Hi Spatz I do not to this site very often now...other things happening but will publish my list (of seeds I have to trade or give away)...in a few weeks...over 130 vars of toms this year...about up 50% on last eyar...we ahd a shouse season last eyar with early frosts (75 frosts in 91 days) from apr 1 so no medium to late vars ripening plus lack of water...we have had less than 250mm since last october 1 and already (for the last two or three weeks) it feels like spring most days I want to renew most of my olstock vars this year plus will grow a few requests people have sent me but there are a couple I am looking for....red handbad, stump of the world, scheimigg stoo, long keeper, anything Tasmanian....Ray's Tasmanian Yellow did very well (in comparison), and any watermelon that are very early and /or cold tolerant...should anyone have any must away cheers for now peter

Sorry for your SVB losses, we get them here in SC as well. I grow mostly moschata or butternut winter squash on trellis because they are largely unaffected by SVB. The solid stem pepo's like acorn, spaghetti and Tatume are not bothered very much by them either. But we do have pickle worms that migrate here mid to late July, and they bore into the fruits. At that point you really have no choice but to harvest the squash, ripe or not. Once inside you can either cut the worm out and eat it (unripe butternuts taste great, sliced and grilled or in casseroles or fried, pretty much any way that you like summer squash) or you can try submerging it and the worm may come out. If you want, then you can put it in a warm area of the house and cure it for 3-4 weeks. Mine kept fine for 6 months+ and still tasted great, just don't forget to cut out the worm eaten area! Never tried maxima' ripening off the vine, but it might work. The accepted wisdom for butternuts is the same as kabocha, allow it to ripen in the field, but sometimes you just can't get a harvest if you go by "accepted wisdom". I have tried a lot of squash and cukes and all are affected by these destructive pests, ideally you get them in the ground early and harvest before the pickle worm gets here. We had a wet spring and I had to reseed, so mine won't be ready by late July. When they show up I am going to harvest mine, ready or not. They even bored into one that I put inside a ladies knee high hose! Both SVB and pickle worms are deadly enemies of squash gardeners! Pic to follow

I was going to harvest my Kabochas as the vine dies off later to let them ripen more and develop more starch. However, today I found the one on the right side of the image cracked, so I might as well harvest the one on the left side as well. The latter cracked slightly a few day ago or longer already and the skin peeled off... Why were they cracked? They were not the first 2 cracked. I had another one 5 days ago. 2. The one on the right side had a similar deeper color of dark green. However, it started turning lighter and lighter. It almost looks like having a frosted film on it, but no, it's not the film. The color changed and turned lighter. Why did it turn lighter? What should I do now with both that I harvested. I heard that once you harvest a Ka bocha, you let it sit in the room temperature for 2 weeks and then put it in a closet or cooler place to develop the starch. Since mine already cracked and open, bugs and stuff might get into the flesh. Should I put them in the fridge now? Thanks

^^ Some squash varieties are bred to have some resistance -- butternut at least. I thought some kabocha too, but maybe I'm wrong there. Didn't have a lick of it last year, but I got wiped out by it year before that -- I had to harvest the kabocha early because the vines actually died from the mildew it was go bad, and the flavor hadn't fully developed and they didn't store very well. That is my concern -- I've got a lot of beautiful, tasty-looking squash out there... I'll have to look into a preventive spray next year if I can't find any resistant varieties of kabocha. Interestingly, the cukes from the seed DH bought had the mildew, but the other vines from the seed I bought didn't have any at all, even though they were intermingled on the same trellis. Maybe the variety I ordered does have some resistance bred into - easy enough to find out by looking at the seed packet (but that would require me having to find it buried somewhere in the big pile of packets I have - maybe some other day when I remember).