Zuchinni Bread, MMMM!

I've got zucchini already, for the reason you stated: Zucchini bread! I also like to grill it.

Joe

I'd say that butternut tastes rather less like sweet potatoes than several other varieties - which is why I like it.

Butternut is awesome ,for a number of reasons:
Stores well
Tastes Great
Grows well and very productive
I am not sure about trellising though, at least the ones I grow average 6 lbs....some much more.

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For summer squash, consider zuchinni costata romenesco. Best zucchini variety I've ever had.
For winter squash, .Kabocha is very good. Dry and sweet. So sweet that you don't need to add brown sugar, if you like squash with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.
I need to plant it earlier, though. It made a valiant attempt but just couldn't handle the high heat of mid summer in AZ. I think it would fine all summer anywhere else. I planted much too late, probably almost three months later than I will next year. The only two squash I got ended up sun scorched.
I know they grow here in Yuma, even hotter than my city so it's just a matter of timing.
I really need to try more squash varieties. Seems they never have much except butternut and acorn at the grocery store. I was blown away by that one kabocha when they had that, it was so much better than the usual varieties.

Spaghetti squash is different than all the others. Ours was very prolific this year as I kept the squash vine borers at bay for the month of June and well into July until I saw I had too many squash. It can be used in place of spaghetti. If you find a casserole it goes well in the squash bowl.

I also grow golden hubbard. It's not bad. Very large, and productive but also subject to the borers. It can be used in place of pumpkin for pies.

I like Delicata best, but I have not been very successful at growing it. It is sweet, and tastes somewhat like a sweet potato.

Because of borers I would suggest a variety from the c. moschata family of squash. Butternut is part of that family. Out West, where they don't struggle with borers, I'd personally go with something from the c. maxima family. But you have borers where you live ;)
The only butternut I'd consider trellising would be Ponca or one of the smaller varieties. But even then the trellis would have to be REALLY sturdy.
Sandhill Preservation Center and Baker Creek Heirlooms are both excellent sources of varieties and descriptions. Also, you might drop in on the squash & pumpkin forum, here on Gardenweb. There are some very knowledgeable growers there who would happily share their experiences & opinions.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandhill Squash listing

I think butternut squash tastes alot better than sweet potatoes! It doesn't need any brown sugar, just a little butter and I'm good to go!

I grew a moschata squash called Fairy a couple years ago. The taste was a lot more like sweet potato and the borers didn't bother it. The growth was phenomenal - more like a maxima variety and the yield likewise.

I gave some seeds to my son to plant and I haven't heard the end of it since he was overrun with Fairy squash.

I am considering a smaller variety of butternut as one of my choices, because I don't want to have any ginormous sized squash that I can't eat all of. For the trellis, well, they are quite sturdy. I could actually use them as a ladder if I wanted. I make them out of 3/4" galvanized electrical conduit, in an A frame shape, so they are self supporting. I attach 2x4" galvanized farm fence to the frame for stuff to climb. I am thinking that for the squash, if they were too large and couldn't support themselves, I'd fashion some sort of slings. My trellis design works for canteloupe, but mind you that the canteloupe support themselves. I think my trellis would work pretty well for some squash.

Anywho, I plan to try several recipes with squash, including grilling it, making "squash bread", and others. The reason I reference sweet potatoes is because one of my favorite sides is mashed sweet potatoes with melted marshmellows on top. I never had sweet potatoes growing up, but it is one of the staples of thanksgiving on my wife's side of the family, and I love it. Sweet potatoes can't be grown here in the short season of Wisconsin, but squash can. If I can find something similar, or maybe even better, I will be one happy fella! For some reason, butternut squash just looks like it would be good. Who knows, maybe it's the orange color. Well, I'll have some room, so I'll be looking to try at least 2 types, maybe more. I hope they store well like I am reading. It would be great if they stay good for a couple months, so I can bust some out in winter. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Joe

hey joe - look into Thelma Saunders sweet potato squash - suppose to taste just like sweet potatoes.

Have not grown it myself - but have it on my "to try" seed wishlist...

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into that. It's looking like I can trellis 4 types of squash, if I go with one vine of each type. I basically have room for 2 vines on each side of my A frame trellis. With that said, I'm gonna pick out 4 of the suggestions here, and I'll report back next year, if any of us remember.

