This year my daughter who is 9 and I are trying new gourds. We have 13 variety of gourd seedlings growing right now. Last year we grew snakes, spinners and birdhouse. And they did well. This year we are trying:

Apple
Dipper
Spinners
Sankes
Martin
Luffa
Giant Bottle
Cannonball
Mini Bottles
Baby Bottles
Banana
Dinsaur
Bushel
Pumkins
and in 2 areas we have a mixture growing.

Hopefully with fingers crossed we will do pretty good this year and my daughter can open her road side stand. Of course after I get around to building it first.

Rodent

We hope to grow:

Bushel Basket Gourd (first time)
Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin
Warsaw (the round selection of the above)
Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin
Dolma Kabak (vining summer squash)
Scarchuks Supreme (acorn squash)

I'm going to have to plant some of the larger ones in the lawn and in manure piles in the pasture.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Like Mrs B, this is the year of the squash, as well as the year of soup peas & beans and too many alliums. Well that's OK since they all store well.

I just started my squash seeds in Jiffy pellets yesterday. Four each of the following winter squash varieties:

-Waltham Butternut (from last years harvest)
-Early Butternut (Cook's Garden)
-Delicata (Cook's Garden)
-Baby Blue Hubbard (Fedco)
-Red Kuri (High Mowing)

Wow Mrs. B, that's a lot of squash! I'm jealous. :-)

All I could fit in my little garden this year is
4 tromboncino and 2 cavili.

Although, considering I'm the only one in my house who actually likes squash, that should be plenty!

Ooh, ooh, I'll play!

Year of the Squash at our house also:

Summer Squash:
Cocozelle Zucchini
Cavelli Zucchini
Zephr squash
Tromboncino Zucchini

Winter Squash:
Red Kuri
N. Georgia Candy Roasters
Waltham Butternut
Metro Butternut
Long Island Cheese
Sweet Meat
Marina di chioggia

Plus 3 different cucumbers and 4 different melons. No gourds this year.

Susan

I've got Tromboncino, Yellow Crookneck, and Chihuahua Landrace Cushaw going right now. I might add Queensland Blue later. I've got seeds for it, but I'm not sure if I have the room. That would give me one of each species, so I can save pure seed without bothering with hand pollination.

You guys with those long lists must have huge gardens.

I've never grown Cushaws before, but I heard they do well in my climate. So far they're going to town. I got this variety because Baker Creek said they got them from the Chihuahuan desert, so I figured if they can grow in one of the hottest and driest places in North America, they should handle it here just fine. I'm never going to water them!

I caught a SVB laying eggs on my Tromboncino! This is my first year gardening in this location, and I've never had those before. I sprayed all my squash with Bt. Hope that helps.

For other cucurbits I've also got luffa gourds, a mixture of pickling cucumbers, Blacktail Moutain watermelons, and Charantais melons. Would like to add some San Juan honeydew melons, but again, not sure if I have the room.

These are some fantastic lists. I just love reading what everyone else is growing. It gives me wicked ideas for next time ;)

It doesn't look like gourds are in the cards for us this year. The fellow who sent them to me gave me a heads-up later that he only got 1 out of 10 seeds to germinate. I got 0 out of 11. Hehehe! None of the Gold Nugget seeds germinated either. Those seeds were fresh from Sand Hill this year. Very weird.

We went to Phoenix last week, and I was torn between planting things out and keeping them in their fish tanks. In the end, I planted everything of which I had one or more extra pots of seedlings. So far, the gamble has paid off. We're way ahead of where we were last year. The only "casualty" is a semi-toasted hill of Spaghetti squash, thanks to me not taking the water bottle off of it in time one day.

No SVB here thus far. The slugs have been having a high time with the little melons, though :( I kind of wish I would limit myself to one of each squash specie the way neohippie did. I'm hoping to be organized enough to do some hand pollinating so I have seeds to share for next year.

Although, considering I'm the only one in my house who actually likes squash, that should be plenty!

aubade - I'm afraid I may be in the same situation this year. I'm going to look pretty foolish this fall (if I'm lucky, that is) :)

You guys with those long lists must have huge gardens.
-Neohippie

Nope. I have small raised beds, with a big yard to contain the massive sprawl!
Should be interesting. Plus I only planted 1-2 plants of each variety. It's an experimental year to see what works and what we like.

Susan

I have had luck with the Italian Largo summer squash with all of those high ridges. The skin keeps edible. Fave is yellow crookneck.

I end up buying my winter squash from the farmers market due to our small gardening area.

