Squash is a very broad category. You have zucchini, pumpkin, gourds, and a huge selection of squash varieties in between. There are two sub categories – winter squashes and summer squashes (and you could probably make gourds your third type)
Winter squash
Winter squashes are pumpkin-like squashes. Winter squashes are good for long term storage, as they have a thick skin.
Unlike what you may think, squashes are not winter hardy perse, but they are tolerant to the occasional light frost. When the temperature dips below 28F, then you will start to lose your squashes. Therefore it is generally recommended to pick your squash before serious frost sets in. The reason they are called winter squashes is because you mostly harvest them in the fall, and they can be stored for a nice winter meal. Most winter squashes are vining squashes, meaning they will climb with tendrils.
Summer squash
Summer squashes are super prolific, they love spring summer and fall, and when not eaten by squash bugs, you will have an abundant harvest of piles and piles of zucchini and summer squash. Their skin is thin so they do not cater towards long term storage. You can freeze this squash, and make items like zucchini bread though, and since these are such mild versatile veggies, you can eat them so many different ways! Most summer squashes are bushy plants.
Both summer and winter squash love the heat in summer. They do not like to have their leaves wet though as that makes them prone to powdery mildew. Summer squashes tend to mature quickly with squashes like white scalloped squash maturing in about 50 days!
Winter squashes can take upward of 85 days to give you a harvest and they are generally not as prolific as summer squashes though they definitely compete in pounds of harvest!
A Bit of Squash Anatomy
Squash flowers have a gender! It kind of reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was a teacher in Kindergarten Cop where this kid proclaims: “boys have a penis and girls have a vagina!” Squashes are just like that!
The male squashes have a anther that is one singular appendage with pollen on it
The female squashes have a cushiony stigma within the flower and a thickening under the flowerhead.
In early spring, there are not as many pollinators at work in the garden so I pick the male flower, and peel away the petals and then I stick the anther on the female flower to transfer the male pollen. This helps with getting the fruit to form.
You can also eat squash flowers, you can dip them in batter and fry them!
Squashes will grow male flowers first in abundance and then when the pollinators are aware, then the females follow! The males act like a lure for pollinators that way!
Control of Garden pests
Squash bugs, armyworms, cutworms, vineborers etc., are some bugs that will destroy your plant and/ or your harvest! Thankfully, if you start insect control with BT early, then you can keep these creatures at bay and then you get to enjoy your harvest instead! Starting insect control before the flowers appear works best! I use BT because it is organic. If I am going to eat my produce I do not want to lace it with poison.
If you pick the bottom squash leaves below the flowers you can ensure that the energy goes to the fruit and not to the leaves.Give squash about 2 square feet of space! You can plant them under your tomatoes! They love a good balanced fertilizer and calcium, you can save your eggshells, crush them up and lay them around the stem.
Squash as a Trap Crop
A squash such as blue hubbard squash lends itself perfectly as a trapcrop, these ginormous squashes can be planted away from your other squashes to serve as trap crop. and they are attractive to your garden pests so they will venture to your blue hubbards instead of your zucchini. You will want to consistently spray your blue hubbard vine with spinosad regularly at night, so you make sure that your pests are meeting their demise! I would mark yur trapcrop squash as a do. Ot eat since it is intended as a bug catcher!
I will be discussing how you grow squash in a separate article, though I do want to share that I get my squash seeds at Mary’s Heirloom seeds,… she has heirloom squashes with a super high germination rate, and they are all delicious! I actually have an ammo can filled with squash seed packets… squash is such a versatile food!
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