable. I was going to go pull out out to clear space when I found the first, small but really tasty fruit. It's trying to ripen another 3 fruit at the moment, despite still appearing to be at death's door.

[roitelet]

Sorry to post this for those of you who aren't having much luck with squash.

My Butternuts have got to the point where I am having to restrict the number of fruit on them and stop the vines growing any more.

Now you can all hate me!!!!!