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Post by freeholder on Jan 18, 2014 22:40:04 GMT -5
Anyone have any ideas on this? I'm working on calorie crops for our area -- I know potatoes, beets, carrots, etc., grow well here. Potatoes are a commercial crop, in fact. But I really like the flavor of either sweet potatoes or winter squash, and neither of them is cold-hardy. We have a very short growing season with cool to cold nights all summer, and can have frost in any month of the year. At a little lower elevation, closer to Klamath Falls, a friend says Sweet Meat has usually done best for her, and I have some seeds of Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat from Carol Deppe, as well as another squash she sells (I'd have to go dig through my seed drawer to tell you which one it is).
If I was to try to start a land-race to select for our climate, what would the squash-growers here suggest starting with?
Kathleen
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 19, 2014 1:11:12 GMT -5
None of the winter squash are very frost tolerant. I generally start planting pepos a couple of weeks before our final spring frosts. The pepos have an advantage in cooler climates in that they tend to be shorter season. I really dislike the taste of pepo winter squash, but if it was all I could grow then I would suffer through. Maximas have been the next most productive species for me. Sweet meat is as early as they come. (Generally smaller fruits are earlier to ripen.) Butternuts really struggled when I first started growing them. Lagenaria barely survive for me. I have only got one mixta squash in 5 years of trying.
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Post by hortusbrambonii on Jan 19, 2014 9:36:11 GMT -5
I think C. ficifolia is also quite frost-hardy for a Cucurbita, not?
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Post by freeholder on Jan 21, 2014 20:57:57 GMT -5
Thanks -- it sounds like I'd best work with what I've got. Joseph, I have had really good pepo winter squash, but they have to be picked at the right time (not too early, as much of the squash at the store has been), and then they don't usually keep all that well. I'm going to save the pepo's for my summer squash, though.
Kathleen
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Post by freeholder on Jan 21, 2014 21:14:54 GMT -5
I think C. ficifolia is also quite frost-hardy for a Cucurbita, not? I had to look that one up! The description I found said that established plants can withstand short light frosts, but it looks like it has much too long of a season to be useful here. Thanks, though -- I enjoy learning about new plants even if we can't use them here. Kathleen
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Post by catanache on Jan 21, 2014 21:48:15 GMT -5
Sand Hill lists German as having a shorter maturity than Sweet Meat. I have a few seeds I can spare, message me if you'd like them. I haven't actually grown it yet, does anyone else have experience with this one?
German winter squash - 87 days (C. maxima) Block shaped, pink skin with slight ribs, very productive plants. Fruit weighs 10 to 15 pounds. Flesh is 1.5" thick.
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Post by trixtrax on Jan 22, 2014 0:17:57 GMT -5
None are very cold tolerant, your best bet would be choosing one that is early maturing. A good early maturing maxima is Buttercup. Peace seeds has a really nice selection of this that I grew last year.
Now, I suppose if we could subject some squash grex seedlings to a minimum temperature threshold, planting out the hardiest... After repeating several times I bet we would make improvements in this area!
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Post by canadamike on Jan 25, 2014 20:34:17 GMT -5
Genetics for squashes are not that great for frost or super cold resistance. We have to work a bit to help. Seaweed will help a lot by having its auxins increase the thickness of the cell walls, hence rigidity and resistance to frost, but of course only to a minimal degree. The combination of thicker cell walls with triacanthanol, a powerful growth hormone that is also a fatty alcool and protect plants against cold and, also to a minimla extent, frost...
We all know that squashes will not survive minus 5 but around 32 F, triacontanol and auxins will help a lot. For triacontanol, just get alfalfa meal... a couple of shovelfuls per plant will also give the hell of a boost to production. BTW, if your lawn is suffering in the summer,start in the spring with alfalfa meal.
Here, I used to write in a local newspaper while I was living in Ontario. I started the thing 5 years ago, and they are selling tons, litterally, of alfalfa meal for lawns. You get the first green lawn in the spring and the last one green in December, still green while other lawns are brown...
I had fun a few years ago, I made drawing with alfalfa meal on my neighbour's grass, he was laughing at me with my alfalfa...
He spent the fall mowing like an idiot because, amongst other things, one of the drawings beside the smileys was a word...IDIOT...lol
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Post by freeholder on Jan 29, 2014 18:13:51 GMT -5
I feed alfalfa hay to my goats, and they waste a lot. I could mulch the squash patch with wasted hay.
The problem here is the same thing Joseph faces -- cold nights, which can include frost, even in the middle of the summer. I could grow bush squash under cover. I could build a big greenhouse (one of my friends has a big glass greenhouse her husband built out of patio door panels -- it's beautiful). But IF we are going to grow stuff here, it needs to do well without a lot of help that we might not always be able to give it. I think the best thing to do will be to plant lots of seeds and select what grows best. Just wish I had more garden space.
Kathleen
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Post by jondear on Mar 12, 2014 10:28:36 GMT -5
Grin lists golden cooker as a cold tolerant maxima. Has anybody here tried it?
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