skip to main content

Vegetable Gardening

how do you plant your squash?

12 years ago

Ive always been told with the vining types to plant in hill 2 to 3 plants per hill. But my packet instruction say to thin to 1 per hill. How do you prefer to do it? It makes sense with the bush varieties but what do i know.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

lori_ny
12 years ago
I am weird but I plant them in rows. I always leave the last 20 feet of my garden for the vining things and let them go crazy. I germinate the seeds inside the house in wet paper towels in ziploc baggies. I plant the seeds about 12 inches apart in the rows and my rows are 4 feet apart. I let all the winter squashes and gourds intermingle when they vine out and I've gotten great yields ( except for sweet dumplings and delicatas)

The hill method never worked for me because I have severely clay soil and when I would water, it didn't penetrate and ran off the mound LOL! Now I make my rows a little recessed and the water and fertilizer stays where I want it to.
feijoas
12 years ago
My soil is very sandy and dries out fast. Like Lori, I go down rather than up: I dig out some sand/soil, throw on lots of compost and whatever else I have around, sling an old tyre over the spot as a heat-sink, plant a couple of seeds, water heavily, pile on a ridiculous amount of mulch, keeping the seeds clear-ish.
I'm pretty confident using the tyres is a bad idea toxin-wise *shrug*
Related Discussions
'Staging' your plantings - how do you do it for containers?
Q
Comments (7)
OOS - it's cool to find someone else interested in gardening in So. Westchester. I find remarkably few people garden in the area. What's your favorite nursery around here? I like Nabel's in Mamaroneck. Putting plants together in a container is like flower arranging with a moving target - how can I economically and easily keep a series of mixed containers in continuous display? Maybe I'm over-thinking this (it wouldn't be the first time), but I practice intensive cultivation on my vegetable beds, why not in my containers? My interest in mixing annuals and perennials is in part because I bought a bunch of dwarf bulbs on sale and need to justify it to my wife ("it's an investment, sweetheart!") and because I enjoy seed starting annuals and need a new project once everything's planted in the veg garden. Redneck and Gary, I think what you do is closer to my goals than the style OOS uses, since I'm interested in a mix of plants in a series of larger planters (although OOS's backyard filled with a variety of individual containers is maybe the same thing on a larger scale). But you're both from more temperate zones - I don't even think about winter for my outdoor containers (although maybe I can overwinter some ivies and such in the house). I love the idea Redneck proposes of using ferns (I love ferns but haven't ever grown them), but most of my containers are in full sun so they would probably bake. BTW, yes, they are dwarf cannas. I guess utlimately what the original post was trying to ask is whether the best way to maintain a larger mixed container is to plant it up all in one go with enough foresight that it looks good for 4-6 months or whether you should constantly be moving new plants in and out as I do in my veg beds. And if you're going to move new plants in and out, do you start in a series of smaller containers and move them to new containers when they're at their peak? With either approach, what plants work well? It's interesting that everyone named perennials for the most part - I had envisioned more reliance on annuals. I'm going to follow up with a separate post asking for ideas for good container annuals started from seed...
...See More
How do you treat your Clivia plants in the winter months?
Q
Comments (36)
Give them light. Withhold water for up to 10 weeks. I wouldn't wait for a sign they're going to bloom. I have about three dozen, and they are several different kinds. Some bloom reliably in February and March. Many don't bloom until I put them outside. Since I don't really have a cold place, most of mine actually bloom in June after about two months living outdoors. I think the cold nights they get at that time help. Once they are about five years old, almost all of them have bloomed every year regardless of how I care for them in winter. One thing I think does help is to feed them regularly in spring and summer. I use a 3-1-2 NPK formula with all minors.
...See More
How are you guys doing for your fall plantings?
Q
Comments (33)
Fall crops, those are dirty words at my house this year. The past weeks highs have been in the upper 90's flirting with 100 several times. We had a cool spell in early August and I got radishes, haikuri turnips and carrots planted. We have been harvesting for two weeks now on the radishes. They do have a strong radish flavor but not bad. I have also seeded two more plantings after that and some daikon radishes. I want to get another planting in, maybe two, before I start planting them in the hoop buildings. I got a second planting of carrots in and the kids and I spent about 2 hours weeding them by hand. I know I flame weeded about 12 hours too soon, but 13 hours after I flame weeded, we got two inches of rain. That really brought up the second round of weeds. Fall tomatoes are looking ok. We have started picking a few. I wish they were further along because the markets are really low on tomatoes and customers are wanting them bad. Most amature home gardners tomatoes are done for the season. My June planting got stunted by the heat and are just now coming out of it. They would have been perfect to pick now. cherry tomatoes have more blooms than leaves! They are crazy! I hope those sales stay up this fall. I will have tons! I have 1200 plus seedling (various lettuces, napa cabbage, mustards bok choy, Tokyo bekana, cilantro, Swiss chard, 3 types of kale, and other stuff. My new problem is aphids. Not on my seedlings, but on my cucumbers between the two high tunnels I was planning on planting my fall stuff. I mowed off the cucs ( very sad day) sprayed everything excessively and I hope to knock them out. Now I need to tear out all the tomatoes and clean everything out. I want to wait a week after I tear out the tomatoes until I transplant in again.. Till up the ground and get things planted again and hope and pray I don't get another aphid infestation. I need to start another 800 seedlings, but I am behind! It is just so hot that I don't want to work in the high tunnels in the afternoons, after school. I also still am going to two markets a week. I may have to skip one to get caught up. Enough about my worries. Jay
...See More
How do you plant your bedding plants?
Q
Comments (4)
Thoroughly molesting the roots can do damage, but as long as you are not seeing lots of the tiny new whitish roots breaking off, you are OK. Allowing all the smallest roots to dry out can cause more setback than breaking a few. What I do is take a kitchen fork and rough up the smooth surfaces of the unpotted growing medium. I do attempt to straighten major wrapped-around roots. That can require enlarging the planting hole a lot. The planting hole should have a slightly loosened bottom and sides that taper outward. Refill the hole with soil a couple of inches at a time, packing the soil firmly around the plant roots with fingertips. If the sides of the hole are very firm, loosen them up with the fork. The whole idea is to leave the plant in soil that is firmly packed, but does not have a sudden transition to hard ground near the plant. It probably requires more experience to get the correct planting depth after firming up the soil, as one sees many planting efforts where the plant ends up in a depression or on a mound with some root exposed. By firmly packed, I mean with fingertips or for larger areas, tamping with the blade of a hoe. Unpacked or sudden soil transitions leads to the area depressing or cracking after watering or rains. You have done a good job if these do not occur to a major degree in the first month after planting. My method applies to potted plants up to several gallons; it is not as critical for little 6-packs. I would not make any claims it is the best way, but I have never lost a plant to poor planting methods.
...See More
User
12 years ago
I use hills, leaving two vines. That way, if pests or disease get one, the other might survive.

