It is not easy to grow squash or pumpkins in Ireland.
Or it is fairly easy to grow the plants, but to get squash at the end of the season that are
fairly mature, and ripe enough so that they taste like they should, and that have developed tough
enough skins so that they are able to store for long periods over the winter, that is not so easy.
The main issue is our cool maritime climate, with not enough warmth in
the summer to allow these plants to grow fast enough, with a fair amount of wind,
and frosts at either end of the season to limit the length of time the plants have in the gardens.
I have been growing one hybrid variety of squash called Crown Prince for quite a few years,
and it generally produces a heavy crop of really delicious squash, at least
with the fruit that has had a chance to ripen. But there are so many different types of squash
and pumpkins out there, with such diverse tastes, sizes and possible uses in the kitchen, and I have
wanted to find some other varieties to grow. So this past year we finally got put in the
effort to grow a wide range of different squash and pumpkin varieties, as the
first big step of finding other varieties that will produce well in this context.
I have wanted to do a proper variety trial for a while, and have been collecting seeds
for a wide range of different varieties, but it was only this season that I felt
we had the capacity and the space to grow so many of these large plants.
We ended up growing one plant each of 27 different varieties, with about half of them in the space
between two older polytunnels, and the other half in undeveloped ground in the Black Plot.
In both cases we spread a fair amount of concentrated fertility on the ground to
hopefully provide these hungry plants with enough food to grow well, and used 2 sheets of ground
cover fabric to cover the ground and any existing vegetation, and planted the squash and pumpkin
transplants in the gap between the two sheets. The growing conditions and soil fertility in both
locations could have been better, and I didn’t set up adequate watering systems to be able to
supply these plants with enough water to really thrive during the dry periods that we did have.
But this offered the opportunity to see how these different varieties of squash and pumpkins
would do in these less than ideal conditions, which is often the case in so many gardens.
And we had quite a good growing season, with not too much water stress,
and a bit warmer weather than usual, despite the few cold periods earlier in the summer.
And it was amazing to see such diversity in the colours, sizes and shapes of the squash
as they developed, often hidden among the vigorous vines and large leaves.
And in the autumn, when the plants died back,
the abundance of some varieties, and the poor results of others became really apparent.
The diverse range of squash plants that we grew, which include what many people
would normally call pumpkins, are actually from three different species of plants.
One of the more common ones, the Cucurbita pepo, includes summer squash like courgettes
or zucchini, and it also includes the acorn types of winter squash of which we grew 5
different varieties as part of this trial The Table Queen variety is a fairly typical
type of acorn squash, and the one plant we grew produced a reasonable number of fruit,
but only two of them seemed to ripen with darker colour and characteristic orange patch.
And cutting one of the darker ones open, the inside seemed reasonably ripe, with mature seeds,
but I doubt the rest of them will ripen any more, and one of the squash has already rotten.
Another hybrid acorn variety called Tuffy produced a lot more squash,
that were considerably smaller, about half the size the variety is supposed to produce,
but they do seem to have ripened at least. Another two acorn type varieties called Harlequin
and Festival are also both hybrids with really beautiful and decorative colours, and both of
them seemed to have ripened well, though not a lot of squash was produced on either of the plants.
The open pollinated Sweet Dumpling plant produced a few more smaller fruit, that are partially
acorn shaped, but also were flatter on the bottom. And these squash also seem to be reasonably ripe,
with similar colour flesh inside, and very decorative colouring outside.
These types of squash are generally known store for a long time, if they can actually ripen,
and their smaller size can make them more convenient for some uses in the kitchen.
But none of them were very productive, at least in the context of this trial,
with the variety that produced the heaviest crop of squash, also didn’t ripen very well.
Some of the more decorative varieties seem to have been faster growing,
with more mature squash, and I wonder if in different conditions,
and probably more fertile soil, they would have been much more productive.
There are a range of other types of pepo squashes that we grew, and one, the Delicata variety,
we grew as part of a larger planting the Simple Garden, rather than in this side by side trial.
