When do these darn things get ripe?How do you tell? My first experience w ith them. I got seeds as bonus in a trade so I don't which ones they are. If they don't get ripe soon...I'll have to drag them out of the garden with the tractor*G*.
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Banana squash
I believe you wait until the stem starts turning brown, they take 100 days or so, hope this helps.
Sometimes we get much more than we want, last year I had okra coming out my ears, this year I planted less and none are growing well...^_^
It is a winter squash. Ilike to wait until the vines die back on all winter squash including pumpkins before harvesting, If you are in a hurry, you can pick them when the rind is hard and stem appears to be drying. It is a large squash, especially the Pink. Blue and Orange versions are not quite as big
Thanks for the info. So when it is ready,I should slap some tires on and drive it out?*BSG*
It's very interesting plant. Now I gotta go find seeds for blue and orange.
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It won't get that big. 15-20 lbs is about average with a big one maybe 30 lbs. It is as good quality as a Hubbard, but the same problem of how to use all of it. Good keeper, but perhaps a shade less so than a Hubbard. Softer too, you won't have to use the axe and chainsaw to open it.
Can it be put up in the freezer? I don't can so everything I put up for winter use goes in the freezer plus I need info for Farmers Market customer that would be iterested in buying some.
I delt with those you can't drop of the Chyrsler Building and bust open. I have some kind of monster that comes up every year on my compost pile that starts out looking like a patty pan but as it gets bigger looks more like a acorn squash and even at the smaller stage I can't hacksaw it open.
yep you can mash it and freeze it.
Great! I'll have plenty then for pie making.
looks like I'm not going to get any butternuts...vines are dying and squash aren't very big...Makes me mad! It just been an all round bad garden year what w/ deer eating all my purple hulls,worms in the corn,stinkbugs on the maters and now my butternuts are dying. Think I'm going to back to a smaller garden.....same frustration but on a smaller scale.
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I feel your pain. I have to battle squash bugs every year. The online stuff always say to handpick the adults. Right.. have you ever tried to negotiate a full grown zuch plant? I had scratches alllllll over my arms. I did find if you fIood the heart of the plant with a hose the bugs crawl up the stems and then you can pick them. The egg masses I just tear off the leaf. Don't know how long I have to keep it up for though. I think they only produce one new generation a year.
The bugs have just drove me nuts this year. I have several dz. pots of hibiscus I was planning on taking to market once they were blooming good but the sawfly larva started in on them early. I couldn't hand pick/them fast enough so now I have ate up hibs I can't sell. Next year I'm using systemic on my ornamentals.Hate to do it but I can't take things to market when they look this bad....or maybe I should just label them "Lace Leafed Hibiscus"....LOL
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lol. i know how you feel. i am using systemics this year for mites on ornamentals.
I think I'll try Ortho Bug-B-Gone