On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:52:35 -0400, Pat Kiewicz
wrote:

:No, if you pick them early enough to leave time for more fruit, you will
nly get two inferior squash instead of one fantastic squash per plant,
:and maybe not get that second squash at all. (The days grow short
:quite rapidly at the end of the season.)
:
:For best keeping, the squash should be grown on the vine until it has
:a tough rind and very hard stem. Generally, this isn't until the squash
:has reached its proper varietal appearance. (One exception being some
:varieties of ornamental pumpkins which are bred to color up early.)
:Many winter squash will take on a silvery/powdery 'bloom' when they
:are mature.
:
:For best flavor, squash should be left on the vine as long as possible,
:and removed only when the vines have begun to die back and/or frosts
:threaten.

I cooked my very last kabocha last night. It was about the size of a
small grapefruit. By appearance it hadn't matured completely. It was
still quite brown, rather than the grey typical of a fruit that has
remained on the plant "indefinitely." However, it felt completely tight
and ROCK-HARD all over, completely devoid of blemishes! My experience
from last year was that 1/2 the fruits were cooked because they had
begun to show some kind of degradation as though if they weren't
consumed soon, they would rot in short order. This one particular squash
I partly ate last night (it's in a vege stir fry I am keeping
refrigerated for occasional use) was a beautiful orange complexion
meat-wise, unusually so. It seems inferior in no way except perhaps the
flavor. Indeed, if it were allowed to completely mature on the vine, it
might taste a lot better.

My yardstick last year for picking was my judgment that the squash were
no longer getting nutrients and water through their stems. IOW, if I saw
no juice in the cut stem after removing the fruit, I decided that
perhaps the fruit had reached a state in which it would be no detriment
to remove it and thereby I could let the plant set another fruit.

Dan