And these 4 plants produced a huge number of squash, with a significantly higher yield,
most likely due in part to the better soil fertility in this garden.
Unfortunately the seeds that I bought in from this variety had been cross pollinated,
and each of the 4 plants produced a significantly different type of squash,
and I don’t know if any of them are true to the variety type.
But they definitely show the possible high yield of these types of squash plants.
The Spaghetti Squash plant in the variety trial is also a pepo type and produced a reasonable yield,
but a few of the squash failed to ripen, and one of them has already rotted.
We also grew a Jack o’Lantern variety, which was disappointing, producing only
3 small to moderate sized pumpkins for Halloween. The hybrid Fairy variety produced a decent yield
of fairly large squash, with a bright orange flesh inside, and the seeds seemed reasonably developed.
But I am not sure if they have been able to ripen fully, as there is still a band of green and
yellow under the skin, which I generally feel is a sign that they are not as ripe as they could be.
The Rondini variety produced a lot of very small squash, with really tough skin,
and they seem to be fairly ripe, but the overall yield from this one plant was quite low
I haven’t done a proper taste test of these other pepo types yet,
but going by the yield and apparent ripeness, I think the Fairy F1 variety seems promising,
and I want to grow the Delicata variety again,
but I am not sure I am interested in the other three, at least based on this one trial.
Another 15 of the varieties that we grew this year come from the Cucurbita maxima species of plants,
which I would divide into two general groups, the smaller fruited Japanese
types of squash, and plants that produce significantly larger squash or pumpkins.
We grew 4 very similar red skinned Japanese squash, which were all fairly similar size
and shape, with thinner flesh and a fairly large seed cavity inside.
There were subtle differences between the Uchiki Kuri, the Solor,
the Fictor, and the Orange Hokkaido varieties,
but I am not familiar with them enough to to be able to tell one from the other.
The two Green Kuri and Green Hokkaido varieties had a darker green skin, but the inside were
fairly similar to the orange varieties. In one small taste test that we did,
these six squash were all very tasty with fairly subtle differences, and I wonder how
much this these differences might be due to how ripe the different squash that we sampled were.
There are two grey skinned varieties that I would include in this group, and the Blue
Ballet plant only produced one small squash, which was the lowest yield of the whole trial.
The Blue Kuri variety grew more, but the one we cut opened didn’t seem as
ripe as the other squash in this set, with the characteristic green band just under the skin.
The weight of each of the squash produced by these Japanese types was between half a kilo and 2kg,
which makes them quite useful in the kitchen, where a whole squash can be used at one time.
Another dark skinned hybrid variety we grew was called Kabocha, which seemed to produce
similar types of squash though a bit larger, with some of them between two and three kilograms,
though unfortunately they didn’t seem fully ripe. The total weight of squash produced by each
of these 9 plants was in the same low range as the acorn types, with the Orange
Hokkaido and Blue Kiri better than the rest. But I would hope to get a lot more out of
these types of squash plants in future trials, before selecting any of them to really rely on,
especially considering how much space these types of plants can take up.
With the other set of maxima varieties, the squash or pumpkins were quite a bit bigger,
generally between 3 and 8 kilogram, with one variety producing even bigger pumpkins.
The Crown Prince hybrid variety, which I have grown in the gardens for quite a few years,
produced 7 squash on the one plant in this trial, with an average weight of about 4kg.
This is a big yield from one plant of a variety that I have come to rely on,
with a light grey skin and thick orange flesh inside that I really like the taste of.
But these squash don’t always ripen, including the one from this plant that I cut open,
with the lighter orange changing to green underneath the skin.
I have found that if the colour of the flesh its deeper and this green band is thinner, the squash
tastes more flavourful and creamier, and they also seem to store for longer, so it is a key
thing that I look out for with this type squash. And I think it is probably the same with a
lot of the other squash varieties. The variety called Hungarian Blue
produced one squash that was already starting to rot, another that was obviously immature,
and it looks like the other two squash would have needed quit a bit more time or heat to ripen.
