Oakes Irrigation Research
Site
Carrington Research Extension Center * North Dakota State University
P.O. Box 531, Oakes, ND 58474-0531, Voice: (701) 742-2189, FAX: (701)
742-2700, email: rgreenla@ndsuext.nodak.edu
WINTER SQUASH VARIETY PERFORMANCE TRIAL, 1997
Richard Greenland, Leonard Besemann, and Heidi Kerlin
Winter squash grow well in North Dakota. A small, but steady, market is available within the state. There are also markets outside the state, especially if squash is stored, then shipped during the winter.
Table 28. Winter squash yields, fruit characteristics, etc.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
| Soil: | Maddock sandy loam, Hecla sandy loam and Embden sandy loam; pH=7.1; 2.1% organic matter; soil-P was high; soil-K was high; soil-S was low. |
| Previous crop: | 1996 - broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage; 1995 - tomato; 1994 - winter squash and pumpkin. |
| Seedbed preparation: | Disked on May 9. Multiweeded (field cultivated) on June 10 to smooth seedbed. |
| Planting: | Seeds planted 1 ft apart in rows 7 ft apart on June 10. On July 17 thinned to an in-row spacing of one plant every 3 ft. |
| Plots: | Plots were 20 ft long by 7 ft (one row) wide. |
| Fertilizer: | On April 23, broadcast 14 lbs N/acre and 70 lbs P2O5/acre as 10-50-0, 16 lbs N/acre and 19 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24, and 94 lbs K20/acre as 0-0-60. Sprayed 50 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 on May 6. Side dressed 50 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 through the drip system on July 22. |
| Irrigation: | Surface drip irrigation as needed. |
| Pest control: | Weeds were controlled by a stale seedbed and by hand weeding. Sprayed Pounce (6 oz/acre on July 9) and Asana (6 oz/acre on Aug 5) to control cucumber beetle. |
| Harvest: | Hand harvested Oct 1 and Oct 2. |
RESULTS
Heart of Gold and Tay Belle were the best acorn type squash. Honey Delight and All Seasons were the best kabocha/buttercup squash. The butternut squash, RWS 4586, had very large fruit and only half of the fruit reached maturity. Most butternut squash have too long a maturity to be grown in North Dakota.
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Table 28. Yields, etc. for the Oakes Irrigation Research Station 1997 winter squash variety performance trial.
| Variety | Seed source† | Squash type | Outside color | Fruit size | Number of fruit | Yield | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US #1 | total | US #1 | total | |||||
| lbs/fruit | ----- 1000s/acre ---- | ----- tons/acre ----- | ||||||
| Heart of Gold | RG | acorn | green/white | 2.3 c‡ | 10.5 a | 13.9 a | 12.1 a | 14.6 a |
| Mesa Queen | HL | acorn | green | 2.3 c | 7.6 b | 10.3 b | 8.7 cd | 11.1 c |
| Table King | FM | acorn | green | 2.3 c | 7.0 bc | 8.8 b | 8.0 cd | 9.6 c |
| Tay Belle | AS | acorn | green | 2.9 c | 7.8 b | 10.7 b | 11.3 ab | 14.5 ab |
| All Seasons | PK | buttercup | orange | 2.5 c | 6.1 c | 10.0 b | 7.8 cd | 11.2 c |
| Honey Delight | ST | kabocha | green | 5.1 b | 2.9 d | 5.2 c | 7.6 cd | 11.7 bc |
| Sweet Mama | ST | kabocha | green | 4.8 b | 2.9 d | 4.5 c | 7.1 d | 10.1 c |
| RWS 4586 | RG | butternut | tan | 8.9 a | 2.1 d | 4.6 c | 9.3 bc | 15.8 a |
| C.V.(%) | 11 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 14 | |||
†See appendix A for seed source
codes.
‡Values in the same column followed by the same letter are
not significantly different at the 0.05 level.
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Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site Variety Performance Trials
Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1997 annual report