That Italian Largo sounds good. So do Dolma Kabak and Trombocino. I've been thinking about everyone's summer squash lists. I noticed mine is a little light, and at least one person at work has already started asking when I'll start bringing zucchini. Furthermore, I don't believe any of the Fordhook zucchini made it to the garden. Only one seed germinated, and I potted it with the NOID zucchini. Later, I saw a seedling with a stuck seed coat. Sure enough, I broke the stem, trying to remove the seed coat.

A few days ago, our neighbor's neighbors handed all their garden seedlings to me over the back fence. Carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes (at the cotyledon stage :) ) and four pots of squash (with 7-9 seedlings each) labeled "beans," "tomato" (2), and "squash." More NOID squash! Whoo hoo!! The seed coats make me think they're some kind of C. pepo. They're small enough to be zucchini. Maybe I'll get lucky :)

I felt badly for the young, would-be gardeners. The girl said this was their first try at growing anything, and they were having to move unexpectedly. Everything but the carrots was in plastic juice containers with about 1" of soil. The squash were especially desperate for more room. It would have been easier for the couple simply to pitch their babies into the garbage. Instead, they carried them around the neighborhood, looking for a home for them. How very nice. I felt I couldn't do any less for them. All but one pot of squash and the tomato seedlings has a home now, either tucked into my garden or someone else's garden.

Hooray for squash planting time!!!!!! If you guys are anything like me... the rest of the garden I planted is merely to disguise my squashaholism and give me something to do whilst I wait for my delicious vice to grow and ripen! :D

This year... I am growing:

Giant Blue Hubbard
Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato
Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin (round)
Musquee De Provence

Woohoo!! Who's next??

I moved to a new place this winter. It was owned by a master gardener. How lucky can I get! I've had to really work on the garden areas, no one has lived there in a few years. I love to "do" gourds, and I've got them planted anywhere I could scratch up a little dirt. Would you believe the little bitty gourds I planted under a massive pine tree are going to town! I have Bushel gourds, birdhouse, and the kind you can make bowls with lids, and the little ones. I have lots of seed left over, if anyone wants any.

In the ground right now I have:
Ravin Zucchini
Genovese Zucchini
Early Crookneck Squash
Zephyr Squash
Peter Pan Squash
Cousa

Tromboncino

Fairy Pumpkin
Uncle David's Dakota Squash
Candy Roaster Squash
Large Pink Banana Squash
Black Futsa Squash
PA Dutch Crookneck Squash

I think I might be forgetting one or two, but that's the majority!

"Squashaholism" - Great descriptor Howden. Another vote for WBPP. I couldn't resist any longer and just added it to my wish list for next year :)

Moving into a master gardener's former garden is lucky indeed Janet. Great gourd list. I hope to try again next year with good seeds.

It sounds like Booberry is another squashaholic :) Black Futsu is another I'd really like to grow next year. Is it a repeat in your garden?

I just realized I have 4 unused spaces and another 4-6' of a row in the garden. Gasp! How can that be? It's already getting late in the season to try anything that takes very long. I think I might plant a few Yellow scallop seeds in one space and try some Fordhook seeds again in another.

I've never grown Black Futsa before. Last year my squashes & pumpkins were a bust. The first year ever I had trouble growing them. So I'm hoping things turn out a lot better this year. I moved the patch to higher ground, added some more amendments to my soil and am hopefully moving onward & upward. This is the most different types of squashes I've ever grown in one year. Usually I pick three summer squashes & three winter squashes to grow and that's it. I just have too many varieties I've wanted to try. So I had to make room for more!

Can you tell me more about the Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin? I know I've seen that name before but don't know anything about it.

So many squashes, so little space! LOL!

So many squashes, so little space!

That pretty much sums it up :)

I believe George/macmex is the WBPP expert. From reading his description of them, they sound awesome. We might not get enough heat here for them to do well. Waltham butternut gave us a couple tasty-but-miniature fruits last year. I'd like to try WBPP one day, though, to see if they fare better.

Below is a link to one of George's discussions about the round version.

Here's to better luck this year with your new squash beds!

Here is a link that might be useful: Warsaw Round

It has begun! Aside from Zuch production, I've been watching my squashes for the first signs of babies. Eureka! I have female flowers on my Metro (mini butternut from Johnny's) plant. Of course, I probably missed my opportunity to hand polinate, because I've been out of town for the last few days, but surely the gold rush has just begun. Oooh I hope I get some good squash pollination...I hope, I hope!

How's it going for everyone else? Any babies sited near you?
In anticipation,
Susan

Sounds like you're on a roll Susan!

