Squash & cucumbers
Winter squash (incl. delicata)
Cure before frost.
- Indoors
- 3 to 4 wk (late Apr)
- Outside
- Direct late May to early Jun
- Where
- In ground (vining)
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Deep, infrequent soak; the finger test decides
- Harvest
- Sep to Oct, hard rind
Care
- Water
- A deep soak every 3 to 4 days in the July and August heat, every 5 to 7 as spring and fall cool, always into the soil rather than over the leaves. Once the vines root in they stretch it out; let the finger test set the pace, since a dry-then-drenched swing rots the blossom end.
- Sow
- 2 to 3 seeds a half inch deep per peat pot, then snip to the strongest with scissors rather than tugging. Set delicata and the bush types 18 inches apart, the big vines up to 3 feet, in rows 5 to 6 feet, a shovel of compost in each hill.
- Start inside
- Mat at 85F; the roots resent disturbance, so peat pots that go straight in the ground. Sprouts fast in that warmth, then under the lights 14 to 16 hours. Out to the hills young, before they crowd the pot, once the soil holds 70F from late May into June.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings dug into each hill starts it off. Feed only once the vines start to run, fish and seaweed liquid every 2 weeks, not heavily up front. Keep the nitrogen modest so fruit sets clean instead of rotting at the blossom end.
- Ready
- Ripe about 50 to 55 days after the fruit sets, once the rind shrugs off a thumbnail and the color runs full and deep. Cut with a stub of stem, never carry or pull by it. Cure the storage types for a week or two in a warm, airy spot; delicata eats fresh and skips the cure.
- Trouble
- Wilt with frass low on the stem: squash vine borer, hardest on delicata and acorn, rarely butternut; collar the base in foil and cover through June. Bronze eggs massed under the leaves: squash bugs, scrape them and trap adults under a board. White dust on the older leaves: powdery mildew, which likes dry air, not wet foliage; grow resistant types and dust sulfur below 80F.
In a bag?
- No
- A winter squash vine outgrows a 15 gal bag by midsummer and the roots cook. Give it the ground, or a bed with room to ramble.
Delicata and its storage-shelf cousins: vines sown by early June that pay off in September and keep paying in December. This is the crop still feeding the house long after the beds are mulched.
Growing
Direct sow in ground in late May or early June, or give seeds a three-week head start in pots from late April. Hills six feet apart with a shovel of compost each; the vines will claim the space between whether granted or not. Water deeply and infrequently once established. Fruit is done when the rind resists a thumbnail and the stem corks; cut with an inch of handle, never pull. Bring everything in ahead of the first frost around October 12 and cure two weeks somewhere warm and airy. Delicata skips the long cure and gets eaten first, since it stores for months, not seasons.
Varieties
Bush Delicata packs the house favorite into less vine with real mildew resistance; Honeynut is a half-size butternut with twice the flavor; Waltham Butternut remains the January standby.
Pests
Squash vine borer mostly ignores butternut's solid stems but will take down delicata and acorn; foil collars and a watchful June protect the vulnerable types. Striped cucumber beetles chew seedlings and spread bacterial wilt, so row cover until flowering is cheap insurance. Squash bugs mass on leaves in late summer; a board laid beside the vines collects them overnight for a morning reckoning.
In the kitchen
Delicata halves roast skin-on in twenty minutes, no peeler involved. Butternut runs the soup and holiday circuit, and a cured shelf of squash is the closest the garden comes to a pantry.