From tomatoes to strawberries and everything in-between, there’s nothing like enjoying fresh produce from your own garden throughout the summer--and the joy of a delicious harvest applies to fall squash, too! Pumpkin season is almost here, and with it comes gourds of every size, shape, and purpose. This month, I want to share some of the joys (and struggles!) of growing the signature fruit of fall, as well as the many ways you can enjoy them. It’s not always easy to grow squash, especially if you prefer using organic methods, but the hard work in the summer pays off as we move into fall.
When you grow your own squash plants, you can enjoy fun and interesting varieties that you wouldn’t be able to find at the grocery store (or even some local markets). Have you ever heard of the hilarious and edible Black Futsu Butternut Squash? It’s a Japanese delicacy with bumpy, gray and pink skin. Or how about the fairy tale-inspired Musquee de Provence pumpkin, which is sold in France as cut wedges? These fascinating varieties may be hard to find unless you grow them yourself, and seeds can be obtained from various online catalogs such as Johnny’s Seed Co. and Baker Creek. Both of these websites feature a wide variety of seeds, ranging from flowers and herbs to fruits and vegetables--and squash, of course. I have found seeds for some of my favorite squash varieties in these catalogs, along with a variety of other strikingly colorful and unique produce seeds. I would also recommend exploring Eden Brothers, which is where I found a delightfully sweet little squash called Honeynut. With these seed catalogs, you can fill your gardens with all the unique squash varieties you could want!
Along with the joy of harvesting exciting heirloom squash in the fall, squash plants are a wonderful addition to your garden because of their many benefits and possible uses. Pumpkins are considered a Superfood because they are high in vitamin C, fiber, and many other essential nutrients. Plus, pumpkin seeds contain protein and Zinc, which is necessary for proper absorption of vitamin C, making pumpkins the perfect winter food for immunity to seasonal colds! Other squash varieties can be used for crafts, like fall décor, birdhouses, or loofahs. Plus, there’s no need to worry about wasting any squash if you end up with a large harvest, depending on the variety you grow: winter squash are specially cultivated for long winter storage, so you can enjoy your favorite squash for months after harvest! I tell anyone who will listen that sweet, thick-fleshed squash varieties like Porcelain Doll are wonderful in smoothies with vanilla and cinnamon. I like to remove the skin and chop my squash, then blanch and freeze them--and voila! I can have my favorite smoothie all year until my next fall squash harvest.
Growing squash is almost as fun as harvesting and enjoying it--as long as common pests and problems are avoided. Squash and pumpkins are happiest in full sun, with an inch of water per week. Squash are also heavy feeders, which means that they take up a lot of soil nutrients; so be sure to provide good compost and natural fertilizers to help them along throughout the summer. Gardeners typically wait until the first frost of the fall season to harvest the fruit, which are much easier to find once the giant squash leaves die off. Your squash should have a rich, solid color (depending on the variety) and the skin should resist puncture when pressed gently with a fingernail. Your hard-earned squash fruit can then be stored for weeks or months, depending on the variety! Be sure to leave a few inches of stem on your squash to promote longer preservation. I highly recommend exploring The Old Farmer’s Almanac for a more detailed overview on growing pumpkins and squash.
If growing squash and pumpkins sounds too good to be true, that’s because sometimes, it is. Squash are fast-growing and large plants, but can be sensitive to insect damage, fungal or bacterial diseases, and other common problems. I’ve discovered a few tricks to help keep my squash plants healthy, and encourage you to try some of these if you are growing your own squash and pumpkin plants!
- Grow resilient varieties. A great way to avoid common problems is to avoid planting squash varieties that are susceptible to those problems in the first place. If vine-borers have been a problem for you in the past, try avoiding squash of the Cucurbita maxima species, which have hollow and sensitive stems and include certain heirloom pumpkins, giant pumpkins, Hubbard squash, and others. Zucchini and summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) also tend to be sensitive to borers. Cucurbita moschata varieties like butternut squash, acorn squash, honeynut squash, and mini pumpkins and gourds have stronger and more resilient stems. If powdery mildew has been an issue in your garden, try looking for disease-resistance codes when you’re shopping for seeds online.
- Companion plant and rotate crops. Companion plants like radish, nasturtium, and marigold can help keep pests from munching on your squash plants, so keep companion planting in mind when you are planning out your garden in the spring. Also remember to rotate your crop locations every year, so that squash are not planted in the same location every year. Many squash and pumpkin pests (like vine borers and cucumber beetles) overwinter in the soil where pumpkins were last planted, and will have a much easier time finding your plants if they are sown in the same place every year.
