A first for me, one of my storage Moschata squash has a pattern returning as it maybe over matures?
Anyone else have this happen and know if it’s still any good eating?
I’m selecting for long storage, and don’t want to cut it open prematurely if it’s still fine.
In my experience if a moschata gets darker like that it’s starting to get a bad spot inside. Or the fermenty spongey inside.
You might find out that seeds started to germinate inside. As long as there is no visible soft, darker, moldy spots, it is still good for eating, but I’d do it fast. I take to the kitchen any squast that expresses any unusual change in coloration at this time of the year. It is surely not getting better.
I’m going to save it’s seeds this generation because the flesh is intoxicatingly sweet smelling. And raw it tasted very sweet and starchy, so another excellent roasting squash.
If this trait reappears next year I’ll leave it even longer to see what happens. Thanks everyone who offered advice!
This is what I do with all Winter Squash when I am breeding / selecting for long storage types. I try to hand pollinate one fruit from each plant and then at harvest time I put a masking tape tag on each stem to identify which plant they came from. Lets assume for example that I have three plants and they are identified like this:
1 X
1 op
2 X
2 op
3 X
3 op
All the squash with an “X” on the tag means they were “selfed” in the garden by hand pollination and all the ones with “op” were open pollinated by the bees. I will let all the “X” squash finish ripening and maturing seed for about a month and then will start cutting them open and saving the seeds and then cooking and “taste testing” them an taking notes on which ones taste the best and anything else that is important to note about that particular squash. The date is recorded as part of the information as well as the weight of the squash in “pounds:ounces” format. Yes, I weigh every squash at harvest and this information is written on the masking tape on the stem. I let all the “op” squash sit on the storage shelf for as long as they can and when one starts to show a very tiny bad spot I make a note of it. Usually in a week or so this tiny bad spot will get bigger showing me that this squash has reached its full life expectancy. When I cut open these squash I cut right through the bad spot with my knife so I can verify that it was really starting to spoil. Then I cut around this bad spot and discard the defect and then cook and eat the rest of the squash and take notes on flavor, texture etc. like I did with the others. Then in the spring at planting time I read through all my notes (usually several pages of “one liners”) and decide which ones have (1) the best flavor and (2) the best keeping abilities and plant only the best ones. My notes might look something like this:
10-25-2025 5:1 1X nice orange color, flavor ok
10-27-2025 4:15 2X really good flavor!! Better than 1X!
11-2-2025 4:12 3X so-so average flavor
1-25-2026 4:8 3op two bad spots, blah flavor
2-11-2026 5:3 1op shrinking flavor is ok
9-25-2026 4:10 2op slightly skin wrinkles, flavor still good
So obviously plant #2 had the best flavor and the longest keeping ability. Plant #1 had the largest size and #3 started spoiling first and the flavor wasn’t good enough to be a winner. In this instance I would replant the seed from #2 the next year.
I have been doing the above procedure with several breeding lines for about 5 years so this next summer I just might let the bees do the work and focus on breeding another crop, but I will still be selecting for good flavor and long keeping abilities.
I also like to breed other crops like Flour Corn, Dry Beans, Tomatoes and a few other crops as well. I started around 30 - 35 years ago. Still more to learn though… 
That dark coloration is caused by type of bacteria. As far as I know there are several of them, some of which make patterns of their own (some are like spirals/circles). I have had it quite often. Not really any harm from it in terms of taste or storage, just looks a little ugglier. What you have there is that in parts it has made it transparent and shows the pattern (most clearly top of the fruit), but partially it’s just darker from that bacteria. I haven’t personally paid attention if there has been return of the old patterns. Suppose that there has been, but I just haven’t noticed that.