The first blossom opened yesterday, a male blossom on Sweet Dumpling. Melonette Jaspee Vendee opened a male blossom this morning; and it appears Jack Be Little plans to open a female blossom tomorrow (and no male blossom).

The cucumbers started blooming a couple days ago, and there were several open male cantaloupe blossoms this morning, too.

A lot of things weren't up at this time last year. Here's hoping we don't get a late frost or ping-pong ball-sized hail!

Remember this? Remember this post? When we were dreaming of squash early in the season? How has everyone faired so far. I myself had big dreams. Dreams of a squash cabinet like the one in the link below. Alas, there will be no squash cabinet for me...

Summer Squash:
Cocozelle Zucchini - These did ok, got a few zuchs made some choc zuch bread, can't complain. Died SVB Aug 1
Cavelli Zucchini - These did ok once I realized that the no pollination required thing was crap and hand pollinated. Died SVB Aug 1
Zephr squash These got off to a slow start then SVB did early damage and I only ever got 1 misshapen squash off of 2 plants.
Tromboncino Zucchini Got 1 so far...Tried to leave it to form Winter Squash for the dream cabinet. Husband harvested the "biggest zucchini he ever saw". sigh Still alive, dare I hope for another?

Winter Squash:

Red Kuri 4 plants RIP SVB
N. Georgia Candy Roasters 2 plants RIP SVB
Waltham Butternut 2 plants RIP SVB
Metro Butternut 2 plants one perished as a seedling. The second has one baby sized butternut growing but the plant is on it's very last leg, Powdery Mildew and maybe other disease.
Long Island Cheese Never germinated despite several attempts
Sweet Meat Mysteriously died mid June
Marina di chioggia Still alive! Survived SVB round 1. No Female flowers yet. Not much hope.

3 different cucumbers Only 1 of 4 plants thrived. Rocky - a mini slicer, no pollination needed. It was a marvel and many cucs were loved by all.
4 different melons. ONE! One melon formed and grew...and split! Darn it and other curses! Then Powdery Mildew struck and things looked grim for our melon outlook But wait! Another has formed! Will it survive to be eaten? Doesn't look good, but maybe if you believe! Clap your hands if you believe! (it's a tinkerbell reference)

Dreaming of a miracle and next year's squash cabinet,
Susan

P.S. Do fairies eat SVB?

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash Cabinet!

Acorn (Table Queen) - KIA early July by SVB

Delicata (Organic Honey Boat)- not very prolific, 1 or 2 per plant so far.

Jack-Be-Little - about a dozen from 2 plants so far.

Next Years Plan

Burgess Buttercup
Festival or Carnival
Jack-Be-Little x Delicata F1 out of curiosity.

My gourd garden is doing great. The vines have started climbing up the house and DH does not like it, but im not moving them. Just about every seed I planted grew. I look at them everyday and I already know what I am going to make out of some of them. I have a great big bushel gourd that I am going to turn into a table.

I'm already making plans for the garden for next year. I told my DH I need more room for next year. So guess he will have to till up more of the land. We have plenty of space to plant becuase we live way out in the country and have 3 extra lots that we're not using right now. Imagine the possibilities.

Well... I ended up not planting the Rouge vif detemps... or the Thelma Sanders once I realized how much space my giant hubbards needed. Four out of four seeds sprouted for the blue hubbards which I thinned to the two most robust seedlings at the 4 true leaves stage. Both plants are about twelve feet long with tons of blooms. One predominantly female and one predominantly male. Go figure... As for the WBPP... only one out of four seeds sprouted, but I think that was due to a particularly hot day that cooked the three that were a little slower sprouting. I planted the hills the first weekend of June, and my first hubbard fruit was set last Friday. It is already about the size of a nerf football. The WBPP had its first female flower starting to swell last week, but alas, I am out of town for work for three weeks... UGH! I can't wait to see what I find when I get back! I hooked up a timer to my soaker hoses to water for an hour every other day. We have had a record number of 100 degree plus days this year. Normally it only gets that hot for a week or two in August here. It has been over 90 degrees most of the Summer. The midday wilt has been depressing... but not debilitating. :D

Susancol - I am so sad to hear of your hard luck this year. I am sure it has been quite disappointing. Better luck next season!!

Does anyone know how many hubbards I can expect / should allow per plant? These seeds are from the Seed Savers Exchange and the description said 40+ lb. fruit. I can't imagine there being more than one or two per vine if they are that big. But, I could be wrong!!

ps - the hubbard vines are growing about 10 to 12 inches a day it seems. Is this normal? I have only seen Dill's Atlantic Giant grow that fast...