- Use row covers. Row covers work wonders to help your plant grow fast and healthy in the springtime, making them more hardy and resilient to disease and pests. Secure row covers over your plants and use rocks, bricks, or a little extra soil to secure them to the ground around your plant, and be sure to keep the cloth from touching the plant. Whenever the plants are too big to fit comfortably beneath the row covers, or if the plant begins to flower, I remove my row covers to allow for pollination. Cheesecloth and mesh curtains can be used as an alternative to actual row covers as well. Row covers give your plant a great head-start, and they’ll be happy and healthy come summertime!
- Check in with your plants daily. Throughout the spring, I like to spend a little time with my seedlings every morning making sure that they are healthy; this way, any infections, pests, nutrient deficiencies, or other issues can be detected quickly and taken care of before the plant faces severe damage. This is especially important if cucumber beetles or squash bugs have been an issue in your garden in previous years, since they can cause severe damage to a squash seedling in a matter of hours! Some gardeners pick the bugs off by hand and drop them into soapy water to kill them. To be honest, I don’t even bother with the soapy water and just squish the bugs in my hand. If you’re not feeling particularly homicidal towards bugs, though, I would still recommend checking on your plants daily, and using other methods to deter beetles and squash bugs if you see an abundance of them.
- Use the ol’ trusty tin foil method. If you haven’t heard of the tin foil method to prevent squash vine borers from ruining your pumpkin crop, I’m about to change your life. As soon as my squash seedlings have developed a few true leaves, wrap a one to two inch strip of aluminum foil around the base of your squash vine, starting just below the soil. That way, vine borers have a much harder time finding a part of the plant’s fragile vine to bore into. I’ve used this method for a few years now, and even though it doesn’t prevent borers entirely, it will keep your plants safe throughout most of the growing season. Just remember to check on your squash and loosen the tin foil every two weeks as the squash vine grows.
- Use fungicidal baking soda. Powdery mildew infects squash and pumpkins quickly, and can damage and eventually kill plants. Plus, it’s extremely easy to inadvertently spread the infection from plant to plant via gardening tools or gloves. To keep powdery mildew from growing on your squash and pumpkin leaves, spray them once a week with one tablespoon of baking soda and half of a teaspoon of biodegradable liquid dish soap (Bronner’s Peppermint soap works great!) diluted in one gallon of warm water. I recommend spraying them early in the morning, as dew is beginning to evaporate but the sun isn’t too hot on your plants yet. Spraying when it’s too sunny can burn the leaves.
My last tip for growing healthy squash plants only applies to the smaller varieties, and that is to grow vertically! Varieties like butternut, honeynut, mini gourds, and loofah gourds can be grown vertically on a trellis, allowing the vine to climb up instead of along the ground and fruit to hang down from the trellis instead of coming into contact with the soil. This is a wonderful growing method to provide better airflow to the plants, which increases resilience to fungal infections, bacterial blight, and other squash diseases. It also makes it easier to manage the plants as they grow upward as opposed to trailing on the ground and becoming tangled with one another. Plus, allowing the fruit to hang away from the ground keeps them from becoming waterlogged or munched on by critters. Most importantly, growing plants vertically saves a lot of garden space! My favorite way to grow squash is on an arch, which looks beautiful and is easy to manage. I just gently weave the vines through the trellis as they begin to grow, and eventually they began to climb the trellis on their own.
Hog panels work really well as archways or vertical trellises, as they are strong, sturdy, and able to bend into an arch or curve as desired. My Honeynut squash hang down from the trellis, protecting them from moisture and munching critters close to the ground.
Some gardeners prefer not to grow their squash vertically, because some varieties don’t do well with this growing method. Squash plants that produce larger fruit can be grown on a trellis, but the fruit needs to be closely monitored as it grows and secured to the trellis with a mesh cloth or other breathable material, to keep the fruit from weighing down on the vine and even breaking it. Also, squash varieties with sensitive, hollow stems (like Valenciano or Porcelain Doll) tend to do well without a trellis, because the plant will be more resilient to stem damage if it can produce more root suckers that reach into the soil.
However you grow your squash, I hope you have a beautiful harvest this year! If you don’t grow your own squash but are still looking to enjoy the local harvest this year, consider supporting local farms like Spicer Orchards and Fawcett Farms. Each farm has a nice variety of edible squash, decorative gourds, and of course the classic Jack O’ Lantern come mid to late September. Have a beautiful fall and enjoy those squash!