what to feed butternut squash before they feed me!

[queen of the cobs]

Evening all,

Am so excited have found 3 tiny squah developing on 2 of my plants. One is in pot and I've just let it sprawl, the other is in the ground and am training it around a sort of netting teepee. I have 4 other squash in the ground which I planted out at the beginning of may and they are looking a little ropy - the ones that are bearing fruit are the ones that I kept in the greenhouse till the beginning of june - will certainly be doing that again.

I haven't fed any them anything so far - but now they are fruiting I feel like helping them along a bit. Can I feed them the ubiquitous tomato food, or should they have something else?

all advice on squash very happily received.

[Peter]

They are greedy plants.

One of the best ways to plant them is in a pocket of soil in a manure heap.
Pot grown is not likely to produce decent fruits.
Growbag with tomato feed probably will.
Grown in the ground, after decent manureing of said ground is best.
A mulch of carpet or weedproof plastic membrane is advised as you cannot hoe amoungst the sprawling vines.
Water well in dry periods as fruits can crack if wet weather follows a dry spell and the plants will wilt rapidly if underwatered.

The plants will die at the first frost, the leaves almost melt with the frost as these are very watery plants.

[Alice]

Hello Queen of the Cobs. My squash grown in 12" containers last year did great. Well I think so anyway. I got 3 big squash off each plant. The containers were 50/50 compost and manure. I fed them with some phostrogen in the water at each watering until friuts appeared when I added some tomorite to the water at each watering. I'm following the same pattern this year and it seems to be working well - but too early to talk about results. Hope your squash do great.

[dixeychick]

I'm growing squash (Avalon) for the first time this year in a very large pot (my courgette is in another pot the same size & that seems to be doing ok). I've been a bit unsure if I've been doing the right thing but our garden is still a work in progress so growing room is limited. Thank you Alice - I feel better now & I'll keep feeding that squash!

[CandJ]

We grew them last year on the lottie and they just went and went and went and spread and spread and spread. Rather embarassed to say that we didn't feed them at all, or water them much either but rather just let them get on with it and they were excellent. They trailed along the ground for up to 10 metres so give them room, and they rather cunningly climbed up our Swecorn cage too. Off about 6-8 plants we got about 50 squashes which we kept in the understairs cupboard and were still eating in January. I love them.

[Alice]

Jings CandJ - 10 metres long. Mine grew about 8 feet (bit over 2 metres) and I thought they took space. Hope mine don't go raj this year!

[Salina]

I just got back from a weeks holiday and my first ever squash seedlings have appeared, only 3 didn't germinate so I have 7 seedlings total.
I was just planning on planting them into bigger pots when they need it like I have done with my courgettes, does anyone know if they will they produce decent sized fruits if I do this? I've also attached a picture of mine that I took today lol.

[Alice]

Yes, they will produce decent sized fruits in pots if you feed them Salina. Can I say when you pot them on be careful not to plant them deeper than they are now or the stems are liable to rot. Here's some squash grown in a pot last year (and the last of last years peppers) The variety was Butternut Sprinter.

[nick nack]

Alice

Got back from my hols late last night. Went into the garden this morning and found one of my pumpkins has decided to take over the lawn. First time growing pumpkins wondering if I can prune it to prevent it spreading anymore?

NN

[Alice]

Hello Nick Nack, yes you can prune back your pumpkin, or redirect it to where you want it to go. Hope you get monster fruits.

[nick nack]

Thanks for the info Alice.

[vicpivo]

I'm getting a little scared!

I planted one squash in the corner of my plot a few months ago, and I have given it 2 square metres to sprawl. I have just put lots of well rotted horse muck around it so by the sounds of your experiences It will need more space or taming.

I'm like the sound of the yield. If I can get 10-12 sqaushes of one plant I will be happy!

[Alice]

Vicpivo, if I got 10 - 12 squashes off a plant I would be ecstatic. Last year I got 3 squash per plant, sprawling about 8 feet. They were growing in 12" pots. Maybe in compost heaps or the open ground they would do better, but I doubt 12. Anybody done better ?

[vicpivo]

C&J seems to know how to handle the squashes! From 6-8 plants you managed 50 Squashes - how????

My maths is obviously a little out, 7 sounds good -Let me know your secrets!