Poor Susan! What nasty critters. I read somewhere that SVB's range ends at the Continental Divide. We're 40-50 miles on the wrong side of that line, so I suppose the stinkers will come calling one day.

It sounds like Brewguy's Jack Be Littles and Rodent's gourds are winners this year. Hopefully a truck load of Hubbards and WBPPs will welcome Howden back. I think the plants will only keep as many fruits as they can support. I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't expect more than 1 or 2, possibly 3 at the outside, per vine. I don't know about growth of the vine per day either. A fellow at work had his pumpkins try to lock him out of the house, though. Apparently they were sitting harmlessly on the ground when he left in the morning, but by afternoon, the vine had reached up and grabbed hold of the door knob.

My own squash season has had a blend of moderate success and utter failure.

Fordhook zucchini I did end up direct seeding a hill of these. The female blossoms are just now starting to appear.
NOID gold zucchini These have been producing pretty well this year. They have that virus that turns yellow squash green. I can't remember what it's called, but the plants keep on producing.
"Neighbor's NOID" These guys are just starting to show female blossoms. They do indeed look to be some sort of zucchini.
Patisson Strie Melange scallop This one is a favorite at work. My friend says it looks like something from Disneyland :)
Yellow Scallop I directed seeded a few of these at the same time as Fordhook. It's quite a ways behind, but it's also not in as good of a spot. More competition, too.

Boston Marrow I'm embarrassed to say how many of these poor guys (girls, actually) I snapped off by accident when I was hand pollinating. Here's one of the survivors of my tender mercies.

Buttercup These guys aborted fruit after fruit after fruit. I vaguely remember it doing that last year, too. It's finally decided to stop that.

"Faux Buttercup"This plant came from the same seed packet as the Buttercup above. The seeds were from a trade, but the packet was commercial (American Seed Company) and appeared to be sealed. The packet had a whole 3 seeds in it. Two became vining Buttercup. The third is a semi-bush plant with a different type of fruit. Although FB was a little slower about producing female flowers than Buttercup was, since this plant didn't fool around with aborting its fruits the way Buttercup did, FB set fruit a couple weeks earlier than Buttercup. Also, the single vine several times had two and three female blossoms open on the same day. It couldn't support them all. Maybe if it had had a little better spot.

Rouge Vif d'Etamps These seeds came from a trade, and I'm pretty sure they aren't Rouge. The vines have yet to produce a female flower.

Crown This guy was a little slower to produce a female flower, but, when it did, the fruit grew quickly to what's probably the mature size.

Gold Nugget Did not germinate.

Hubbard, Blue Seed from a trade. Two different types of fruit. Although I hand pollinated, I have to assume the "pure" seed will have a mix of green and blue since I didn't note if I used a self male or a male from a different Hubbard vine.

Jarrahdale This guy took off like it was going to do great things. The two or three vines have gone up and down three or four rows of peppers, beans, cucumbers etc. and escaped to the alley a couple weeks ago as well. Alas. For all the vines and foliage, there are only two fruits. Furthermore, the second fruit looks like it's going soft. I may have given the hill an extra drink of fertilizer by mistake.

Sweet Meat As with Crown, these took a little longer to show female blossoms, but the fruit grew really quickly. It's hard to judge the relative sizes from the pics. I should have used something for scale. Anyway, the Sweet Meats are probably 12" in diameter.

Cheese-type (possibly Long Island) Yet another seed trade and probably either crossed seed or something else completely. Pretty late setting fruit. It's also up in a tomato cage. I might have to rig a sling for this one.

Delicata Has been shy about setting fruit this year. One plant set these two fruits right away. Then something happened, and the other two vines aborted their fruits and haven't set any others.

Gill's Golden Pippen This guy has been gratifying to grow. It seemed to want to go vertical, so I gave the vines some tomato spirals to climb. I didn't think about what would happen when they (quickly) reached the top. Now the vines are happily running across the top of the pea trellis. If I had a dead tree or something like that, this variety would be the ideal decoration for it. Maybe next year I'll plant it next to the old TV antennae. Wonder how high it would grow ...

Jack Be Little This guy has been fun to grow as well. I guess they're edible. We'll find out :)

Melonette Jaspee Vendee What a disappointment! I noted male blossoms on June 25. Female blossom after blossom shriveled once they reached marble size or so. Probably nearly a couple dozen. I noticed this one made it to the blooming stage a few days ago. Hopefully it will stick, and we'll at least get to try it.

Spaghetti Two of the three vines I accidentally roasted recovered. One is better than the other and has a two or three fruits. The other only has one fruit.

