squash tips

[Ian_5]

Hi all, would be grateful of some advice based on your experience of growing squash. in previous years i've just let the plants get on with it and had limited success; should i be pinching out the tip once the vine reaches a given size (if so how big?) and should i remove the first fruit (and further fruit?) so the plant puts all it's effort into a small number?

thanks for any help. i'm growing sweet dumpling, crown prince, uchiki kuri, small sugar squash and blue ballet if a different approach is needed for each.

also, i plan on growing the sweet dumpling up a trellis, can i do the same with the kuri?

cheers

ian

[jacob]

Not very helpful, but based on my experience so far, move somewhere warmer...

A local farmer suggested to my OH that we should 'get a cold frame'. We'll see if that helps this year. I'm might just try one in a big pot in the greenhouse.

[chris]

Dig a hole the size of a bucket, fill it with as much manure/compost as you can, cover with soil, and plant it into there. Then stand back

I tend to limit my larger squash (crown prince mainly) to 4 per plant so they ripen in time. Edit: I grow mine in VERY rich ground. I dig out more than a bucket, and line it with wet newspaper etc too - worked well for me when I did it by accident previously (wasn't meaning to plant squash there) so have done it for the past 3 years now I think.

Haven't ever grown them up a trellis though, but would have thought you'd need to tie in some of the vines

[SarahStrawberry]

Too cold here for squash outside but last year I grew Crown Prince Squash in the polytunnel, didn't really know what I was doing or how big it would get and by accident it climbed up one of the supports so I just had to tie it up to help as it went along. Our soil isn't so rich so when the fruits started to appear I had to give it quite a lot of feeding then I only got one huge squash which I had to support using pop socks!!! This year they are in a different place so no supports nearby.

I am also growing sweet lightening this year for the first time so I will read other posts with interest.

[dominic10]

Here on the south coast I grow squash in a previously manured bed in humps with a moat to catch water when watering and about two feet apart. I start my squash in pots and when I plant them out I stick a bamboo cane next to the plant - this helps with weeding/feeding as the hump tends to flatten over time. They are very greedy feeders and I generally use growmore a couple of weeks before I plant out. I pinch out the male flowers to encourage more female flowers. I am growing mainly blue hubbard this year and also some saved seed from crown prince which has probably crossed. Also saved and planted some seed from the rogue pumpkin which grew last year on my plot just for the fun of it. I find it best to harvest the fruits when they are not pumpkin like as they are easier to cut and prepare but there are differing views on this.

[Florence Fennel]

I've got a heap of compost from last year that came out of the tomato buckets. It's been covered in carpet over winter so I'm hoping to grow a couple of pumpkins on there and I'm about to transplant three courgettes into the new growbeds.

[Ian_5]

Not very helpful, but based on my experience so far, move somewhere warmer...

i reckon your probably right but can't see my mrs buying into that! ha i'll have to make the best of what i've got... a philosopy that has served me well enough for the last 29 yrs!

with regard to pollination... do you find it necessary to pollinate by hand? the courgettes i've grown have always been fine without my interference but wondered about the squash..

thanks for the replies so far.

[Ian_5]

Thanks Chris, will give that a try with the newspaper - how much do you need per hole?

also do you find they prefer broadsheet or tabloid - in my experience they're fussy plants.