Sunday, October 16, 2016

Golden Hubbard Squash

Looks like I have a winner. Finding a squash that can survive the bugs here is difficult. At first I wasn't too sure about this one, but after a shaky start, the golden Hubbard is producing. 

Just because it's producing doesn't mean that it's a no-work veggie. At least on my farm, squash, pumpkins, and gourds need almost daily attention. The stems need to get buried or covered in mulch when squash borers make their appearance. This also helps save parts of a plant should powdery mildew start up, because the plants will root at each leaf node if given a chance. And spraying the flowers and young fruits with dipel after every rain helps control caterpillars, thus reducing fruiting failure.  

I've been awfully lax with the golden Hubbards. Because of the frequent rain, I haven't been successful keeping dipel on them. It's on and off again. But I have managed to keep the squash borers under control. And powdery mildew has only managed to kill parts of plants, while sparing other vine runners enough so that they are producing.

To date I've harvested over two dozen Hubbards. They go to feed the livestock. But then, that's the reason I'm growing them. I have yet to try eating one myself. Not that I'm not interested, but I have quite a bit of food available right now. 

Will I grow more hubbards? You betcha! I plan to try the other varieties of hubbard squashes to see if they tolerate my conditions. And who knows, perhaps this was just a good year for hubbards. Maybe next year they will fail. We shall see what's comes. 

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