Squash

Yeah.

The Korean A-Hobak belongs to the Cucurbita machata family.

It has very thin skin, a soft flesh, and a distinct, gentle sweetness.

While the Western zucchini belongs to the Cucurbita pepo family.

Yes.

And the Cucurbita pepo has a noticeably thicker, tougher skin.

The flesh is much firmer, and the taste is highly neutral.

It likes that natural sweetness.

In the competition parlance, they call these field pumpkins.

They are in the same genus, but a different species, Cucurbita peepo.

So you'll hear us talking about Maxima versus peepo.

The world record field pumpkin, Cucurbita peepo, is an impressive 235 pounds, but this is a far cry from the world record of more than 2,800 pounds.

Chris studies both of these species in his breeding program at UNH, so he knows both rather well.

I asked him how he thinks about Maxima and peepo.

We use a few terms that might need some explanation as we talk about setting fruit.

A fruit is a seed bearing structure that forms from the matured ovary of a flowering plant.

All right, my gardening friends, it's that time of year, so listen up.

Winter squash gives you almost no obvious warning in the garden before it's ready to harvest, and pulling it too early is one of the most common mistakes that gardeners make.

It costs you flavor and sugar content and months of storage life.

This time of year is when we start to put the very first few winter squashes out on our market stands, and I end up getting two questions.

The first one, "Winter squash already?" And the second one, "How do I know when it's ready?" [laughs] So if you're walking out into the garden on a nice cool morning right now with your coffee in your hand, you might just see a butternut squash that's tan and solid looking sitting right there under a leaf that's just starting to yellow at the edges.

And every instinct you have is going to tell you to pick it, 'cause it looks done.

It looks just like the ones in the grocery store.

And if you pick it right now, based on color alone, there is a pretty good chance that you get it right, and just as much of a chance that you just picked it two or even three weeks too early.

So one thing that has really helped me is just choosing varieties that tolerate a little bit more damage and can handle those pests.

So I've had really good luck with things like lemon squash, butternut squash, and zucchino rampicante, those varieties specifically.

And I would say in general, varieties in the Cucurbita moschata species are resilient against both squash bugs and the squash vine borers, just the nature of the plant.

So, um, another very effective way of preventing squash bugs is insect netting.

This is one that is fairly new to us, and so we put it on as soon as the plants go into the ground, and then leave it on until they start flowering.

[beeping] Экран.

Тыква.

[beeping] Тыква.

Мыло.

[beeping] Мыло.