Sweet Dumpling More traded seed. These don't look the way I expected. The vines haven't been very productive either.

Winter Luxury Pie These were pretty quick to produce female flowers - and lots of them - but only a few set on. The more I write that, the more I'm thinking the problem is with the grower :) I'll have to do some studying and see if I can do better next year.

"Magic Red" (received in trade from a member who bought the squash from a roadside stand) The seeds germinated poorly, and the single plant that survived hasn't been very vigorous. It produced its first female flower quite late and couldn't keep it. It's since produced two more female flowers, but the fruits don't appear to have grown. Don't think this is a repeat.

Crown of Thorns gourd Didn't germinate.

Any more reports?

How great!! I love the photos! I will try to post some of mine once I return. I too hope for a truckload! haha Anyone else have photos? Let's see 'em!

Well, here's a fuzzy pic of how our basement stairs looked after I brought in the squash last weekend. There are some "crossed-up weirdnesses" there, too (especially the ones next to the wall on the bottom two steps), that were supposed to be a cheese type. There were five vines in total between what I kept and what I put in my cousin's garden. Two vines produced buff/tan cheese-type fruits, while three vines produced either rounded or upright, deep green fruits. I cut and cooked a "weirdness" and a Gill's Golden Pippen this past week. 'Looking forward to trying the rest out this winter, deciding what to repeat and, of course, deciding what brand-new-to-me variety to try :)

This was a really fun year of experimentation for us. I'm already excited at planning for next year.
Summer
yellow crookneck
zucchini
golden zucchini
goldbar
eight ball
one ball
three colors patty pan
greyzini
goldrush

pumpkins
lil pumpkimon
howden field
connecticut field
big max
smoothie
spookie
small sugar
cinderella
peanut
red eye

Winter squash
buttercup
Waltham butternut
table ace acorn
cream of the crop
carnival
lakota
blue hubbard
red hubbard
boston marrow
pink banana
long island cheese
tahitian butternut
spaghetti
futsu black
jarradale
hokkori
Australian butter
delicata
kabocha
sweet dumpling
green striped cushaw
tetsukabuto

gourds
small and large assorted
apple
snake
blister
dipper
penguin
koshare
goblin eggs

What a fantastic list Brook! Those ought to make your market happy. How was your squash harvest this year? It seems the last I read, you were going to start a business building arks instead of raising vegetables.

I'm afraid the most varieties I'll be able to squeeze in next year will be 19 (only one hill of each). My wish list needs paring down. I see there are already 17 varieties on it, and that's just from the first catalog. I should have seeds for Boston Marrow, Spaghetti and Jarrahdale if you haven't already placed your order. Some kind of blue hubbard, too, though there was some variability in the fruits. I was pretty pleased with its productivity, though. I think the largest fruit was a little more than 22 lbs. Oh, Jack Be Little, as well, it that guy interests you.

I had planted enough, I thought, to be selling into January but ran out a month ago. It was definitely a challenging year. Everything worked against us: floods, weeds, heat, stink bugs, and, ironically, a fall drought. Still, after replanting three times, I can't complain about the harvest.
Many squashes had cosmetic and keeping issues, but it was very satisfying to walk the fields and inspect all the weird and unusual things growing there. I did learn not to plant so many gourds. I've probably got 20 bushels of them left over. I've really enjoyed sampling so many different squash varieties and plan on adding a dozen or so new ones for next year. One added benefit to a large squash and pumpkin patch was the blossoms. We sold almost $1,000 of them alone.

Brook

Hey, guys! Update (late)...

Well, the Blue Hubbards were a total flop. Not sure what went wrong. Might have been the heat and drought... even though I had a soaker hose and timer set up. The vines were thick and beautiful, but the fruits kept aborting left and right. Of the two that actually colored up, one went soft within a week, and the other one got holes eaten into the bottom by some roly poly bugs.

HOWEVER... the WBPP round was surpassingly and unbelievably productive. Once the Hubbards collapsed and died out in mid August, the WBPP went nuts! From the ONE vine, I harvested over 20 fruits weighing an average of about 5 or 6 pounds each. The vine just took off and covered the entire 12' x 17' bed I had it in, sprawled out into the grass and into the next bed - up, over, and through the chainlink fence! I still have 6 of the fruits sitting in my living room and I am wondering what to do with them. HA! This year I will be trying some new varieties, but definitely saving some of these seeds for future cornucopias!

WOW Mrs. B! Squash STAIRS are just as good as a squash cabinet. Soooo jealous!

Susan