Description of Project: Executive Summary

The McClellan Ranch Project is located in the community gardens of the City of Cupertino at McClellan Ranch Park. The team members interface with community gardeners there on a regular basis and discuss any problems presented during work days.

The objective of the project is to do trials of vegetables that the local gardeners might be able to grow and give advice to gardeners when they stop by. A lot of time is spent talking to community gardeners on work days. At an appropriate time during the growing cycle, the team puts on a Field Day and tasting of the vegetable of the year and invites the public to the event. The team thus provides additional input to the community to help them with their gardening activities. This year winter squash was the vegetable of choice and 17 varieties were planted. Five varieties were not available for picking on 10 October but examples of two of these were donated for display on the Field Day. The public Field Day was held on October 17, 2009. Flyers announcing the Field Day were posted in a variety of locations in Cupertino and Sunnyvale. The weekly papers for Cupertino and Sunnyvale post free announcements of events on a space available basis. Our event was not in those papers this year but was mentioned in the San Jose Mercury News.

Field Project Report

Seventeen varieties of winter squash which could be grown by the home gardener were planted. Plant characteristics along with pest and disease problems were observed and recorded.

A Public Field Day was held on October 17 when people could see a display of the different varieties of squash and could take guided tours of the garden.Fourteen varieties of winter squash were available for display. Due to the minimal advertising only about 93 people attended vs an average of ~150 in years when we were allowed to pass out flyers at the Cupertino Farmers Market on the day before the Field Day.Rating sheets were available for our tasting where 23 were filled out and tabulated to determine the top varieties based on flavor and texture.(See the section on Tasting Results.) When selecting which squash varieties to grow, home gardeners can consult these tasting results as well as the plant characteristics and pest and disease information.

The public will find that squash are easy to grow but most of the varieties require a lot more space than we had anticipated. The soil needs to be properly prepared.

Soil Preparation and Planting

The McClellan Ranch team uses organic gardening methods for the vegetable trials. Preparations for spring planting began in April. Squash seeds were planted 23 May. In prior years we have planted fava beans in November but city trail construction interfered. Wood chips were put into the aisles between the beds that had been laid out.

Winter Squash Project with drip irrigation 27 June 2009	Winter Squash Project 29 August 2009
Winter Squash Plants as seen from South to North	Winter Squash: Plants as seen from North West corner of Garden Plot

Plant Characteristics

Winter Squash Varieties Planted and Their Characteristics 

Variety	Stated Number of days to maturity	Color of ripe squash rind	Color of inside of squash	Other Information
Blue Hubbard	100	Blue-gray	Deep gold	Needs room to romp
Bon Bon Winter	-	Dark green	Bright orange	Drum shape 2 – 4 lbs, semi-bush
Cornell's Bush Delicata	80	White with green stripes	Yellow orange	Compact 3 foot spread ~8 lb – early maturity
Early Butternut	90	Tan	Orange	5 - 6 lbs
Katy's Sweet Meat	95	Gray	Orange	-
Marina di Chiogga	80	Dark green, bumpy	Orange	Italian heirloom, 8 - 10 lbs, sweetens with storage
Queensland Blue	110	Deep rib, dark blue	Intense orange	~7 lb, good keeper, Australian heirloom
Sibley Winter	100	Gray green	Yellow orange	Heirloom from 1887
Spaghetti	85	Creamy gold	Butter yellow	Japanese heirloom, 1965. Serve with pasta sauce.
Sugar loaf Delicata	100	Tan	Light orange	-
Table Queen	85	Dark green	Yellow	1 squash = 2 serving
Triamble	120	Blue gray	Orange	4 - 12 lbs (3 lobes)
Tahitian Butternut	110	Tan	Golden light orange	Eat raw or baked, 12 or more inches long
Burpee's Butterbush	75	Tan	Red orange	4 ft. long bush, 4 to 5 per plant
Greek Sweet Red	105	Mostly green	Orange	Good insect resistance
Kabocha - Japanese pumpkin squash	100-120	Green	Orange	4 - 6 lbs
Red Kuri	110	Bright orange red	Red-orange	Japanese heirloom - orange Hokkaido, 4 - 7 lbs

Young Red Kuri winter squash wth a blossom 29 August 2009	Immature Spaghetti Squash growing on the fence 19 Sept 2009
Kabocha - Japanese Pumpkin Squash - The One Survivor	Young Blue Hubbard Squash
Marina di Chiogga on 29 August 2009	Queensland Blue on 29 August 2009

Pest and Disease Problems

Various pest problems were encountered, primarily gophers and squirrels but probably also a few rats, birds, and rabbits. Only two gophers were caught early on in the season. Later we quit setting traps because the roots of the plants would have been destroyed by the holes for the traps. The gopher runs tended to be located under the plants such that the plant would be demolished if we did enough digging to set the traps. Other community gardeners set above ground traps which have to be checked every day and they caught a variety of critters.

