Ok I am still in squash mode, this time I'm wondering what you have as favorites for the smaller/mid-size winter squash or edible pumpkins?

Currently, Sunshine Kobacha F1, Cucurbita maxima is my favorite "if I could grow only one".

It outshines all the others I've tried. In the past I've grown Delicata, Small Sugar pumpkin, New England Sugar Pie, Early Sweet Sugar Pie, Winter Luxury, Naked Bear f1, and Tuffy Acorn (all Cucurbita pepo). The acorn – in my previous house so not as hot and more moisture in the air than here - was the worst. One squash per vine. The Naked Bear hull-less was great for a hull-less seed pumpkin if that's all you want but not as sweet as others for eating the flesh. If I had the space for just pepitos, I'd grow it again. Winter Luxury and Delicata came highly recommended but were so so for me. Pepo and maxima both aren't supposed to be as heat tolerant as moschata – but the Sunshine is a maxima and it loves it here and my pepo summer squash thrive. After Sunshine, the small sugar pie does well but not as prolific as Sunshine. Sunshine does get powdery mildew at the end of the season – not enough to kill it before frost does with some minor management.


This year I'm adding Butterkin F1, a moschata, as Harris had a free shipping sale combined with $2 packets of seeds that I couldn't resist. It's a scalloped- shaped butternut cross. Looks interesting. https://www.harrisseeds.com/pr...

When I didn't garden because of drought, a friend had shared a few of her daughter's garden
small butternuts – but they didn't know which it was. Just that it was productive here. I've added the Squash Winter Honeybaby F1 AAS to my wishlist to try. It is a moschata so should do well. But I didn't pick it up for this year.

With the success of Sunshine, I'd also added the Bonbon (F1) Buttercup, maxima AAS winner, to my wishlist as it looks like something I'd like. This is top of the list for new ones to try. I keep debating about adding a bed or finding space to try it this year. https://all-americaselections....

Have you grown any of these? Your favorites or small squash/pumpkins you wouldn't grow again?

I can't count for favorites to grow. I grew one plant of one winter squash once. It was an interesting looking squash at the grocery store in fall when they had a sale around harvest. It was labeled Hubbard but wasn't. It's my prime example of (likely) F1s not growing true to type.

I am trying Sweet Dumpling this year in the small category. It's got 1 lb fruit so I can grow it up a trellis without the hassle of crafting slings. Trellising to save space was one of my selection criteria. It's 90-95 days to maturity was pushing things near the limit for me. I have a lot of days between first frost and last but am still kind of short season. The moderating effects of the Great Lakes plays hell with crops that like extended warm. That period of extended warm is quite a bit shorter.

There's also the Tromboncino that is pushing medium by weight when I let a few go to maturity. Nothing about those long snakes of squash scream anything but large otherwise.

A lot of the shorter season winter squashes are bush/semi-bush. Maybe next year I'll go that way and give up the extra space. It's a year of experiments.

That Sweet Dumpling looks great - all positive reviews and a few pictures over at Baker Creek.

Some of the ones they call semi-bush are really vining with shorter vines - I find those descriptions more accurate. The Sunshine vines get to about 5ft by the end of the season here. The first fruits are at the base of the vine so perhaps that's where the bush notation comes in.

Faerygardener said: That Sweet Dumpling looks great - all positive reviews and a few pictures over at Baker Creek.

It pretty quickly went from an option to "that's the one" as I checked out more reviews on different seed vendor sites. It seemed to be almost unilaterally positive once you ignored the obvious gardener caused or vendor, not variety, issues in the reviews.

Knock on wood

My current favorite small winter squash is a C. moschata, Autumn Frost. This has the bold flavor of the best butternuts but size and shape of an acorn. I use them split and stuffed like I do acorns. Under my conditions more prolific and much easier to grow than any acorn. Butternut Squash (Cucurbita moschata 'Autumn Frost')

@farmerdill Those pictures you shared at the link look wonderful and prolific. I may have to add that to this season's rotation. I'll certainly have plenty of winter squash even if I don't have as many Neck pumpkin vines as I usually grow. Found that seed on sale with free shipping yesterday (sorry folks sale ended 31st).

I got 'Polaris' butternut seed ( makes big fruit) and it grew well. I got several per vine, I maybe less than 5 lb but there were some good sized multiple meal ones there.

Strange to admit it but I've never grown regular size butternut. I think ages back I got one at the grocery store I was disappointed with and just never gave them a glance in the seed catalogs. The small butternut my friend have gifted me were tasty and easy to work with.

I love butternut squash and have grown many small types.
I actually find a preference for the mid sized butternut. I hate to turn the oven on for a small one and find myself baking a few of the small ones at one time.
This year the two that I am growing are both new to me. Bugle and Honeynut.

@pod Do wish my friend knew which mini butternut her daughter grew as she did end up with a lot of extra to share. I see Honeynut was bred at Cornell from butternut and buttercup squash - it must have a nice rich flavor.

I understand about cooking just one. I do have a small 3 quart pressure cooker and use a counter convection toaster/oven for small stuff. Added bonus is that I can put them on the porch so there's no extra heat in the kitchen on sweltering days. I also always run my dehydrator outside. Silly to turn on the oven and then crank up the a/c.

The finest grained sweetest squash I have grown over the past fifty years:
Buttercup
Red Kuri
Lakota
Turks Turban

I was rummaging in the seed stash and these are some of the other "small" squash I have grown in past seasons.
Butter Baby
Honey Baby
Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato
Autumn Frost
South Anna
Reno F-1
and the one that got me hooked on growing smaller butternuts was
898 Experimental (now called Honey Patch) from Row 7.

Each year I try new and different butternuts looking for the one that will be wildly successful in this area. Meanwhile, they all produce and convince me that I am partial to the butternuts.

Waltham and Polaris are my only Butternut experience but both have been very easy and taste good.

I just cooked the last Waltham Butternut from last year in a stir fry. It was small and sat around in a basket all winter. Very nice. I've never had any trouble with them; they're easy to peel and have a small seed pouch.