Frugal Friday
Oct. 27th, 2023 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change as we proceed. Rule #1: this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #2: this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #3: please keep it to one tip per person per week. Data dumps are tedious for me to moderate and also for readers to use. If you have lots of tips, great -- post one per week. This is an ongoing project. If you want to comment on someone else's tip, that's welcome, but again, don't use that as an excuse to post a second, unrelated tip of your own.
Rule #4: please keep your contributions reasonably short -- say, 500 words or less. If you have something longer to say, please post it elsewhere -- a free Dreamwidth account is one option -- and simply put a link here. Teal deer comments won't be put through.
Rule #5: please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about. Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.
Rule #6: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.
With that said, have at it!
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-28 08:59 pm (UTC)Just for FYI and because I consider that our little area is beneficial for butternut squash (and melons and I suspect all types of vines) our info :
Hardiness Zone 8a (this is USA specific).
Our soil is "Augusta" which is a thick clay soil. Probably not the best soil but shows the versatility of squash. Bet you the squash will grown well in all types of soil and in different zones.
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 01:09 am (UTC)Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 02:38 am (UTC)Still, we do well with watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins, and little everglades tomatoes, plus rosemary. Basil did really well this year too.
Do you know if butternut will cross with pumpkins? That sounds like it'd be fun to try growing, but I've kept my pumpkin line going for three years now, and I'd hate to risk it crossing out. I know zucchini and acorn squash will, so I avoid those.
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 04:52 am (UTC)C. pepo also includes acorn and delicata squash, all the summer squashes, and ornamental gourds. They will all cross and the results are largely inedible.
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 11:45 pm (UTC)Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 06:02 am (UTC)There are at 5 families of squash, curcurbita genus.
Butternut squash is a curcurbita Moschata ( c. moschata) . Most pumpkins are C. pepo, which is the same as summer squashes, but various winter squashes do get pumpkin in the name, so look up your cultiver.
Anyway, to save true seed, pick one each out of the various curcurbita groups, which is what I do. SO, I grow a summer squash, like costata romanesca or a zuchini from the c. pepo, I grow alot of a butternut variety for the c. moschata, then maybe an oregon sweet meat if I have the room, which is a c. maxima ( Rouge Vif d'Etampes'( ie., cinderella pumpkin) is also c. maxima, as is hubbard and other realy hard skinned large winter squash). There is at least one more cucurbita family, the one grown just for the seeds.
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 11:48 pm (UTC)Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 01:46 pm (UTC)I did find a web page (link below) in which the author groups the type of the Cucurbitaceae family into groups with cross pollination possible between groups. I've also seen discussion of trying to avoid different squash vines from cross pollinating with each other but don't think we'll ever get that advanced in trying to produce the perfect strain of squash.
https://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/squashpumpkincucumberwatermelon-pollination-explanation/
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 11:52 pm (UTC)I've always just let the bees pollinate them-- they love the pumpkin flowers so much!
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 05:02 pm (UTC)There are at 5 families of squash, curcurbita genus.
Butternut squash is a curcurbita Moschata ( c. moschata) . Most pumpkins are C. pepo, which is the same as summer squashes, but various winter squashes do get pumpkin in the name, so look up your cultiver.
Anyway, to save true seed, pick one each out of the various curcurbita groups, which is what I do. SO, I grow a summer squash, like costata romanesca or a zuchini from the c. pepo, I grow alot of a butternut variety for the c. moschata, then maybe an oregon sweet meat if I have the room, which is a c. maxima ( Rouge Vif d'Etampes'( ie., cinderella pumpkin) is also c. maxima, as is hubbard and other realy hard skinned large winter squash). There is at least one more cucurbita family, the one grown just for the seeds.
Re: Butternut Squash - easy to grow, pest resistant, can store for a long time
Date: 2023-10-29 11:57 pm (UTC)