Critter chewed Red Kuri	Gopher hole that had been hidden by the Early Butternut squash 12 September 2009
Sibley Winter Squash chewed by Gophers	Table Queen after being chewed by critters

Harvesting Results

The first squash were picked on 10 October in preparation for the Field Day on 17 Oct. When available, 2 of each variety were picked for display on our Field Day or for tasting. Squash not taken by our volunteers at the end of the Field Day were donated to the Mountain View Community Services for distribution with the other food they distribute to the needy. The remaining squash were harvested on 24 October. Squash not taken by volunteers were donated to the Sunnyvale Community Services.

 

Squash Harvest Results

Variety	Number of Squash	Number of Pounds
Blue Hubbard (Nichols Garden Nursery	5	89.00
Bon Bon Winter (Nichols Garden Nursery)	4	8.31
Cornell's Bush Delicata (Nichols Garden Nursery)	7	6.40
Early Butternut (Nichols Garden Nursery)	4	8.60
Katy's Sweet Meat (Nichols Garden Nursery)	2	7.43
Marina di Chiogga (Nichols Garden Nursery)	6	51.75
Queensland Blue (Nichols Garden Nursery)	30	221.90
Sibley Winter (Nichols Garden Nursery)	8	38.56
Spaghetti (Nichols Garden Nursery)	8	20.66
Sugar Loaf Delicata (Nichols Garden Nursery)	0	0.00
Table Queen (Nichols Garden Nursery)	0	0.00
Triamble (Nichols Garden Nursery)	5	36.10
Tahitian Butternut (Reimer Seeds)	0	0.00
Burpee's Butterbush (Burpee Seeds)	2	5.60
Greek Sweet Red (Sandhill Preservation)	0	0.00
Kabocha - Japanese pumpkin squash (Hamakua Seed and Supply Co.)	1	4.70
Red Kuri (Pinetree Garden Seeds)	9	19.25
TOTALS	91	518.36

Harvesting Tips

Use clippers or loppers to cut the stems, depending on the size of the vine.

Tasting Results

Tasting Results Sorted by Flavor
(Rated 0-5 with 5 the best)

Variety	Average Texture	Average Flavor	Comments
Tahitian Butternut	4.33	4.57	Very good texture
Early Butternut	3.90	3.90
Triamble	3.81	3.60
Marina di Chiogga	3.74	3.50	Good pumpkin taste
Queensland Blue	3.63	3.21
Kabocha - Japanese pumpkin squash	3.57	3.57
Greek Sweet Red	3.52	3.00
Katy's Sweet Meat	3.00	3.10
Burpee's Butterbush	2.92	3.13	Very good
Bon Bon Winter	2.62	2.90
Red Kuri	2.41	2.64	Too earthy tasting
Blue Hibbard	2.27	2.55
Sibley Winter	2.22	2.55
Spaghetti	1.76	2.30	Too bland

Tasting Results Sorted by Texture
(Rated 0-5 with 5 the best)

Variety	Average Flavor	Average Texture	Comments
Tahitian Butternut	4.57	4.33
Early Butternut	3.90	3.90
Triamble	3.60	3.81
Kabocha - Japanese pumpkin squash	3.57	3.57	Good texture
Marina di Chiogga	3.50	3.74
Queensland Blue	3.21	3.63
Burpee's Butterbush	3.13	2.92
Katy's Sweet Meat	3.10	3.00
Greek Sweet Red	3.00	3.52
Bon Bon Winter	2.90	2.62
Red Kuri	2.64	2.41	Fair texture
Blue Hibbard	2.55	2.27
Sibley Winter	2.55	2.22
Spaghetti	2.30	1.76

McClellan Ranch Team

Team members are listed at the beginning of the report. Some of these members were available to greet the visitors at the Welcome Table and display tables. The Welcome Table included photos of previous activities at the McClellan Ranch Project plus photos taken during the current season. Each variety of squash plant that produced mature squash was on display at the tables plus two varieties donated to replace squash where the plant did not produce or the gophers killed the plants. We had no replacement squash for 3 of the varieties.

References with More Growing Tips

“California Master Gardener Handbook,” Dennis R. Pittenger, Editor, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 3382, page 403. The article also has a table containing “Nutritional Value” information for winter squash.

Objectives for the Coming Year

Build a new fence with critter deterrent extending about 24 inches down into the dirt. The fence will be constructed with fencing to keep out rabbits and other critters that have previously come through the fence This will be quite labor intensive. Build raised beds for at least half of the garden plot with gopher proof material at the bottom of the bed. Ideally the beds will extend several inches below normal ground level. This will also be quite labor intensive. Due to the two above activities, we have not yet decided what we will plant. Several vegetables have been nominated but the voting is incomplete at this time. The vegetable planted may partially be determined by when the fence and beds are completed.