They aren't on a vine but ..

. I'm a little dismayed by the performance of the "bush" buttercups the last two years. I've grown Burgess Buttercup since Moses was in the whale but tried some new varieties.

First of all, the Japanese Kabochas must be closely related. They do okay but aren't especially early. Last year, I bought seed for a Bitterroot Buttercup. Those plants were on the end of a sprinkler run and the last sprinkler plugged during temperatures above 100! Some of those burned up!

This year, the packet at the garden center just said, "Bush Buttercup." Puny! Guess I will stick with Burgess ... altho, I'd like to try some more Kabocha... yum!

Steve

I am growing Oregon Homestead squash - under the name Sweet Meat - and the vines are doing very well.....but not a single squash to be seen. My Delicata, the seeds of which finally germinated AT THE END OF JULY, long after I had given up on them, may not even flower before the first frost, lol, let alone produce mature fruit, and only one of my two Lakota squashes has any fruit on it - two small squashes which probably won't have time to mature before the end of the season. As I recall, you didn't have much luck with Lakota, either, Steve. These squashes take 85-90 days or more to mature. Unless summer extends into October - HA, that ain't happening - winter squash is going to be a bust for me this year, with nothing to be harvested before the weather turns. It is already snowing in the mountains. :-(

I may give up on these "exotic" squashes and go back to the tried and true winter squashes I have grown in the past. My two heirloom Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato acorn squash plants produced an abundant crop for me last year, and even my Pink Banana Squash, which turned out not to be a favorite for me, produced two mature fruits by the end of the season.

On the other hand, my summer squash, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers are producing lots and lots for us to eat, and my two artichoke plants actually gave us 4 artichokes! (there are a few more 'chokes are on the plants but I don't think they will have time to mature,) so I would say the season has been - and is still - a success, despite the reluctance of my winter squash vines to do anything but grow more leaves and pretty flowers!

Holly

Gold Nugget seems to be a fairly decent Bush winter squash. The fruits are kind of small but each plant yields about three of them on a zucchini sized, or maybe slightly smaller plant.

It was bred by North Dakota State University as a substitute for sweet potatoes. Most places claim it to be much more prolific than mine, but mine refused to put out any more female flowers after it set 3 of them. At first I suspected that they were just focusing on ripening thosr three but now I'm a little curious...

Anyways, if you were looking for an early compact squash Steve I would give that one a go. I think kabochas are also C. maxima so there might be some similarity flavor wise too.

Looks like we posted at the same time, Holly! but if you were looking for a good squash for Colorado, I think this gold nugget is a winner, too.

Also I have two Jack -o-lantern style pumpkins one already orange the other starting to become so that I don't know how I will store for two months for the kid to carve for Halloween. These are Racer PMR from Johnny's.... who knew that we'd have the problem of something being TOO early here in the Rockies?!

Thank you for the Gold Nugget suggestion, Zach; I am going to check out the cultivar. Good luck with your pumpkins - I thought they could be stored for up to 6 or more months, but I haven't grown them myself.

Holly

Many winter squash like hubbards and butternuts do store well, but most C. pepo varieties like acorn and pumpkins, don't last nearly as long. I grew winter luxury a couple years ago and they started to shrivel pretty quickly while the long island cheese lasted well into December (at which point I used the last one).

How do you all keep squirrels from destroying your squash?

Speaking of squirrels, they stole every single one of my peaches this year. There isn't one left on the tree and they weren't even ripe yet. Sucks.

Mice have destroyed a squash or two ...

Where my squash is there are few tree squirrels ... a marmot.

I know that a squirrel can be intimidated by a toy cat. It needs to be moved frequently. And, is particularly effective against birds.

Steve

Digit, nothing intimidates squirrels here. They are very bold. My cat chases them off sometimes, but he can't be full time on guard. I'm so disappointed about my peach crop. Sucks.

http://www.ruger.com/products/1022Carbine/models.html

That has always been pretty intimidating to the squirrels, they really only need to be told once. Although it's a little loud for suburban applications, they have air powered ones that are equally as effective ;).

I gave up on killing the tree rats though, once they found the black oil sunflower seeds they pretty much leave all else alone.

tree rats!!!!??? I have never seen these in CO. Say it isn't so.

Tree rats, bushy tails, squirrels.... All the same thing. The pine squirrels up in the hills aren't so bad (until I'm hiking and they just start screaming at and scare the bejesus out of me) but the big fox squirrels here in town are kind of destructive and annoying.

