Squash & cucumbers
Winter squash
One April sowing runs the season; harvest at the rind test.
- Outside
- Direct Apr, one sowing
- Where
- In ground or raised bed, room to run
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; the finger test decides
- Harvest
- Aug to Oct
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, in the early morning on the soil; skip any week that brings half an inch of rain, and let the finger test set the pace once the vines root in. The crop runs through the dry August stretch, so mulch deep in spring and keep the deep-soak rhythm even.
- Sow
- Direct sow in April, 2 to 3 seeds a half inch deep per hill thinned to the strongest, hills 5 to 6 feet apart with a shovel of compost worked into each. One sowing is the year here: the vines run all summer off that single April date.
- Feed
- Compost dug into each hill starts it; feed fish and seaweed liquid every 2 weeks only once the vines start to run, nitrogen modest so fruit sets clean. Hold all feeding through the July-August heat.
- Ready
- The rind shrugs off a thumbnail and the color runs full and deep; cut with a stub of stem and never carry the fruit by it. Acorn types go straight to storage: curing them actually shortens their keep. Harvest everything ahead of the mid-November frost.
- Trouble
- Sudden wilt with frass low on the stem: squash vine borer, the state sheet's named trouble, prevented with Bt before larvae enter the stems. Cut fruit at the rind test rather than holding ripe ones into fall: hanging mature fruit costs quality. Squash bug and cucumber beetle are on the state sheet's list too; keep the mulch deep and the water steady.
In a bag?
- No
- The Texas container guide lists squash at 5 gallons, but a storage vine that runs all summer wants more root room than the 15 gallon cap holds, and the research verdict files winter squash with the bed crops. Give it the ground.
One April sowing carries winter squash here: the vines run through the summer heat and pay out fruit from late summer into fall that keeps for months.
Growing
Winter squash is a spring crop here: sow in April with the warm season, 1 to 4 weeks after frost on the state table, and let the vines claim the summer. First fruit ripen from August on; cut each at the rind test with a stub of stem, everything ahead of the mid-November frost. Acorn types skip curing: they store best uncured, somewhere cool and dry.
Varieties
The Texas sheet's winter list runs acorn-heavy: Carnival, Ebony, Royal, Table King, Table Ace and Table Queen, plus a butternut group with Waltham in it. Delicata is the one that makes no state list, so beyond those rows the entry stays generic; pick seed on days to maturity and on storage habit.
Pests
Squash vine borer is the named trouble, prevented with Bt before larvae enter the stems; the state sheet's table also lists squash bug and cucumber beetle, with fungicide standing behind the diseases section. Keep the mulch deep and the water steady and let the vines run.
In the kitchen
Winter squash for the fall table is the research's own line: the state sheet serves them baked, halved, and the crop runs the kitchen into winter. The sheets file squash as the ground-cover third of the Three Sisters with corn and beans, so the vine earns its space twice.