Delicata Ripeness

[ddsack]

I grow Delicata most years, as it is one of the few that I can get ripe before frost. I start seeds in mid-May for transplant into the garden in early June. I leave them on the vine until frost/freeze is expected. If I have time, I rinse them in a mild bleach solution before drying. Harvested in October, they store for me until February, maybe picking out a few that develop rot spots along the way. The flavor is still sweet and good right up to the end. I have bought seeds from various sources, often from Pinetree. I don't notice much difference between sources, have never had ones that were not sweet when ripe.

[JRinPA]

Welcome meizzwang!

I almost always wait for October before picking the delicata I grow. So mine have a lot more orange color in the shell when picked. The later fruit sets will still be a more white color and green stem when picked. Those never taste as good, as sweet, even stored for months.

My take from a few years of that was to make sure they are in the ground early for the summer warmth, and let them ripen to orange streaks on the vine. So the idea of harvesting at "peak maturity" by size instead of "peak ripeness" by color is something I would never have tried to do. Butternut never tastes particuarly good either and won't ripen when picked before the color darkens, shell hardens, and the stem browns.

I will have to consider this earlier harvest keys and schedule.

I had delicata to March this year, and they were very good yet, but there were sections of rot in some quadrants of some fruit, probably from bugs. I even lost 5 butternut in March when it started to warm up and get more light in the basement. They were very solid, and then they weren't. I started eating more them, but I lost 5 to collapse in just 2 or 3 weeks. I had them stored on wire rack, by the outside door, and I think they felt more sun and temp changes than if they had been in the back of the basement away from light and draft. I just finished the very last butternut last week. Unless there is one in with the sweet potatoes...

I use heavy corrugated cardboard pieces between squash and ground to prevent rot and see bugs easier, it does work well to keep them off the ground.

[Tormahto]

Welcome meizzwang!

I almost always wait for October before picking the delicata I grow. So mine have a lot more orange color in the shell when picked. The later fruit sets will still be a more white color and green stem when picked. Those never taste as good, as sweet, even stored for months.

My take from a few years of that was to make sure they are in the ground early for the summer warmth, and let them ripen to orange streaks on the vine. So the idea of harvesting at "peak maturity" by size instead of "peak ripeness" by color is something I would never have tried to do. Butternut never tastes particuarly good either and won't ripen when picked before the color darkens, shell hardens, and the stem browns.

I will have to consider this earlier harvest keys and schedule.

I had delicata to March this year, and they were very good yet, but there were sections of rot in some quadrants of some fruit, probably from bugs. I even lost 5 butternut in March when it started to warm up and get more light in the basement. They were very solid, and then they weren't. I started eating more them, but I lost 5 to collapse in just 2 or 3 weeks. I had them stored on wire rack, by the outside door, and I think they felt more sun and temp changes than if they had been in the back of the basement away from light and draft. I just finished the very last butternut last week. Unless there is one in with the sweet potatoes...

I use heavy corrugated cardboard pieces between squash and ground to prevent rot and see bugs easier, it does work well to keep them off the ground.

To me, butternuts, and other moschatas, can be very sweet but lack any real flavor, compared to many maximas, and a very few pepos.

[meizzwang]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @meizzwang . Thanks for that informative post, would you be kind enough to introduce yourself so that we can learn a bit more about you and where you live. Also would you please consider setting up a separate grow log so that we can track your experience with these over your season, been considering growing these for a couple of years now and would love to see how they go.

My name is Mike Wang, I have a BS in Environmental Horticulture from UC Davis with a Floriculture/Nursery emphasis. My main thing is breeding and preserving populations of Sarracenia (North American Pitcher Plants, which are carnivorous), the collection is world recognized and is perhaps one of the most genetically diverse collections on the planet! Here's a pic of the Sarracenia collection:


I had been trying to get onto tomatoville for about 10 years now but faced the challenge of never getting accepted for reasons unknown. I'm deeply into tomatoes as well and have quite a few varietal grow reports to share from the past 15 years or so. I only found out about this forum by reading a reddit post talking about Mischka's unprecedented management of the site. Needless to say, it's very exciting to finally be able to interact with others who have deep knowledge on the subjects as well as store important, searchable grow reports in a "permanent" library that can be referenced hopefully for decades to come! Social media doesn't do that and so much information is lost there. Forums also tend to document real deal info that you can't find anywhere else.

I will absolutely start a thread on each of the delicata varieties that I'm growing this season and do a full write up/grow report on them! The varieties I'm trying this year are Carol Deppe's Candystick Dessert Delicata, Cornell's Bush Delicata (most likely that's what it is), honeyboat delicata, and Zeppelin Delicata. I'm also excited to be experimenting with a mottled pumpkin directly from Thailand (C. moschata), green ayote squash (EFN's strain as well as Baker Creek's, will do a comparison), pueblo highlands landrace squash, technicolor dream squash, as well as a few others.

That's just in the squash realm, I'm growing so many other veggies this season! I've done some multi-generational breeding work with Okra, hopefully this year there will be more results to share:




Greens from Asia:


water spinach aka Ipomoea aquatica:


trialed so many different broccoli varieties:


Seegwa (luffa) and winter melon:


Wasabia japonica, aka the real deal wasabi:


probably should stop there, but long story short, the list is endless and I've been trying to find somewhere to document all of this info/grow reports somewhere and now I've found tomatojunction.com!

[Whwoz]

@meizzwang A big collection of Sarracenia that's for sure, love that type of thing but not enough time to grow them. Good to see the Water Spinach grown by someone else here, I refer to it as Kang Kong and it does well here. Some others you mentioned I have not seen before and I am sure your experience would be appreciated by others here.

Mods, anyway to separate these couple of threads into a separate intro thread so that they don't take over this one.

[JRinPA]

To me, butternuts, and other moschatas, can be very sweet but lack any real flavor, compared to many maximas, and a very few pepos.

i don't know what those words after butternut even mean...you may be right. I just grow waltham and they are good...Dec to May. Don't pick until frost is imminent, cure them well, then store in basement and let develop the butternut flavor. Probably February when they really start tasting awesome.

But a late one that does not harden the skin, lose all the spots, and harden the stem before frost, is never going to taste good. And I found the same to be true with the late delicata, harvested in October. They never rally tasted like much, the shell was thicker and the meat was thinner. Where as a nice orange striped ripe delicata is smooth fleshed, a lot of it, and very thin, brittle skin after cooking.

[Tormahto]

To me, butternuts, and other moschatas, can be very sweet but lack any real flavor, compared to many maximas, and a very few pepos.

i don't know what those words after butternut even mean...you may be right. I just grow waltham and they are good...Dec to May. Don't pick until frost is imminent, cure them well, then store in basement and let develop the butternut flavor. Probably February when they really start tasting awesome.

But a late one that does not harden the skin, lose all the spots, and harden the stem before frost, is never going to taste good. And I found the same to be true with the late delicata, harvested in October. They never rally tasted like much, the shell was thicker and the meat was thinner. Where as a nice orange striped ripe delicata is smooth fleshed, a lot of it, and very thin, brittle skin after cooking.

Cucurbita moschata, C. maxima, C. pepo and C. mixta are the four main types of squash.

[JRinPA]

Yeah I figured that but I couldn't even guess at what belongs to what. Over my head, I've only grown...butternut, acorn, this sweet dumpling/delicata. I can't imagine not growing butternut, it is very productive. There is a definite difference in taste and texture between the butternut and the delicata. I didn't start any delicata this year, though I might if I can find a place.