Please find for sale 10 Gem Squash seeds. These are as fresh as they are going to get - from my Aug/Sept 2022 harvest. Utterly, butterly delicious! Picture shows the remains of a recent Gem Squash lunch!! ALL ORDERS RECEIVED BEFORE 8PM MON-FRI WILL BE DISPATCHED SAME DAY If you are South Africa, you will know what these are so no need to read further! For everyone else here’s what you need to know…. I am a person who does not generally like the taste & textures of pumpkins, squashes or even courgettes. However, South African friends kept banging on about how they missed Gem Squashes so I thought I would give a go. First things first, Gem Squash grows really well in the UK & I noticed that they ripened well before my pumpkins or butternut squash so I would imagine these would grow well all over the UK. More importantly is the taste Cut them in half, scoop our the seeds pop in the oven or microwave for 4 mins. Add a knob of butter, salt, pepper & also paprika - totally yummy! The flesh is not slimy - it has a texture more similar to floury potato varieties. I am going to start a personal crusade to encourage more Brits to get these in their gardens or allotments Growing Instructions Best sown in pots in March/April - 2 seeds inch deep per pot. Keep seedlings warm (18-22oC) compost evenly moist - water little & often. Can be planted outside after frost risk passed. Can be trained up frames, netting etc or just left to trail on the ground Feed with balanced liquid fertiliser every 2 weeks once flowering. Cut fruits to harvest - ripe when cant get fingernail into the end. Olly’s General Guide to Seed Sowing! I love sowing seeds & it runs in the family - dad, grandad & finally my great-grandad for whom the hobby helped him get over his experiences in the Great War. I still get a big kick when I see the first seedling poking through from a new plant that I have never sown before or been successful at. However, even the most experienced gardeners draw blanks from time to time. Whilst I sow all the seeds that I sell so I know that they are viable, some are trickier than others & problems can arise so here are some tips to make blanks few & far between: 1) Dont Rush! Tempting though it is when that packet arrives in the post to simply bung the seeds in some compost! 2) Google & Youtube are your friends! Take some time so see the methods other people use to germinate the seed. 3) Think Nature! What conditions do seeds face? For example a seed from a tropical plant will fall to the warm, wet & dark jungle floor. A seed from the mountains of Europe will fall to the floor in Autumn, then have to endure months of freezing temperatures before germinating in the spring. So as growers, what we are trying to do is to simulate the conditions that the seeds will naturally experience & there are plenty of tricks that can be done to short cut the processes somewhat. 4) Good compost pays dividends . The best investment you can make is to purchase three bags -
