All squashes, pumpkins and marrows take approximately 16 weeks from
anthesis to seed maturity.
The rind has hardened and usually changed colour; green types change to a yellow-orange colour and the yellow-golden types change to a straw colour.
Large-scale production fruit may be placed in windrows ready for the
mobile thresher and extractor. Alternatively they are left on the mother plant
for a vine harvester to pass through the field.
The fruits of some cucurbits such as winter squashes are relatively dry by
the time the seed is mature and ready for extraction.
In this case water has to be introduced into the separator to wash the seeds free from the fruit debris.