C. pepo. Sow Sweet Dumpling squash seeds for fruits with delicious, light-golden flesh and fine, sweet texture when baked. The 8-10cm, squat fruits weigh about half a pound – just right for an individual serving… And that makes them positively ideal for stuffing and baking. Sweet Dumpling squash are very productive and good keepers. Shaped like small, flat topped acorn squash, but with the distinct markings of a delicata, Sweet Dumpling produces eight to ten little fruits per plant. This is one of our favourites, and has been performing well for years with great customer feedback.
How To Grow, Timing: Direct sow or transplant in late spring once the soil is warm. For transplants, start seeds indoors during the first two weeks of May. Optimal soil temperature: 25-35°C. Seeds should germinate in 7-14 days.
How To Grow, Starting: Sow seeds 2cm deep. Sow 3 seeds in each spot where you want a plant to grow, and thin to the strongest plant. Space summer squash 45-60cm apart in rows 90-120cm apart. Give winter squash and pumpkins even more room with a minimum of 90-120cm apart in rows 120-180cm apart.
How To Grow, Growing: Ideal pH: 6.0-6.8. These big plants need lots of food. Use 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer worked into the soil beneath each plant. All squash grow male flowers first, at later female flowers. The female flowers have tiny fruits at the base of their petals and require pollination by bees mostly. Incomplete pollination often happens at the beginning of the season, and results in misshapen fruits that are withered at the blossom end. Just discard these damaged fruits before they begin to rot. Encourage bees to visit the garden by growing Phacelia, sunflowers, or buckwheat for improved pollination.
How To Grow, Harvest: Summer Squash: Pick when small, if fruit gets big the plant stops producing. Check the plants regularly.
Winter Squash: Fruit is ripe if your thumbnail doesn’t mark the skin and the stem is dry and brown. Cut the stem about 4cm from the fruit. Squash survive a light frost, but store better if harvested before frost.
Storage: Field-cure for 10 days in the sun, or cure indoors in a warm room for 4 or 5 days. To prevent mould sponge the skins with a solution of 10 parts water to 1 part chlorine bleach. Store at 10-15ºC with low humidity with good air circulation. Try on a shelf in the garage.
110 Days.
Approx: 15 Seeds.
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