I got an early start on my winter squash this year, acorn squash that germinated early April. That means the largest squash should be ready to harvest in August. Do I pick them next month or do I leave them on the plant until October?
when to harvest winter squash
Winter squash can be picked when you can't pierce the skin with your finger nail.
Acorn needs to have an orange spot where it touches the ground. The darker the spot, the riper it is.
To be more clear I am asking if I leave the squash on the plants for another 3 months:
will the squash continue to grow?
will they become inedible or rot?
will that keep the plants from producing more squash?
Pick them when they meet the criteria I mentioned.
Quote from vicjova :
To be more clear I am asking if I leave the squash on the plants for another 3 months:
will the squash continue to grow?
No, once it turns color and the skin becomes hard it is as big as it is going to get.
Quoting:
will they become inedible or rot?
Inedible no, rot maybe to likely.
Quoting:
I don't believe so. I think the squash plant is done producing squash.
will that keep the plants from producing more squash?
OK thanks for the help.
Yeah, I would expect they would get soft at the place where they contact the ground & start to rot there after awhile--faster if it's wet. And winter squash only produce one round of fruit, sort of like fruit trees do. The reason summer squash keep producing more is because we pick them before they're "ripe" from the plant's point of view (before their seeds are mature) so the plant wants to make more. Same with green beans, peas etc. It's kind of interesting. If you don't pick your green beans but let them keep growing till the seeds inside are mature, bulgy & hard, the plant will then die, like "my work here is done."
On the positive side I collected 8 large squash, 100 days after germination. The plants are still alive, spreading outward from the original crown of leaves, growing more leaves and fruit.
I weighed the squash. The smallest is 1.3 pounds and the largest is 1.9 pounds. They are either table king or queen. I read they can be around 2 lbs. so there is room for improvement.
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