How and When to Harvest Winter Squash

For over 10,000 years, candy, buttery winter squashes have introduced long-awaited rewards after a summer time spent creating. Because the hefty fruits with thick skins kind over an extended rising interval, their sugary starches attain peak ripeness in late summer time and into fall. With their sturdy rinds, they retailer properly into winter.

Winter squashes like butternuts deliver superlative sweetness and a complement to savory dishes that’s properly definitely worth the wait, each in bulk and in diet. They develop simply from seed in spring or early summer time for an autumn harvest. They’re wealthy in nutritional vitamins A, B6, and C, in addition to fiber, folate, potassium, and magnesium. Their nutrient profile, ample pulp, and shelf life make them a high crop for self-reliance.

Right here, we’ll discover the right way to harvest winter squash, together with timing the choose and preserving the bounty. Harvesting squashes at full maturity lends lasting culinary rewards.

Honeynut Winter Squash

Honeynut Winter Squash Seeds

Desk King Acorn Winter Squash

Desk King Acorn Winter Squash Seeds

Pink Banana Winter Squash

Pink Banana Winter Squash Seeds

About Winter Squash

Winter squashes mature in late summer time and fall, taking time to develop their hefty fruits with thick skins. Varieties of winter squashes embody:

Winter picks are often sown in spring or early summer time for an autumn harvest. Vines, both lengthy and sprawling or compact and bushy, run alongside the bottom, on vertical helps like trellises and arches, and in raised beds and containers.

Whereas some take 100 or extra days to mature, dwarf varieties could also be prepared earlier and go well with each small house gardens and people with a brief rising season.

Winter squashes are within the Cucurbitaceae household with cucumbers, melons, and summer time squashes. Cucurbits share the identical pests and ailments, so it’s finest to separate the group when possible. Crop rotation advantages the well being of every crop, so lingering pests and pathogens don’t have hosts in the identical spot season after season.

Optimum rising situations embody:

Mark the Days to Maturity

To gauge the time to reap winter squash, rely out the times to maturity out of your sowing date. The seed packet lists the variety of days to reap underneath optimum situations, and the rely presents an estimate of when to anticipate ripe fruits. 

Add a number of days to account for seasonal differences and climate fluctuations that will impression improvement. Picks planted in spring and early summer time usually mature in September and October, often 80 to 120 days after sowing, relying on the range.

Beat the Frost

Frost on the pumpkins means it’s time to reap winter squash. Winter squashes are frost-sensitive, doing finest in temperatures above 45°F (7°C). They will face up to decrease dips, even as little as 35°F (2°C), however want warming temperatures to comply with.

Goal to reap winter squash earlier than fall’s first anticipated frost, or at the least earlier than a tough freeze. These hit with a freeze could recuperate with time spent at room temperature. Taste and colour could enhance in storage, however with frost injury, shelf life could reduce.

Realizing When To Choose

Choosing winter squashes once they’re absolutely mature yields the most effective consuming and storing. Gauging maturity varies by kind and is typically tough to inform. So, a number of visible and bodily cues provide indicators of peak ripeness.

The excellent news is that winter squashes proceed to ripen off the vine, so if picked a bit early, they’ll get higher in time as starches convert to sugars. Professional-vitamin A ranges could enhance, too, as carotenoid pigment will increase in storage.

Browning Vines and Corking Stems

Search for brown, drying vines as an indicator of when to reap winter squash (so long as they aren’t indicating drought or illness). Wholesome vines that present browning as fruits attain readiness are a marker to make use of in coordination with a stem inspection.

Stems that cork are a helpful sign up figuring out maturity. Stems transition from inexperienced to brown, exhibiting woodier qualities. Brown streaks seem the place the stem meets the fruit. Stems additionally shrink as they now not want many vitamins or moisture from the primary vine. The rind hardens throughout this corking part (the most effective time to select).

Shade

The colour if you harvest winter squash must be deep and even to match the range’s mature tone. Shade change is useful in pumpkins, as they transition from inexperienced to orange. Different winter squashes flip to their closing colour early, even earlier than they’re prepared to reap. Butternuts could change into their closing buff tan two to 3 weeks earlier than maturity.

For some kinds of winter squashes, the floor spot tells of ripeness. Acorn squashes are absolutely ripe when the spot the place the fruit touches the soil is darkish orange. Pores and skin transitions from gentle to darkish inexperienced. If the spot isn’t orange at choosing, ripening will proceed in storage. A completely orange spot at choosing, although, is finest for having fun with shut to reap time.

Search for a boring forged to the pores and skin, too, for the squashes to be ripe. The rind turns into much less shiny and extra matte because it reaches maturity.

Firmness

A tough rind is an efficient indicator that winter squash is able to harvest. They’ll be agency towards a fingernail take a look at. Rating the pores and skin with a fingernail to see if the rind resists marking (in that case, it’s prepared).

The hefty squashes may even really feel weighty. Even small ones, like mini pumpkins, ought to really feel dense.

How To Choose

To reap winter squash, reduce them fastidiously from the stem with pruners or a pointy knife. Depart about two inches of the stem hooked up to the fruit to stop decay and stem-end rot post-harvest. Twisting or pulling can lead to the stem separating from the fruit.

Take care with the fruits throughout harvest to keep away from bruising or chopping. Injury can result in decreased storage life.