Joe

The Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato is an acorn squash. If you like acorns you will like it. Susceptible to SVB, but small enough to trellis. Both squash and sweet potatos vary greatly in taste among varieties, so you just need to select varieties that match both your taste buds and growing preferences. The Tennessee Sweet Potato (C. mixta) does not taste like most sweet potatoes either.
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Is squash vine borer a real bad issue? The last thing I wanna do is set myself up for disappointment. So lets say that I do plant something that has issues with SVB. Will that make a butternut then more susceptible being that it would be close by? Or will they choose the susceptible one, and leave the butternut alone? I also will have zucchini in the garden as well. I just don't wanna plant a SVB buffet.

Joe

I didn't have room this year but next season I plan to try Kabocha squash I saw in my Park Seed catalog. It looks like a miniature pumpkin and is supposed to be very sweet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kabocha-Park Seed Sunshine Hybrid

I've been eating green (half grown) butternuts as summer squash and the flavor is very nice. That gets rid of the early ones that would ripen during the summer and the late ones that would be small/green at frost. The ripe ones are good for everthing from pumpkin pie to pan fried disks. They do well on a sturdy trellis and resist SVBs. They don't produce as heavily as dedicated summer squash though.

Ham, how do you pan fry disks of squash?

When it comes to vine borers, the stem is what makes the difference. They like the hollow stemmed squash, but have a difficult to impossible time w/ the solid stemmed varieties. I live in zone 7 and had all my squash in well before June (when vine borers usually emerge here) so even though most of my squash were infected (I didn't know about removing them until it was to late) they didn't seem to hurt my vines at all they were large enough that the worms didn't clog up the stem. I had much more trouble w/ the squash / stink bugs. I am looking at different varieties for this next year too, I have chosen mine based on reportedly not being liked by squash bugs and being heat / drought tolerant.

Is SVB an issue? Ha. In WI, it will be the ONLY issue. This discussion about taste is all gibberish. You grow what you can, not what you want, unless you want to spend a lot of time tending your squash. So, do this:

1) grow zucchini, bush type, until they quit producing around mid July. Within a few weeks the plant will die, but first, cut the plant at the base and split the stem. Count the borer larvae before squishing them. At my location, you can get 15 in one. Plant turnips in the vacated spot.

2) plant butternuts, or any other type of moschata, for winter keeping. For all their productivity, they produce more when sprawling and getting secondary roots. Up a trellis, in admittedly less than full sun, I have never had more than 4 on one trellised plant

3) plant tromboncino, the only type of zucchini produced by a moschata. As it happens, this thing will climb a 10 ft trellis even in part sun(I have to make stepladders just to keep up with these monsters), start producing around July 15 and overwhelm you with zucchini (and what zucs! easily 18 inches) until first frost.

The alternative is growing under cover and opening, hand-pollinating and closing whenever there is a female blossom.

joe - I have had summer or winter squash 3 years running - no SVB......

Not a lot of gardening here in chicago due to squirrel populations.....I would have totally given up without this terrier/sheppard mix we adopted.

After my 1st garden, neighbor jumped on the bandwagon, but bought all their starts. Every crop they have bought, suddenly pest for that particular crop show up......coincident? Idk.....

glib - why turnips?

my yellow squash is still producing....is that odd? is it the svb the zuke succumb to, or just short lived?

I start a 2nd batch of summer squash inside, plant it out after the SVBs aren't flying anymore, pull the old plants after the new ones start to produce and/or the old ones show signs of infestation.

I've grown hubbard successfully. It's great for covering ground if you don't get the garden planted. The vines run 15 to 20 feet. Does climbing the apple and saskatoon bush count as trellising?

The discussion about taste is really not gibberish. Taste is very important to me, because I am not going to grow a type that I don't like, just because I can. I want to grow a squash that tasted good, and it sound like butternut squash does. I will definately try it out. 4 per vine will be plenty, because I can easily plant more then 1. I think I'd be overwhelmed if I had more than 8 or so.

As for SVB, I guess we'll wait & see how it goes. My zucchini are still producing great as we speak, and the only pest I've spotted was one little corn rootworm beetle on one of the flowers. My main enemy this year has been house finches, who like to munch on any type of seedling. But, who knows, maybe they are snatching up bugs too, because it's been surprisingly insect free this year. Anyway, my scenario is that I live in a small town, located out in the sticks, about an hour from Milwaukee. There are not too many people with vegetable gardens around here, and I live right on the edge of town as well, which explains the corn rootworm beetles. I'm no expert are gardens, nor insects....especially SVB, but wouldn't there be a LOT less of them around if they hardly have any gardens to find a host in? I have to imagine that my zucchini plants don't have SVB larvae in them, because I would think they'd be dead by now.

