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Post by castanea on Oct 21, 2015 19:23:40 GMT -5
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Post by flowerweaver on Oct 21, 2015 22:01:29 GMT -5
I grew them last year and unfortunately they did not survive the tornado. Good luck with yours.
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Post by maicerochico on Oct 22, 2015 18:56:04 GMT -5
Castanea, when did you plant them? Can you give any heat unit and / or plant size information? I had actually considered buying some seed myself but didn't know when they bloom.
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Post by castanea on Oct 22, 2015 22:12:43 GMT -5
I think I planted them in mid May. The plants seem small compared to the Zapallo Macre I have been growing but in truth they are very rampant growers and have climbed 3 or 4 trees. They seem to be an even longer season squash than the Macres. It took them a few weeks longer than the Macres to start setting fruit. I did not track heat units but we had shit-loads of heat units this year, with many, many days over 100.
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Post by steev on Oct 23, 2015 2:55:42 GMT -5
Actually, in terms of heat units, if my farm is any measure, I suspect you've gotten less than normal.
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Post by maicerochico on Oct 24, 2015 10:09:53 GMT -5
That sounds about right for a squash from the deep tropics. It's my understanding that Cucurbita has two different flowering schemes:
- obligate short day, where flowers don't appear until after the autumnal equinox or thereabout. In my experience, C. ficifolia has this response.
- facultative short day, where flowers will appear under long days, but the plant produces additional nodes before blooming. This is what yields a huge 25 foot vine having flowers on only the newest 8 feet. With this type, long days + hot temperatures also raise the male:female flower ratio, so, when blooming does finally begin, you'll get tons of males but few females. This paragraph describes Seminole squash to a T.
Short-season varieties like Waltham Butternut and most C. pepo strains are of the facultative type, but their daylength response is so weak as to appear non-existent.
I'd like to hear others' opinions on this subject.
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Post by castanea on Oct 26, 2015 9:03:25 GMT -5
Actually, in terms of heat units, if my farm is any measure, I suspect you've gotten less than normal. We have gotten way over normal. We have a weather station in our neighborhood. We are typically much warmer than the rest of Sacramento county in the summer and much colder in the winter. When Sacramento hit 100 we were typically at 105-108 this summer. One of the easiest ways to tell our heat units is by when chestnuts ripen. This was the earliest year in the last 25 years which also likely means it was the hottest year in the last 25. We had more 100+ degree days than we have ever had. On top of that we had minimal night time cooling from the Delta breeze. |
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Post by castanea on Oct 30, 2015 19:48:58 GMT -5
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Post by raymondo on Oct 30, 2015 23:06:54 GMT -5
Is it a naked seeded moschata?
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Post by flowerweaver on Oct 30, 2015 23:12:06 GMT -5
Looks delicious!
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Post by reed on Oct 31, 2015 6:02:24 GMT -5
Actually, in terms of heat units, if my farm is any measure, I suspect you've gotten less than normal. We have gotten way over normal. We have a weather station in our neighborhood. We are typically much warmer than the rest of Sacramento county in the summer and much colder in the winter. When Sacramento hit 100 we were typically at 105-108 this summer. One of the easiest ways to tell our heat units is by when chestnuts ripen. This was the earliest year in the last 25 years which also likely means it was the hottest year in the last 25. We had more 100+ degree days than we have ever had. On top of that we had minimal night time cooling from the Delta breeze.That makes me think. I did some research on GDD for my area and it showed an almost 30% increase between (average 1971 - 2000) and (average 2010 - 2015). I couldn't believe that and have been meaning to go back and see what I did wrong. Now I wonder, since the formula adjusts < 50 to 50 and > 86 to 86, record temps don't count. Maybe it's a non-noticeable, general increase that matters. Lows for example of 65 instead of 62 or highs of 84 instead of 80 might add up to that increase. |
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Post by castanea on Oct 31, 2015 11:17:47 GMT -5
Is it a naked seeded moschata? Not quite, but the shell is very minimal. |
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Post by castanea on Oct 31, 2015 11:18:49 GMT -5
Unfortunately it was tasteless. It could probably use some curing, but even with curing this is clearly not going to be a great eating squash. |
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Post by raymondo on Oct 31, 2015 16:02:17 GMT -5
Disappointing. Looked so promising.
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Post by castanea on Oct 31, 2015 23:11:16 GMT -5
Both of my two large winter squash were disappointing. I didn't post about my two new summer squash but they were also disappointing this year.
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