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mike140

Need some ID Help for Winter Squash

6 years ago

Hello Gardening Friends - In early spring I ordered a lot of squash varieties then turned them over to my young daughters to plant. We planted bunches and have been enjoying the squash but don't know exactly the varieties (we tossed the empty packets and didn't write anything down). More importantly my kids would like to enter them in the county fair but we would like to name them correctly. here are my guesses: hubbard, seminole, acorn & butternut and maybe jerandale pumpkin? Thanks for the help - Mike






Comments (2)

  • 6 years ago

    Well, I hope now you know the importance of saving seed packets or at least making lists of what you planted. In the Spring it might not seem to matter, but when harvest time is rolling around and you need to know what the mature color of a squash would be at harvest time, that info is handy. There are literally thousands of squash varieties available, particularly for folks who participate in seed exchange networks where a lot more of unusual kinds are available beyond just the several hundred varieties offered by seed retailers. So, most of us haven't grown thousands of varieties or even hundreds and would be making our best ID guesses based on the varieties with which we are familiar. Still, most of what you have in your photos are pretty common ones, but some were harvested green and not at their mature color so that makes the ID a bit harder to firm up.

    Your first photo is some sort of Cucurbita maxima, most likely Jarrandale.

    Your second photo also shows a C. maxima type, and I believe it is Orange Hubbard or Orange Hubbard.

    Your third photo shows an immature, green squash that might be some sort of Kabocha squash. Since it likely has not reached its mature color, it is hard to guess.

    Your fourth photo shows some sort of neck pumpkin, most likely one of the C. moschata types. So, it might be Tahitian melon (which is a squash, not a melon), Zucchino rampicante which presents in many different shapes, Pennsylvania crookneck, Canada Crookneck, or Illinois. These are related to and similar to butternut, but most butternuts do not have the long, extended neck that is crook-shaped.

    Your fifth photo looks like immature Seminole pumpkins, which are my favorite winter squash. When left on the vine until they are mature, they mature to a beautiful tan/buff color. They can have variable shapes even on the same plant, and there's two strains available commercially---the older one that dates back to Florida and the Seminole Indians in the 1500s, and a newer one that has appeared, perhaps as a mutation, in the last decade or so and is sold as Seminole, larger strain or as Seminole, larger fruit. Yours are the size of the original Seminole. When you harvest Seminoles green, they often will continue to color up and eventually turn that buff or tan color of a mature squash.

    Be sure you are not harvesting your winter squash too young if you want it to store well. Try to dent the outer rind with your thumbnail and don't harvest if you still can dent the rind. Or, if you know the mature color a given variety should be, wait until the variety achieves that color instead of harvesting green and immature.

    I did not see any acorn squash in any of your photos. They will be dark green turning gold in patches and ridged and in the general shape of an acorn.

    Hope this helps,


    Dawn

  • 5 years ago

    The way to know if a winter squash is ready to pick is to try and pierce the skin with a thumbnail. If you can do it, it's not ready. If your thumbnail won't go through the skin, it's ready; Even then, if possible (no imminent threat of frost, etc.) I like to leave them on the vine for several more weeks, as the fruit continue to draw up some life from the vine. it makes for longer storage life and greater seed vitality (if you save seed).


    If you save seed, keep in mind that squash from the same species cross very readily. I've heard, but not seen that c. maxima and c. mochata will occasionally cross.

    Green Country Seed Savers on maintaining purity of squash seed