Forgot to mention that friends of ours raise guineas, and they say they are wonderful to put on "bug patrol", [although they don't raise pumpkins] We could probably get a couple within a few days.....do they eat squash bugs, [without eating the squash?]

I'm hoping to retry growing some butternut(autumn glow) and triple treat pumpkin. I tried getting a late crop of autumn glow butternut this year by seeding 4 plants mid august but only one plant bore fruit. They are about 3 inches long in a container and wont probably make it by the time the first freeze come along. I'd also like to plant some netted pumpkin again this year. Melonette Jaspee de Vendee and some winter luxury pie pumpkin. Anyone know if those two pumpkins are related? But they are C. pepo and thus susceptible to vine borers. I won't be planting any C. maximas again because they take too much space and are prone to insect attacks. The Seminole pumpkin squash sound very interesting but might not have enough time to mature in the northeast US. Has any one tried the delicata types "Honey boat and Sugar loaf" varieties and can give me comparisons on their tastes as compared to each other and the common butternut(sweetness, texture, firmness)? All my honey boat squash plants wilted under mildew pressure this year. The delicatas I've tried from the supermarket were bland and probably grown with too much water. So, so far C. moschatas are my surest bet. Around here the supermarkets sell kabocha squash for 80 cents a pound and they are super sweet. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't just plant flowers instead of squash. One more question: The Autumn glow butternut I planted that grew large enough to bear fruit bore male flowers first. However, the female flowers that came about a week after opened up before any of the male flowers. Could this be due to the shorter days of Autumn? The plants are incredibly compact, no more than 40 inches long with very short tendrils. And the male flowers are very different from regular squash flowers. The flowers are very fleshy and heavy. Sorry for going off topic, but thanks for any answers.

Yes the squash (we call them pumpkins here)are absolutely worth it. They are resistant to mildew and squash borers, can keep up to a year if kept in a cool, dark place, have stingless flesh, and at least to me, are the absolute best for making pumpkin pies and fritters you'll ever run across. My family has grown them for years, often interplanted in a patch of corn so they can ramble without taking over too much. You can keep turning the ends of the vines back on themselves to keep them in a smaller spot. Just don't give them fertilizer high in nitrogen. I've used fertilizer with a 2-10-10 analysis with good results. Good luck and enjoy your Seminole pumpkins--er--squash. Whatever you call them, they're delicious.

My squash will last a couple of months in the pantry, but they really won't make it past christmas. I've tried to figure out a way to set up cold storage, but we don't have a basement and the weather gets too warm during the winter for this to really work. I was going to leave some small squash in the pantry for the fall and early winter and process bigger ones for later (it's just the two of us). I suppose I'll just go ahead and freeze them. I have a recipe for a really yummy squash casserole that starts with parboiled squash and that's why I wanted some that wasn't fully cooked. I'll just cook it for the length of time that recipe recommends and then freeze it. The squash leather with lime juice sounds interesting.