best-keeping ‘butternut:’ my squash adventure

With copper-colored wings and an emerald head, the Japanese beetle is pretty, but devastating.

All varieties of squash will cross pollinate with each other, resulting in some unusual squash varieties. They are also intentionally bred in an effort to produce squash with unique traits. Some of the weird squash varieties that result may be found on the dinner table or may simply end up as interesting yard art.

Growing Squash Vertically is the best way to improve the yeild while saving plenty of space! Let’s have a look at how to do it easily!

Squash is native to the Americas; remains have been found in Central America and Mexico dating back as far as 7000 BC.

Like most home vegetable gardeners, I have fought squash vine borers for years. These frustrating pests of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) often knock out yellow squash and zucchini in my Upstate garden by the end of June. My colleague Terasa Lott shared some great tips on dealing with them in her June 3, 2019 hot topic, Watch Out for Squash Vine Borers. I’ve tried most of the techniques with variable success, but it’s a lot of work and I usually just give up. But this year I decided to try something different, ‘Tromboncino’ squash.

With all those mums and pumpkins at garden centers and farmers markets, how can we select the best and make them last?

1 butternut squash 2 tablespoons of butter 2 teaspoons brown sugar Dash of salt

I don’t know about you, but I love a product that can be used in a variety of ways and has staying power, especially in the home and kitchen. I recently discovered fall/winter squash and the varieties and versatility that they provide. I knew about the typical winter squash that you see in the grocery store like Acorn, Butternut, Spaghetti, Pumpkins, and decorative gourds, but have been introduced to other varieties like Honey Nut, Kabocha, Carnival, Turban, Banana, Red Kuri, Sweet Dumpling, and Buttercup.

You may like to “put de lime in de coconut” or “pina coladas in the rain”, but these two products (pictured below), while both made from the flesh of the coconut, are NOT the same.

Cucurbita pepo. Vegetable Squash, Noodle Squash, Vegetable Spaghetti, Mandarin Squash, Vegetable Marrow, or, as most people commonly call it: Spaghetti Squash. Have you ever heard of it? Did you know that there was a vegetable, much less a squash, that naturally could take the shape of a noodle without being spiralized? Have you ever cut or cooked one? Did you cook it first, or cut it raw? Were you confused when you first split one open? Did you end up with short pieces of flesh instead of long spaghetti-like strands, as the name suggests? Yeah, me too.

I don’t know about you, but summer squash and cucumbers are a necessity in my garden. Problem is, after a few years, the squash pests show up in greater abundance each year, and only a couple of weeks after harvesting your first squash, the vines are in decline, and production goes to zero in another week or two.

The light-colored tissue we see here is the result of squash beetle behavior known as “trenching.” Trenching cuts off (at least temporarily) the translocation of cucurbitacin defense compounds to preserve the palatability and quality of the squash foliage feeding site. The beetles in this particular field were sprayed and killed after trenching this section of the leaf, so the yellow tissue remains and was not eaten. Similar behavior occurs with other insects, such as dogbane leaf beetles.