On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:18:46 -0400, Pat Kiewicz
wrote:

said:
:
:I don't recall ever having problems with pests in my squash/pumpkin
:growing adventures.
:
:I think those damned squash vine borers are only found east of the Rockies.
:The other annoying pests of squash (here) are striped cucumber beetles,
:which can chew young squash plants to nubs. These can carry a wilt
:disease (the reason I don't grow cukes or melons anymore).

AFAIK, striped cucumber beetles (which I have certainly heard of, but
probably from readings) aren't a problem here. Truly, I'm lucky in that
after the plants are a couple of inches high they never seem to be
bothered by anything other than the fungus that always attacks about
when the plants stop growing aggressively.
:
:I used to grow pumpkins exclusively. I actually got
:into kabocha cultivation completely by accident. One year a kabocha came
:up in my pumpkin patch, perhaps more than one. This was a few years ago.
:I hadn't a clue what I was growing and when I spotted what looked like
:the same squash at my local very well produce stocked market, I asked
:what it was and was told "kabocha." I've grown them exclusively ever
:since, preferring them very much to pumpkins, which is (I think) what
:you are referring to when you speak of C. Maximus, right?
:
:Most of the 'classic' Jack o'lantern and pie pumpkins are C. pepo, as are
:acorn, sweet dumplings, and delicata squash (plus zuchinnis other summer
:squash). But there are a few C. maxima types that are orange and grown as
umpkins (and all of the giant monster pumpkins are C. maxima). The
:ghostly white pumpkins are C. maxima, too.

I'm going to have to delve into the botany here, and I'm actually
fantacizing about taking a course in botany, something I've never done!
I imagine I'd very much like it and find it amazing. Maybe merely the
right book(s) would suffice. Or maybe some judicious online
surfing/reading.
:
:Even so, I
:often find a pumpkin or two in my patch, and there is one beautiful
:specimen in my garden at present, about the size of a volley ball.
:
:In order to control what comes up next year, assuming I purchase seeds
:online, I'm obviously going to have to stop tossing the seeds and pulp
:from my squash into my compost. I get volunteers in my tomatoes, basil
:and celery (which I pull). No doubt, I currently also get volunteers
:among my squash, but can't determine which plants are volunteers.
:
:Clean those seeds off a bit and you could either roast and eat them yourself
r feed them to the local wildlife. The local squirrels and cardinals are
:crazy for squash seeds.

I've done a lot of that and in fact have quite a lot of cleaned seeds
from years past when I used to grow pumpkins intentionally. I even have
a surplus of kabocha seeds, which are somewhat larger and quite a bit
thicker than pumpkin seeds as a rule. I haven't tried roasting and
eating kabocha seeds. Cardinals, I think, are absent here, but squirrels
abound here. I'm not sure I should encourage them, but there's probably
nothing to be done about them in any case. I think they got a not
insignificant amount of my tomatoes last year. However, my tomato crop
is always abundant, so it's no problem. I hadn't thought of feeding the
local fauna. How selfish of me!

I buy pumpkin seeds regularly and put about 1/3 cup in each loaf of
whole wheat bread I bake. I've roasted pumpkin seeds that I've grown and
eaten them. Of course, eating them with the hulls on is a bit weird
unless I take the trouble to hull them, although still delicious. I
think a parrot would do better with them.

I overestimated the size of my sole pumpkin. It's far from volleyball
size. It may not even be half that size. It's very pretty, however. To
me, that's the only think it has over a kabocha.

This year, like last year, I'm going to weigh each squash I pick and
enter it in my database. Last year I picked 54 kabochas weighing a total
of some 56 lb.

Dan