Storage

Every week at two at 70 to 80°F (21-27°C, or room temperature) promotes the starch-to-sugar conversion for a sweeter taste. This curing interval advantages many winter species aside from acorn and delicata. And, retaining them too heat for too lengthy decreases the shelf life.

Superb storage temperatures are between 50 and 60°F (10-16°C), and a root cellar or basement works properly. A relative humidity between 50 and 70% is perfect. Place the fruits in a double layer, or single if house permits, to take care of air circulation and stave off spreading rots.

Storage time varies by kind of winter squash, with butternuts lasting two to 3 months. Acorns final about two months, and hubbards as much as six months. Pumpkins can retailer for as much as a yr, relying on the range.

Keep away from storing the cucurbits close to ripening apples, pears, tomatoes, and different fruits that launch ethylene. The fuel shortens the shelf lifetime of the squashes.

Winter squashes additionally take properly to preserving by canning, particularly as purees, or by freezing. To freeze the squash, boil, steam, or roast it till the pulp is tender. Separate the flesh from the rind, and mash it for storing (aside from spaghetti squash, no must mash).

Let it cool, inserting the pan in chilly water and stirring to hasten the method. Bundle the cool mash in an hermetic container or bag, leaving half an inch of headspace.

Widespread Varieties

Winter squashes deliver buttery, nutty flavors to candy and savory dishes in fall and winter. Save house by rising compact varieties vertically in beds and containers. Or, provide loads of room for lengthy, sprawling varieties to run.

‘Honeynut’

	botanical title Cucurbita moschata ‘Honeynut’
	top 2-3’ vines

‘Honeynut’ is a Cornell hybrid that crosses butternut and buttercup (two of the sweetest squash varieties) for superlative sweetness and a clean texture. The moschata choice reveals good squash vine borer and powdery mildew resistance. Their thick skins and clean stems make them much less accessible to the harmful pests within the egg-laying and larval phases.

‘Honeynut’ produces small fruits, at 4 to 5 inches lengthy, that pack the flavour. Dwarf, bushy vines make them preferrred for rising vertically and in small areas.

The petite butternuts start mottled inexperienced and ripen to mellow orange-red. The fruits are prepared in 110 days and retailer for as much as six months.

‘Delicata’

	botanical title Cucurbita maxima ‘Delicata’
	top 12’ vines

‘Delicata’ is a favourite and is among the many sweetest squash varieties. An heirloom, ‘Delicata’ is from 1894 and boasts a excessive sugar content material and fine-textured, golden interiors. Fruits are candy proper off the vine with a skinny pores and skin for simple chopping within the kitchen. There’s no want for peeling, because the pores and skin is edible and nutty.

‘Delicata’ produces elongated loaves which might be creamy-white with orange tones and darkish inexperienced stripes and flecks. They attain eight inches lengthy and 4 inches large and weigh one to 3 kilos. As a result of skinny skins, storage time is just a few months, so take pleasure in this one nearer to reap to heat up chilly fall and winter evenings.

Search for Cornell’s ‘Bush Delicata’ for improved illness resistance. ‘Sugar Loaf’ and ‘Honey Boat’ are bred for sweetness.

‘Desk King’

	botanical title Cucurbita pepo ‘Desk King’
	top 4’ vines

‘Desk King’ is an early-maturing acorn squash from the College of Connecticut in 1974. The compact hybrid is an All-America Picks winner for its high quality taste, dwarf vines, and lengthy storage life. ‘Desk King’ is the best serving dimension for stuffing and matures in about 80 days.

‘Desk Queen’ is an earlier selection from the Iowa Seed Firm in 1913. The historic acorns have shiny, darkish inexperienced skins and outstanding ridging. The inside flesh is a wealthy, creamy yellow-orange. With a sugary pulp, each ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ acorns are excellent for baking. 

‘Pink Banana’

	botanical title Cucurbita maxima ‘Pink Banana’
	top 12-15’

‘Pink banana’ makes a press release within the autumnal show as a big, salmon pink selection that reaches 18 to 24 inches lengthy. Its sugary, tender inside is made for baking into pies or having fun with as a aspect dish.

Every fruit weighs 10 to 12 kilos and has a shiny golden-orange inside. The seed cavity is slim, leaving extra room for the “meat.”

Native to Argentina and Uruguay, historic cultures grew banana squash, as did American pioneers. ‘Pink Banana’ brings a historic staple to the edible panorama and fall harvest.

‘Crimson Kuri’

	botanical title Cucurbita maxima ‘Crimson Kuri’
	top 4-6’

‘Crimson Kuri’, additionally known as ‘Orange Hokkaido’ or ‘Child Crimson Hubbard,’ is a Japanese selection with a creamy texture and chestnut taste (kuri means “chestnut”). The melon-orange squashes are perfect for steaming, roasting, and baking. Some say they’re as candy as and even higher than pumpkins.

‘Crimson Kuri’ fits small gardens, rising vertically on a trellis, and containers. The vines produce two to 5 teardrop fruits, every weighing three to 4 kilos.

Prepared in about 95 days, ‘Crimson Kuri’ is an efficient choice for short-growing seasons in chilly climates. They develop comparatively shortly as winter cucurbits go, on compact types.

Incessantly Requested Questions