Squash Watch

Tuesday became our mildest day of the month. Just, by 0.2°C (0.4°F). The temperature reached 9.3°C (48.7°F) in the middle of the afternoon but it still leaves our warmest temperature of the year at 14.2°C (57.6°F) which we recorded at the rather strange time of 01:25 on 10 January 2015. At last though the gloom of the last week lifted and we had some very welcome sunshine for much of the day.

I had a quick check around the greenhouse to make sure our new strawberry plants were okay and didn't need any water. I thought it might be a good idea to check in the summerhouse to see if our Crown Prince squashes were surviving okay. In general they were looking in good condition.

I did notice on this squash in particular that there are signs that parts of the squash are starting to turn a little bit mouldy. Around the neck is where the mould is starting to take hold and the flesh around the old stalk is becoming a little bit soft.

It’s a sign that this squash needs to be used quickly before the damage becomes too serious. I might cook the squash and freeze the flesh into suitable portions for making pumpkin pies.

However our squashes have definitely stored better in the summerhouse than the greenhouse which we've always used for storage until this winter. Of course it might just be down to this winter’s weather but we’ll certainly be storing next summer’s squashes in the summerhouse if we are lucky enough to have a good harvest.

In the past by February our Crown Prince squashes have sometimes looked like this.  

Oddly enough the mould hasn't started around its neck but it has taken over everywhere else. 

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett