Aug 18th, 2006
Uchiki Kuri
The pumpkin plants have gone crazy (as it warned me on the packet). There are four plants; one butternut squash, one little red pumpkin (Uchiki Kuri) and two Futsu pumpkins (more on that later).
The little red one has about 7 fruits on it in varying stages of development. I did what the books told me and ‘stopped’ the plants once they fill the space – by pinching out the growing tips (it’s difficult to find them all in the jungle of leaves though). I have been feeding them when I can (with seaweed extract). But we’ve been on holiday so in the dry spell that we had around two weeks ago I didn’t manage to water them at all! It didn’t seem to matter – they grew anyway and a few days ago I noticed that one of the bigger pumpkins had lost its shiny coat and had turned dull – so I picked it. Yum! we had pumpkin pasta and also baked the seeds with oil and salt as a snack. Well worth the wait!
13 Responses to “Uchiki Kuri”
Wow, you are so far ahead of us up North! My squash and pumpkins have only just begun to flower and some of them are still quite small plants so won’t flower for a few weeks yet! Hopefully I’ll get something from them though, it’s been a tough year weather-wise and has made growing anything hard for me.
The weather has been really hard to cope with this year, the first time I havn’t had any decent runner beans! I planted two butternut squash plants, and so far I’ve had lots off flowers but no fruit?
Hi,
Great to see someone else enjoying Uchiki Kuri. They’ve been a great success for me too this year and I’m in the north west. I’ve got them growing round the roof of the polytunnel held up on wires and string, but the outdoor ones are doing just as well. They ripen quickly too.
Come and find me! I’ll put a link to your blog on mine.
Exciting news here – I’ve just got a tiny plot of my own! OK, not exciting for you but I am *very* excited. Have been poring over seed catalogues and just picked out uchiki kuri as worth a shot (also fancy bonbon, anyone tried it?)
Hi
I have featured your site today on http://www.landscapejuice.com because of your photography.
These pictures in my opinion could win awards themselves let alone the produce which looks really great too.
Can I make a constructive critical point?
Please sort out the sizing of the photos because the text is thrown out and it spoils the effect,
It would be good if the menus are aligned too but the site really caught my attention.
All the best
Juicer
I see you were quoted from in the Gaurdian yesterday in a piece about allotments… It’s still online here.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1878958,00.html
Great work, I grew some Uchiki Kuri in the Midlands this year and they are delicious, a definate for next year, In fact I have a plant which is still growing and fruiting! Some of mine grew to the size of small pumpkins which was odd, but they still taste great and make great soup!
How do you “stop” pumpkin. Also ours are the size of a tomato, how do we make them grow larger, they are fed and watered reguarly.
Oct 06/2006
To stop a pumpkin plant you just nip out the growing tips once there are 4 or 5 fruitlets on the plant. This way the plant stops putting all its energy into growing more and starts building up the fruits. Maybe that’s why you have small fruits – just maybe.
We sadly are unable to grow our own right now.
But we got our first uchiki kuri of the year in our veg box yesterday. Woo hoo!
MTP- From a Texan transplanted to Wisconsin, (I now have no idea when to plant anything.), I must say you have the perfect initials for a gardener- Melissa Teaberry Petunia. Good luck with “Your Tiny Plot.” How’s your Futsu pumpkins?
Being unable to find tinned pumpkin down here in the south and being recommended to use Uchiki Kuri pumpkins, how do you cook them and can they be used for Pumpkin Pie?
Hi hope you can help me, i am growing Uchiki Kuri for the first time, I have several fruits, however they grow too the size of a ping ball and then go brown and mushy