What do you think about this buttercup?

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/?item=1630

I've grown Burgess Buttercup for probably 30+ seasons. Maturing winter squash seems to be a problem here and storage isn't ideal but I always have buttercup right through the holidays and into January.

Acorn used to do fine in my garden; then I moved. For some reason, they would develop an off-flavor in my new gardens. I tried 3 different acorn varieties and gave up on them, never able to come up with a reason for the flavor problem.

Anyway, this is my 2nd year for trying a bush buttercup. Last year, it was Bitterroot Buttercup. Heck's Fire! I can essentially see the Bitterroot Mountains from my garden ... okay, I have to look past the Coeur d'Alene Range ... Neither variety of the bush buttercup plants have done well.

Right now, the Sweet Meat vines are everywhere!!

Steve

I have begun to harvest the buttercups. They are so good! I even grabbed a small Sweet Meat to try but left the nicer ones.

I chose the wrong words when I gave a buttercup to the neighbor. I said it was "early." I meant that it was "cut off the vine" early, trying to imply that it would not keep for months. I don't care if they keep when we want them right now!

It isn't always easy to assign words like "early" and "mature" and "cured" to describe what is going on in the garden. I'm gonna start a new thread on my melons because it is so revealing on the effects of weather, days-to-maturity ... and all that sorta thing ...

Steve

The 2016 winter squash are now, only a memory and we are a week from the Winter Solstice!

I don't know what is wrong with us! Somewhere along in recent years we learned that there was a time (after or before frost), when "winter" squash could be harvested and enjoyed. Challenged by insufficient warmth or immaturity in the Fall (or a week before Autumn Equinox ;o), ignore the challenge and just start eating!

The Sweet Meat were especially good! It's a bit of a rambunctious variety but the vines stayed healthy through the whiplash early weather (both before and after Summer Solstice :o). Oakiris. How did they do in your garden and after?

Their growing season performance sure set them apart from some of the Bush Buttercup plants. And. The last of the Sweet Meat looked like it could easily have survived another 6+ weeks in storage but it sure tasted good, in mid-December!

Steve

The best winter squash i've grown so far is Hopi White.

Keen, you describe Hopi White elsewhere as having a "bland flavor." Are you saying it is best for growing, has another season of growing changed your mind on the flavor, or, have you learned to make good use of this squash despite it being somewhat deficient, flavor-wise?

I still have 2 Jack o'lantern pumpkins in the basement. I will bring one up today but I'm fairly sure that they are still fine. These are Rock Stars! No, they gained that title showing off ... and that's not by kitchen performance. They did fairly well in storage last year.

I used one for pumpkin bread - several loafs! We had extra pulp for pumpkin pancakes. That wasn't a very big Rock Star. I wish they weren't quite so big but then, they wouldn't make quite a show on the path leading up to the front door on Halloween night!

I just might grow one of the eatin' punkins in 2017! Jungs not only has Sweet Meat and Buttercup, if I need more squash seed, but they have Orange Cutie and a Speckled Hound in their pumpkin section and praise their flavor! Maybe I can terrify the neighborhood hobgoblins with ... no. I don't suppose so.

Steve

Edit: oops! On checking, I've learned that both Orange Cutie and Speckled Hound are Cucurbita maxima. So, they would all be C. maxima squash along with Sweet Meat and Buttercup. None a Jack o'Lantern type punkin ...

really? hmm.. i don't remember saying that, though i probably did. No, i was referring only to a variety that grows well in this climate. no reference was being made as for flavor at all. I still like it as a variety, could be good for Jack-O-Lanterns for halloween, though the new white pumpkins might be better for that. Honestly i havn't grown Hopi White in a few years. Though i do remember that Hopi White had a MASSSIVE amount of seeds, so it might be a good variety for seed roasting :), but not sure.

Lately i've been trying to just grow out the 'Wild Pueblo' squash that was collected growing wild in Southern Utah near an old pueblo ruin. Honestly it doesn't have much going for it lately either, but i'm trying to save it anyway. I'm going to try and grow out my last remaining original known pure seeds that Bobbi sent me.

Well, Keen ...

"elsewhere" was on another forum.

Ya know how the internet preserves things into perpetuity ... I honestly am still trying to reach squash patch perfection and did a Google search for Hopi White. I was very pleased with neighboring La Madera a few years ago but it was another rambunctious vine and the meat was so thin! Delicious, early and thin ...

Steve