Spaghetti Squash Harvest

[z_willus_d]

Hello,

My wife is a big fan of spaghetti squash (and an equally big decliner of noodles), and I do love making homemade sauce with my garden tomatoes. The squash stands in for noodles in most of these sauce dishes. So this year I decided to try and grow spaghetti squash in the garden for the first time.

I now have 6 or 7 squash on my two vines ranging from small (3"x5") to enormous (6"x12"). Reading around the web, it looks like I'm supposed to wait for the squash to turn yellow, though I also read you can harvest them early which would be great so we can control the end size to our liking. I'd also read something about storing them outside for 3 days after harvesting to harden them off or prepare the for overwintering. Can someone explain that?

Any other tips for optimizing flavor and yield?

This is the link to the seeds I'm using:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7756-spaghetti-squash.aspx

Thanks!
Naysen

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

Hello,

My wife is a big fan of spaghetti squash (and an equally big decliner of noodles), and I do love making homemade sauce with my garden tomatoes. The squash stands in for noodles in most of these sauce dishes. So this year I decided to try and grow spaghetti squash in the garden for the first time.

I now have 6 or 7 squash on my two vines ranging from small (3"x5") to enormous (6"x12"). Reading around the web, it looks like I'm supposed to wait for the squash to turn yellow, though I also read you can harvest them early which would be great so we can control the end size to our liking. I'd also read something about storing them outside for 3 days after harvesting to harden them off or prepare the for overwintering. Can someone explain that?

Any other tips for optimizing flavor and yield?

This is the link to the seeds I'm using:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7756-spaghetti-squash.aspx

Thanks!
Naysen

6 or 7 squash on 2 vines sounds about average. Hand pollinating, using a small artist's brush to move pollen from the male flowers (at the start of the vine) to the female flowers (farther out on the vine) might increase yield.

From what I've read, the 2nd to 4th female flowers going outward on the vine seem to have the best fruit set chances. Squashes further out on the vine are also generally smaller.

I know nothing about optimizing flavor, if it even can be done.

For storage, leave about two inches of stem, wash (or sponge bath) the squashes (some use a ~5% bleach solution), and select blemish free ones for the longest storage.

I'd pick the large one when it turns color (it could be anywhere from a pale tan/yellow to a bright yellow), and just let the smaller ones grow to see what happens.

Gary

[Stvrob]

We had a number of spaghetti squash vine volunteer coming out of the compost pile from last Thanksgiving. I harvested 4 fruit, one was quite large before the entire vine collapsed from powdery mildew. I have them indoors now by the AC vent and they have turned a pale yellow color. We aren't big fans of spaghetti squash but if anyone knows a good way to prepare them I'd be interested.

[z_willus_d]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll just leave the squash on the vine until I see them start to turn color. Good tip on the cleansing cycle. With all the effort I put into getting my tomato blossoms to pollinate, I'm not sure I want to start in on the squash as well. It's a lot of work. I do see that the ants love those male blossoms. And the bees do too, so I seem to be setting about average squash.

Stvrob, we just bake in the oven for ~50-min to an hour (based on size), then scrape the "spaghetti" out and use in place of pasta. It's good with cheese or olive oil or meat sauce, etc.

-naysen

[Wi-sunflower]

I wouldn't try harvesting early IF you want them for the spaghetti. Spaghetti Squash picked before they turn yellow usually don't "string" out well no matter how long you cook them.

But if you get enough squash set on your plants or it's getting late in the season, you supposedly can pick them very small and cook them like you would summer squash. But you would need to pick them quite small before they got tough.

I've never tried them that way so I'm only going on what I've read.

As for volunteers -- if you had any other Pepo squash growing nearby, you could end up with something very strange. Worst case (IMO) spaghetti crossed with an orange type. Not very stringy and sweet but not sweet enough to use as a regular winter squash.

Carol

[z_willus_d]

Hi Carol, thanks for chiming in. I'll let the squash linger on their vines until they're Goliath heads and yellow. We certainly don't like the squash if it's not "stringy." We want it stringy, nutty, buttery, and slightly crunchy -- if that makes sense.

[peppero]

my wife and i really like speghetti squash and hope to have it every year as a pasta substitute. finally got some plants going. we will see.........

jon

[z_willus_d]

As long as they have room to stretch and plenty of water, it seems like they do fairly well. I'm actually surprised mine are growing so well. I expected a total failure.
Good luck.
-naysen

[Tormato]

Carol,

Thanks for confirming what an early picked spaghetti squash would be like. I didn't want to post about it because I wasn't sure (I never pick 'em early).

Spaghetti squash with pesto is one of my faves. This year I'm thinking of making a winter squash & tomato based sauce for topping spaghetti squash. The winter squash used in the sauce would likely be a butternut or kobacha type.

Gary