Kitchen Garden Forum

I decided to give this variety of squash a go this year for the first time as I understood it to be a more compact plant that many other and I have a small garden. I have had lots and lots of fruit on the plants but none of them have grown much bigger than a golf ball. I prepared the ground with lots of manure in the spring and have fed them regularly with a high potash feed. Disappointed that I haven't got any to over winter. Has anyone got any ideas where I may have gone wrong?

Hello Sharoni, welcome to the forum. Well it sounds like your preparation and care was fine, it is a plant that enjoys warmth, I'm just wondering if it has been too cool and overcast where you are, if you have loads of small ones maybe if you thin out the smaller ones the plant might concentrate it's efforts on growing the other fruits a little more, especially if we get some late sunshine. They usually grow to about 3lb in weight.

Thank you. I do live very high up in South Yorkshire and I think I may have planted them out a bit too soon. Where I put them this year was a bit exposed and it may well have been a little too cold and windy in that spot. I will give them another go and plant them in a more sheltered place next year.

It is helpful to know where you are when answering queeries Sharoni, if you go into profile you can add where you are under location I live in the south and still cover mine when first planting them out till they adjust, an old lampshade frame covered with polythene and pegged down will do if you have no cloches.
Also they don't like root disturbance either, so it pays to plant them in a container the roots can simply grow through.

SharonL wrote:none of them have grown much bigger than a golf ball.

You could add to that: "so far". There is still something of the growing season left, so your fruits may yet get to a decent size, although they may not develop the hard skin they need to store well. Looking out of the window today, though, it does seem like summer is over. But that doesn't mean to say it is yet.

I don't recall Uchiki Kuri being a compact variety. Certainly Gold Nugget is, which has very similar fruits, an onion-squash type.

My neighbour made green tomato chutney at the weekend, which to me seems a bit previous. Tomatoes can continue to ripen right into October. My feeling is they could have given them more time. It may be the same for your squash. It has been a very poor season for them, though.

Hello Sharon
U Kuri is not a compact variety and will roam everywhere given a chance. I would look over what you've got and remove some of the smallest fruits to give the others a chance to get bigger. A good plant should give you at least 3-4 large fruits. Here my winter squash are still growing and I won't cut them until the foliage begins to die down and the squash stalk itself goes a yellow/brown colour. It helps if you move leaves away from the fruit to let it see the sun as this helps the ripening process. Also put something under the fruit to get it up off the damp soil.
Good compact varieties are the 'Table' series eg 'Table Ace', 'Table Gold'. These produce large acorn type winter squash on compact/semi-trailing plants.

Hope this helps

John

I have five squashes growing away, at least I did have the last time I looked. I didn't do anything special, just bunged 'em in. Addendum.Just got back from collecting my FOUR Kuri squashes. Next door told me he had seen the 'kids' kicking one around untill it split. Cheers, Tony.