Harvesting Squash

After trying for a few years and having unsatisfactory outcomes I have again planted hubbard squash in my garden. Now I have many that are bigger than my head just laying out there. In the past my squash have not had much flesh to them - like maybe and inch. I WANT MORE!

I am wondering if I should pick them now and store them or leave them to grow. I really don't think I need them any bigger but if I pick them now will they be the thin fleshed things of the past?

What is the squash picking protocol?

Leave them out as long as possible. The flesh grows inside after the skin or outside has stopped.
Also having them vine ripened is by far better.
Hubbard squash are at least a 100 days, so count back from pollination.
ie: June 15th pollination gives you mature fruit around the 25th of September

I planted some random squash seeds and they look like they may be acorn squash. They are yellow though. Is this another variety? Are the instructions the same as for the Hubbard?

Good rule of thumb is to keep an eye on the stem of the fruit. You can pick it when the stem hardens and turns a dark green colour. You can also poke the skin with your thumbnail, since the skin gets much harder when it's mature.

Squash picked before being at least this mature rot in storage fast. Doesn't really matter if they've changed colour yet. Just be careful if you've got a frost coming, even a light frost can damage your fruits over night.

A couple of varieties of acorn squash ripen yellow/white. They ripen in the same way as hubbards.

Schipperkesue wrote:I planted some random squash seeds and they look like they may be acorn squash. They are yellow though. Is this another variety? Are the instructions the same as for the Hubbard?

My acorn squash, which shows as being green with small orange areas, is also yellowing in colour as it ripens, what few I have.

I've successfully kept squash for a couple years now, stored in a dark cupboard. I break them off the plants when they're the size I want, I just make sure to take as much stem with it as possible. I then leave it out on the dirt in the sun, turning it every day, checking to see if a light thumbnail poke leaves a mark. When it doesn't, I move it into the house into a cool dark room.

Last year's harvest yeilded 19 spaghetti squash from A SINGLE plant >.</ I ate the last one in late april of this year -- they were picked late august of the prior year. So yummy.

Squash, more or less, failed me this year

Wish I could grow squash, love the stuff.

coopslave wrote:Wish I could grow squash, love the stuff.

Spaghetti and acorn are good bets for you, pretty reliable mature fruit in 90 days.

Now why is no one mentioning the summer squash?

My favorite is Patty Pan squash. They are little yellow guys with ripple edges. They kind of look like tiny UFOs. They are great sautéed hot in a pan with butter, salt and pepper.

Coopslave, try growing your squash on a manure pile. They seem to love the nutrients and the warmth. Mine look like aliens this year. Hopefully the pumpkins will orange up before we have a hard frost. The spaghetti, acorn and mystery squash are all coming along well. Mmmmmm

Thanks for the encouragement, but we get to many random frosts here. We had one every month last year and have had 2 already, end of August and one a couple of nights ago. Not big ones, but enough to get rid of any plant that is a little soft....sigh.
I will just have to enjoy everyone elses squash stories.

I've found, contrary to what others said, that my squash thrives in colder conditions. They didn't produce well this year from the heat, but now that it's cooling off at night they're just exploding with fruits.

I would recommend getting or making a cold frame and flopping down some un-composted or barely composted manure inside. It would generate enough heat even through the colder nights and could be opened during the day to prevent too much heat from building up. Give it a go with small, quick ripening squash. I'll have to get the name but I have a couple pumpkins that grow to about 4 inches in diameter, they're bright gold and ready to pick before they're even half that size and they taste so amazingly delicious. they grow on short, compact vines. Want some seed if I have any left? It's worth a tryyyyy.

So true. Frost would be devastating.
Here we are plagued by excessive rain, insects and weeds. Growing in bags has helped eliminate problems with 2 of those. Now the chickens are even more of a problem than the insects were....

Leave your Hubbard Squash on the vine as long as possible. They may look ripe, but they need to be fully ripened and then harden off for at least 2 weeks if you have any chance of them keeping. When the vine and stem is dry and brown it's a good thing.
If you think you're going to get a hard frost cover them with a blanket

Coopslave, when you come up I will have a few squash for you, overloaded here. Got mutants though, on my banana squash I think there is green hubbard, go figure. And my spaghetti squash has mutants too, green ones that look like the spaghetti type, but do not string, these were purchased seed, interesting. For surely, lets all get some pictures and do some posting of pictures when all is said and done. Those banana squash are probably going to be as tall as me, me thinks, smiling. What was this thread about in the beginning? Better go and read the first post.....hold on.....oops, too many, have to go back a page and I know I will lose this post I am making so, copy into clipboard then I can go back a page...hold on...success, copy pasted into this blank screen. DCChick, ya, have heard that if you want storage of nice quality, to definitely allow to ripen on the vine as much as possible. No frost coming here yet for another month (well, hopefully) so mine will be matured for storage. Oh, bring on those squashes!! Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM wrote:And my spaghetti squash has mutants too, green ones that look like the spaghetti type, but do not string, these were purchased seed, interesting.

Mine did that last year, but after 3 months in storage they yellowed out and got stringy!

Ok, so on the vine they will stay. I hope they don't grow much more they are already HUGE!!