Good seeing you here RiverNymph...impressive list, hope we can trade, if you'd check my list and let me know. Btw, very first post in Seed Exchange : Sticky:Read before Posting by GWTamara has links to basics such as where to edit Members Page and Seed Exchange list, besides these are among other helpful sites at the bottom of the page. Happy trades, Bea

I grew acorn squash last year in +/- 30 gallon plastic construction tubs (used for mixing cement, etc). Drill plenty of holes in the tubs and elevate on bricks to aid the drainage and use a good soil mix that won't get too compacted (VERY important!). I over-planted and started with 3 per pot but thinned later to 2 per. The plants turned out to be 2 vining and 2 semi-bush, I think. That's probably because the seeds were saved from a squash I bought for eating. This year I'm going to try purchased seed of a semi-bush variety. I'd actually have preferred a true vining type to take advantage of the trellissing but the variety is limited here in Holland. For growing in pots I don't think you could get more than 1 per pot of the true bush types because they'd block each others' light too much. Maybe someone else can help with that info. I placed the pots about 2-3 feet from a fence and leaned 4 x 6 foot plain metal garden-fence trellis panels from the base of the pot to the stockade fence. The holes in the trellis were about 6 inches square. As the squash or pumpkin grows you will need to gently guide the vines toward the trellis and upwards. Squash aren't natural climbers even though they do put out anchor tendrils (suckers?) that will twine around the trellis. Use either coated wire, clips or fabric to loosly tie the vines up. The thicker the anchors the better, as the stalks are hollow and break or bend easily. This year I found some thick foam coated wire specially for tying up plants and it should work well. Last year I used plastic C clips and moved them as needed to areas that needed support. The suckers will help anchor the vines but aren't super strong so you can't rely on them alone to keep the plant on the trellis, especially once the fruit gets bigger. One of the plants really took off and ended up growing along the top of the stockade fence, which was fine with me! I didn't bother tying it up a lot at that point, just looped it around so it would stay put. My plants last year didn't produce a whole lot. I had trouble with blossom end rot and later from mildew. But when the fruits did start to form I gently guided them through the holes of the trellis so that they hung on the back side of it. So the vines and leaves were on the outside of the trellis and the fruit had plenty of room to grow on the fence side. The bushier plants didn'd need any support until later in the summer and I used some 1.5 foot high shelving units from a small portable greenhouse to support the short vines with fruit that grew over the side of the pots. Anything about the same height as the pot should work, like a plastic deck chair or something. I just was afraid that the vine would break if it just hung over the side with a squash dangling in mid-air. It was great fun and a good experiment, growing these. We made a big event out of eating the 2 biggest squash and then enjoyed the little ones in a nice stir-fry.... :^D Hope you have as much fun. Susanne

Jeff, Well, I never have just one favorite of any kind of veggie, but if I had to pick only one winter squash to grow, I'd pick "Seminole". There are many varieties of winter squash which grow well, store well and have great flavor, but this is the one that, for us, also has the best disease-resistance and pest resistance. It stores practically forever, lasting many months in storage if properly cured first. The rind is very hard which can make cutting one open quite challenging. Seminole is a smallish, mostly teardrop-shaped, buff-colored 'pumpkin' (all true pumpkins are winter squash)which originally is from Florida. I've never lost a Seminole plant to disease or to squash bugs or squash vine borers and it has been incredibly drought-resistant, producing massive vines and tons of winter squash even in 2003 when our rainfall was slightly under 19" and we had horrific drought conditions. It is one of the few winter squashes about which you can say "it won't die and you can't kill it". (At our place, cannas and four o'clocks fall into that category too.) Seminole is in the group C. moschata. I've linked info about Seminole from SESE below. If you look at the photo at that link, you'll see they can be somewhat variable in shape. We've grown them for years and almost always-get the teardrop shape although some are less teardrop-shaped and a bit more rounded. Because Seminole looks to roam and spread vigorously, I like to plant it near the garden fenceline so it can roam outside the main fenced garden area and when I do that, the vines often climb up into the nearby trees that are just a few feet north and northwest of the veggie garden. Other great winter squashes we like include (and we mostly grow heirloom types but many hybrids are available as well): Bush Delicata---this is an improved version of the old open-pollinated Delicata squash, which is C. pepo. It has fine flavor and produces well, but doesn't store as long as many other winter squash. Table Queen----this is another from the C. pepo group. It has great flavor and is a prolific producer. For the making of pumpkin pies, it is hard to find a better winter squash than the one known as "Winter Luxury Pie", which is C. pepo. In the Acorn squash (C. pepo) group, we like Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato which, despite its name, is a winter squash and not a sweet potato. We've also grown and liked quite a few in the C. argyrosperma group (formerly known as C. mixta and still thought of as C. mixta in my head because it is hard to teach an old dog new plant names) including green-striped cushaw, Jonathan neck pumpkin and Cochiti Pueblo. The winter squash in this group are more often grown as decorative winter squash, but we like the flavor of Green Cushaw and they reach astounding sizes. Buttercup squashes are C. maxima and among the best-quality winter squashes. Many, many named varieties are available. A couple of great heirloom buttercups are Warren and Essex. Burpee's Butterbush (C. moschata) is a butternut type that has fairly compact vines and good flavor, which makes it popular with many home gardeners. Waltham is another good butternut squash variety. Sibley (aka Pike's Peak)---this is one of our faves from the C. maxima group. It is long, has an odd medium-greenish-blue rind and belongs to the group of squashes commonly referred to as banana squash. Red Warty Thing (aka Victor)---this is our favorite type of Hubbard squash, being both tasty and attractive. Marina di Chioggia---this is a winter squash with a warted blue-green rind with a golden flesh. Marina di Chioggia is one of the first heirloom winter squashes I ever grew, and is one of the best-flavored. It is in the C. maxima group. Cheese pumpkins: This is a group that grows very well for us most years. They are called cheese pumpkins because most of them have a somewhat oblate or flattened shape that looks like an old-fashioned wheel of cheese. In this group, there are several great ones and we especially like Long Island Cheese and Musquee de' Provence. My favorite winter squash from the Japanese type group is Black Futtsu, which is neither a rampant grower or a heavy producer in our garden. They do have an odd appearance and if you give one away to someone, you have to explain to them that it is supposed to be that dark greenish-black color or they're likely to think you're giving the a winter squash that has gone bad and is about to rot. Great seed sources for heirloom winter squashes include Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Seed Savers Exchange, Sandhill Preservation Center and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Johnny's Selected Seeds is a great source for hybrid types and for some heirloom types. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Seminole pumpkin info/photo at SESE

I kinda gave up on squash and melons in the last few years; put my emphasis on other things. But there are varieites that will work, especially if you want to trellis the vines. (I used old panty hose to make slings for the fruit!) Delicata squash is one that worked for me, and the 8-ball zucchini. A friend of mine has grown Wee-Be-Little pumpkins and really likes them.