The Turk’s Turban squash also seemed to be quite unripe with pale flesh and soft seeds, and the
Marina di Chioggia variety seemed to be a bit more ripe with dark flesh but the green band was still
reasonably pronounced, and both of them produced considerably less than the Crown Prince variety.
But the Rouge vif d'Etampes squash seemed to be the most mature out of this set of larger
squash or pumpkin varieties, at least based on the one squash that I cut open.
The colour of the flesh was quite dark and consistent, especially just under the skin,
and the seeds seemed to be fully developed But it is hard to tell as I don’t really
know what any of these squash look like when they have had the time and heat to become fully mature.
The largest squash or pumpkin of the whole trial came from a plant called Gele Centenaar,
which grew one pumpkin that weighed over 15kg and another over 23kg, which is the
biggest variety that I have ever grown. Cutting a chunk out of one of the pumpkins
revealed a fairly thick orange flesh that seemed ripe, and seeds with a hard shell,
but I am not sure what I would do with such a huge pumpkin, and I wonder how long it would store.
But it was by far the biggest weight of harvest from any of the plants in this trial,
followed by my standard Crown Prince variety,
and of the other 4 varieties it seems the Rouge vif d'Etampes shows the most promise.
The third type of squash and pumpkins that we grew were from the Cucrubita
moschata species of plants, which seems to have a lot fewer varieties available.
The most common type from this species is probably the butternut squash,
of which we grew 2 different varieties. The fairly common Butternut Waltham plant
produced only 5 relatively small squash, which still had a green tint to the skin
and did not seem ripe at all. And the hybrid Hunter variety,
had even smaller number and size of squash, which were perhaps a bit more ripe.
These are both really disappointing, for such a popular type of squash, especially with the
more expensive hybrid seeds for the Hunter variety that was apparently bred for growing in the more
temperate climates of this part of the world. The Futsu Black is quite a different squash
compared to the butternut types, and this variety was also quite low yielding,
with 5 interesting looking squash. But the Muscade de Provence was quite
remarkable, with 3 large pumpkins that had a really thick, intense orange flesh inside,
but apparently the skin is supposed to turn from a dark green to ochre or yellowish brown when ripe.
So despite the significant yield with one pumpkin weighing almost 12 kg,
it seems this variety will need a fair amount more warmth in the growing season to properly mature.
The purpose of this trial was to start to find varieties of squash and pumpkins that will
provide different sizes, shapes and tastes, to compliment the main variety that we already grow.
And more importantly they need to be able to produce a reasonable crop
of fully mature squash in the relatively cool seasons that we have here in Ireland.
It was really interesting to see that the Crown Prince hybrid variety that I selected
quite a few years ago produced the highest yield out of all the plants in this trial,
apart from the giant Gele Centenaar. I am still interested in trying the
Delicata variety, assuming I can get different seed that have not been cross pollinated.
It would be nice if I could get one of the acorn types to produce a greater number of squash.
And I also really like the size and taste of most of the Japanese types, and I wonder
if they would naturally be less vigorous, and will benefit from much better soil fertility.
And the Fairy F1 hybrid seems like it could be quite a good medium size squash,
though I don’t know if it offers anything significantly different than
the Crown Prince variety that we already grow. I think the large Rouge vif d'Etampes and Muscade
de Provence varieties are really interesting, and definitely worth trying to grow again,
with hopefully better conditions. I am not sure about the rest of them,
as in different conditions they might produce a lot better, and I am interested in growing a
lot of them, plus perhaps a few more, in one of the polytunnels next year.
I will be keeping quite a few of the squash that we grew to see how long they might store,
and the taste is also another key factor, and how the different types can be used in the kitchen,
which we have only just begun to explore. And with so many of these squash and pumpkins
not seeming to mature properly, I am unlikely to really know what they are supposed to taste like.
But in the end, if a variety can’t produce a reasonable crop of ripe and tasty squash
or pumpkins in this climate, ideally that will store well, then it’s not really worth growing,
even if it might produce an excellent squash crop in some other context.