Joe

I bragged about my winter squashes last year: Confection from Johnny's (a kabocha type, I think) which is very sweet and dry and a Long Neck Pennsylvania Dutch from Baker's Creek which is a butternut type with the advantage of lots of neck. Both are excellent keepers. I have one Long Neck in the cellar that still looks like it might be good. It's August here in NH! I think butternut types in general are more watery and not as sweet but ok for certain dishes.

I agree with Costata Romanesco for z zucchini. It seems to stand up again striped cucumber beetles and squash bugs although there is some damage. I also had a round yellow squash from Bakers Creek survive striped cucumber beetles while last year another variety succumbed. As long as it is picked young, it's a tasty summer squash but since it is mostly seed cavity because of the ball shape, it's not good if it gets too big. With the zukes, I simply cut away the seedy party and still use.

I'm trying a new variety this year but the squash bugs seem to love it. I'll have to check to see what it is and how it cooks up.

you don't have to plant turnips perforce. You could grow kale or carrots too. Anything Fall, sixty days or below.

My Costatas this year had about six SVB per plant, after I had painstakingly painted rotenone all over each stem. My unpainted Gold Rush had 18 SVB. Of course, Dennis who is just North of here does not have them, so you may be lucky. I also had one cucumber beetle per squash blossom, and for the first time that I could notice, massive amounts of stink bugs (I scraped a lot of eggs and the damage was tolerable).

By the way, my family and friends have voted massively in favor of tromboncino as the best zucchini we have. Costata is not in the same league according to them. I like them equally on the plate.

I planted butternut for taste, only to discover the benefit of them being SVB resistant as well! I see places on the vine where they attempted to burrow, but were not successful. I have seen a few adult SVB around my garden and I have squished several eggs, so they have definitely been trying to infest my plant. So, I for one can verify that the butternut is a good way to go in terms of SVB resistance. Plus, there is no winter squash like the butternut, in my opinion. Cut in pieces, lightly coat with olive oil and bake at 400 for about 30 mins (until somewhat crispy on edges) and sprinkle with salt. Makes the sweetest, tastiest fries you have ever had!

thanks for the tip MrsSmith!

I will only be getting butternuts if the fall is nice and warm. Just now seeing the first minibuttenuts with flowers atop - so far unopened flowers.....

Hopefully there is still a good 6 weeks of nice weather before us.......

How do you pan fry squash? slice 1/4-1/2 inch thick disks, us a little butter in the pan and cook until soft. flipping as needed. I usualy cover the pan for a while to steam it a bit to spead up the softening. It works for both green and ripe butternuts (I don't find a need to peel the green butternuts). I grew Delicata for a couple of years but didn't eat most of them because of the processing time...scoop out seeds and strings, heat the oven and roast.

With the green butternuts I find that the immature seeds and pith around them have more flavor than the flesh, so I don't mind letting them get some size. Others in the family don't like the softer texture of that part, but since the neck is so meaty everybody gets what they want.

When making pies with the ripe ones I make a bowl out of the seed chamber and put extra filling in that and bake it for something different. It also saves me the hassle of peeling it to use the flesh for the filling.

The only one not mentioned so far that is a favorite of mine is Tatume (Cucurbita pepo). It is immune to SVB. Alternate names: Calabacita, Calabash

I am also thinking of ordering from the Rare Seeds Catalog.
http://rareseeds.com
It has some very red squash which contain lycopene.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash

This thread has been great! Thanks to Joe for starting it! I'm really looking forward to next years squash extravaganza....

Hey Joe!

You are my neighbor! I am 30min to an hour out of MKE, depending where I am (home or work). I only get SVB at the end of the season. They generally come after my plant has some reasonable sized fruit on it, and I let them do as they wish as by the time the plant suffers anything major the squash are done. I haven't had a problem with them earlier in the season.

I've grown zukes, acorns and spag squash. I want to try butternuts, but didn't plant a squash plant this year.

I had terrible luck with my garden this year, except for the toms. I pulled about 20lbs off my maters so far, and have a lot to go! (only 10ish plants). They got leaf spot or something but are still producing. Terrible year for me.

Which city are you in? I'm in Mayville, right by the Horicon Marsh. Anyways, I have never seen a SVB moth or anything, and haven't had any issues with my zucchini. I think I've decided on butternut squash for next year, along with some canteloupe. Hopefully I never get to experience SVB though. I generally don't have any problems other than aphids, and the blasted birds eating my plants. Those stinkin birds are now tearing chunks out of my cucumber plants and zucchini. Hopefully nothing will want to fly the long distances required to get to any significantly sized city from here.

