For me, I love growing squash – it is one of my favorite vegetables.
Nothing is more of a
comfort food
on a chilly fall night than a serving of
steaming hot squash!
With so many varieties of squash to choose from and so many ways to prepare it, it's practically the perfect vegetable!
What makes it even more enjoyable is that
it’s a lot of
fun to grow! For years it has been a part
of my garden.
Right
about the first of January I start flipping
through the latest seed catalogs, stalking out
the latest varieties of vegetable seeds as I
plan my garden for the upcoming year.
I have before me my list of "hits and
misses" from
the year before.
Some years I have more misses than hits.
Sometimes wildlife beats me to my crop.
But to me,
gardening is
all about the learning process and the
enjoyment I get out of it.
I always try out something new.
Last year I ordered a totally different kind
of “squash”. I got some Luffa
seeds.
They are a member of the squash family and
once the fruit is ripe, harvested and allowed to
dry you have a natural sponge!
Definitely a fun addition to the garden!
Squash needs growing room, so I place my hills a minimum of 8 to 10 feet apart.
Since I love to grow two or three varieties of squash, the added distance helps to minimize cross pollination.
If you have a small garden with only enough room for one variety of squash, why not convince a friend to plant another variety, and trade?
Squash can be grown in two ways - started from seed, or purchased as starters from your local nursery.
Squash is very sensitive to frost so
it is best to wait until any chance of frost has
passed and the soil temperature has reached a
minimum of 65 degrees.
Then you can safely sow squash seed directly
into the garden
When planting squash seeds I always include two
things:
1. Some fresh compost to help hold the
moisture in the soil
2. Some slow release fertilizer to help feed my newly establishing plants
Editor's note:
To condition the soil, bathe it with
some humic
acid and sea
minerals.
This adds
wonderful nutrients for great
flavor,
and helps to improve the soil.
I generally plant my squash in small hills, as the hills warm quicker than the ground around them and give the squash a bit more room to grow.
I recommend tucking 5
to 6 seeds about one inch deep into each
hill.
As long as the soil temperature is at least
65 degrees, seeds generally take less
than a week to emerge from the ground.
The soil
needs to stay moist during this time, so
I usually water daily.
If I get busy and forget to pick up seeds, or my seeds just don't take, I purchase starter squash plants from a local garden store and transplant them in my garden.
However, I prefer growing squash directly
from seed. I enjoy the thrill of watching those
little plants emerge from ground.
Once the plants begin to sprout and are a few
inches tall, I go back and thin out the weaker
plants to allow the best plants to be my crop
producers.
I always cut off the weaker plants rather than pull them.
This way I don't disturb the roots of the
plants around them.
Once my plants are established, it is time to lay down some mulch.
This helps to keep weed growth at bay so
that my squash plants aren't competing with
weeds for water and nutrients.
If I didn't use mulch, weeds could quickly
overrun the garden.
Mulch also helps to retain moisture, giving plants a stronger root system during times of drought.
Plus, mulch gives me a great place to walk
or kneel when I am working in the garden!
Cucumber Beetles and Squash Bugs can be problem
pests when growing squash, so I always keep my
eyes peeled for these critters.
When they appear I work quickly to
remove and
dispose of them.
FYI, they like to
hide under
the leaf.
These bore into the base of the plant.
Unfortunately, you don’t see them until you
see their hole at the base of the vine with a
little of their white excrement around it.
To prevent squash bores in the first place, some
people wrap the base of the plant with aluminum
foil.
Once you see that you have a Squash Bore, you can slit the stem vertically, extract the Squash Bore, then wrap Glad wrap around the base to seal it up and prevent more bores from invading.
Good site! Read about your squash growing and
love of
winter squash. I usually check and
remove a stem borer,
but when time is short -
I have an alternative I thought I'd share.
I put some soil or mulch on various "junctions"
of the stem
as it grows. It will root. If a
borer gets your main stem,
the plant will
continue to thrive with all its other root
systems.
Just hiked into the center of a huge plant and
found the
main stem to check for borers on a volunteer
hubbard
and was amazed to find several had
been and gone,
main stem pretty much
destroyed - and my plant hasn't
noticed it.
It's still ripening 6 large fruits and looks
healthy.
I should have checked before and gotten the
borers, but
when life gets busy and the
plant is huge - this method can
save it.
I'll look for the pupae when I sift the compost
pile it's in.
You can also inject BT into the stem with a
syringe and it will kill the
borer without
having to slit the stem - I've done this and it
works.
This is
another common squash problem, especially in a
wet environment. Here’s the best way to avoid
it.
I first came across this while visiting Disney World on a family vacation.
There was a wonderful display of vegetables,
including tomatoes, melons and squash that were
all being grown vertically!
This allowed
the fruit/vegetables to hang down from
the plant, resulting in:
It was truly a site to see!
In
closing, growing squash can be a lot of fun, and
is a great plant to add to your vegetable
garden.
It is a vegetable that will keep for months
after harvesting, and with a bit of hard work it
will yield some fantastic results!
(Return from Growing Squash to Vegetable Gardening)
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