Joe

I am in Waukesha, Muskego area. I work in Sheboygan however. We are looking to move into the Kewaskum area...I don't think thats too far from Horicon Marsh?

I never have troubles with aphids...in fact I really don't have problems with my veggies! Blight can be bad some years, and since I don't spray it's even worse. Also, I don't have the space to rotate right now. So that doesn't help my issues much.

Once I move...I will have so much space I won't know what to do with! (Well I am planning a pretty big orchard...)

Birds generally leave me alone, altho I had a chipmunk that lived under our deck that stole every last one of my strawberries. He had to be a fat one by the end of the season!!

The only problem I seem to have is squash bugs. Not the borers but the bugs. I seem to be able to control those with a heavy dusting of DE early in the season and repeated dustings as needed. I only saw a few small ones this year.
I love Kabocha but Kabocha doesn't seem to do well in AZ summer heat. I need to try starting it earlier, maybe Feb or March. I'm also going to try a fall planting when it cools off. My summer kabocha kept aborting and the two squash it did make ended up getting so sunburned that they rotted.
I love costata zuchinni, too. I think I may try some trobocino sometime. We also like spaghetti squash, which does very well in AZ.
I have seeds for Red Kuri to try next year. How do they taste?

What a small world raiquee, I was just working in Muskego yesterday, at the high school (I'm an electrician). Kewaskum isn't all THAT close to the marsh, but it's not all that far either. It's about 30 minutes from here, and is a pretty nice area. Definately cheaper when it comes to home prices and property taxes then over where you are now. You also jinxed me with your chipmunk talk, because I just saw one today while putzing in the garden. I have to take care of them right away, or they start digging everything up, and then I get yellowjackets the following year in their holes.

Joe

Hi Joe,
I was reading your post about squash. I like all squash, but each one has a special thing about it.
Almost all winter squash can be used for pumpkin. Pumpkin cookies, cakes, pies. Use pumpkin or squash in place of oil or butter in baked items.
As for growing up, you can but you will need a sling for the squash. Use a nylon hose stocking for your slings. A good way to recycle them.
Enjoy your squash
gmom

Any ideas on what is causing this bi-color on my yellow squash? This didn't start happening until about second week in August. There are rows of yellow squash next to rows of zucchini. Cross-pollination? I am starting to see more squash bugs on some of the plants.
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How do you know when it's time to pick acorns? They seem about the right size, I've never grown them before though.

re: ITOrganics

looks like mosaic virus...safe to eat, just ugly/undesired.

Unfortunately, the leaves will also start to become effected if they haven't already and production will decline.

Joe, I found this recipe on the web last week and tried it with the first butternut from my garden. My husband says it is the BEST squash dish he has ever had! I am inclined to agree even though I have never been a big squash fan. My advice: reduce the oil to 2 Tbl., reduce the bacon to 3 strips cut in slivers, and enjoy!
http://www.food52.com/recipes/7438_savory_and_sweet_butternut_squash

On another note, I did not intend to plant butternut! I bought seeds for two different winter squashes but the vendor must have mis-labelled one of the seed packets. In any case, if you grow kabocha, I have a kick-... recipe for that too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Savory & Sweet Butternut Squash

great news peeps!!! I planted my buternuts July 2nd as June was so wet and cold and I had an injury....have 2 butternuts definitely - and 2 maybes.....I knew it was a gamble, but it came through.....yeay!

95 degrees today - hope they take the op to put on some more.....I've seen a lot more squash/cuke/watermelon coming on since the hot temps returned.....at least more blossoms, cukes are looking pretty tired, powdery mildew on the squash, but 3 more watermelons are just starting - marble sized....

My butternut vines have decided to set a second crop and now I've got all these little green stripies. If frost comes as expected here on 10/15, I don't think these are going to have time to ripen in 45 days.

I already have more mature squash from the main crop than I'll need, so it's not really material, and I see no reason to pull them off.

Winter squash are ripe when the curly cue at the base of the fruit stock has completely dried. Summer squash are usually harvested long before they are fully ripe.

Thank you nc-cm! Now I know the squash have mosaic virus and I can work on the problem.

I understand Waltham butternut squash is the king. So, who's grown it, and how long does the vine actually get? The Burpee seed website claims 24", which I am doubtful of. I plan to trellis, and would like to know how tall I need to build my steel A-frame trellis. Thanks.

Joe