I find that it really doesn't make a lot of difference in the yield. Two vines sharing a hill will produce fewer fruits apiece, a single vine, more. The definitive factor is the growing area.
sunnibel7 Md 7
12 years ago
I don't do vining squash, but I do bush squash and vining melons both in wide rows. I put them in the center of the bed spaced one plant at a time at the appropriate spacing. With our high humidity here, I prefer to give plants room to have good airflow.
t-bird
12 years ago
Thanks for this topic! i also have been confused on 'hills' and have even heard at least one place that a 'hill' is not mounded ground, but just a spot where you sow multiple seeds...why is that called a hill then - idk.....in the beginning - I did the hills but was always frustrated that the packet said "hills" but didn't say something like 6" high and 10" wide, or 2" high and 5" wide or whatnot. When I did the hills, they all washed away with watering or rain before seedling emergency - so what's the point?

i just did 2 seeds experimentally in one of raised beds, and they are up - well at least one as of my morning peeking... it is that "Trombetta di Albenga" seed my first try at it, and i am beyond excited - 1 to sample it's tasty goodness.

I planted 2 before i read the instructions carefully, which said to sow 3- 4 seed 1" apart and thin to strongest seedling, having the next group 12 inches apart.

Did only 2 because i didn't want to potentially waste 3-4 seeds on this early planting fraught with the unknown temps ahead, but I am not a thinner nature.

1 - what a waste of seeds! i will only save seeds from the best plants of course (just a notice at this so far, and certainly not up to the complexity of curcubit seed saving). If a plant is truly performing subpar, you can take it out at any time, but to decide which is best at 7-10 days old - well one of the seeds cracked at day 3 instead of day 6 so it's bigger....not sure if that is a recommendation for it beyond a fast germinator.

2 - I know i'm a little nuts - but i feel some sense of responsibility to these things I have called into life. Nursing and fussing and coaxing them to live, I can't just cut them down as they emerge....I'd much rather plant the seeds for the number of plants I want, and then replant where there are holes. that's generally just 2 weeks or so, and give a bit of succession planting into the timeline (which i'm always not doing, lol.....I never saw a space i didn't fill to capacity with available seed, and then wonder where I'm going to plant the rest of the garden, lol!)

Anyhoo - so I've been doing it flat seeding, no thinning, with good results.

I had an early yellow crookneck last year, planted 3 seeds, they all popped up, and went their separate ways, one e one s one w and it ended up taking up 1/2 of a 4x8 bed. Lots of produce!

Did the same thing with a white scallop in another bed - only 2 came up, they got mad at each other and 1 went n and 1 went south, good yields and ds' fav summer squash so far!

My biggest problem is NOT giving them enough space because in early spring I cannot conceive of how big they are going to get!

Related Stories

EDIBLE GARDENS Summer Crops: How to Grow Squash

By Marianne Lipanovich

Almost foolproof and with cheerful flowers, squash comes in a wide range of varieties to plant in spring

EDIBLE GARDENS Garden BFFs? Why Your Vegetables Are Begging for Companion Plants

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

Foster friendships among plants for protection from pests, pollination support and color camaraderie

GARDENING GUIDES 6 Plants That Beat Butterfly Bush for the Wildlife Draw

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

It's invasive, a nonnative and a poor insect magnet. Check out these better alternatives to butterfly bush in the garden

GARDENING GUIDES Edible Plants That Double as Ornamentals

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

Try growing these tasty plants with your ornamentals for an attractive garden and fresher meals

GARDENING GUIDES Small Carpenter Bees Are Looking for a Home in Your Plant Stems

By Pollination Press LLC

Provide flowers and nesting sites in your garden for this beautiful, tiny, metallic blue wild bee — your plants will thank you

GARDENING GUIDES The Secret Formula for Grouping Plants in a Pot

By Margie Grace - Grace Design Associates

Designing a gorgeous container garden is easy once you know this simple rule of thumb for composition

EDIBLE GARDENS Keep Track of Your Vegetable Garden With Plant Markers

By Abundant City

Bring order to your edible beds with these labeling ideas

HOUZZ TOURS My Houzz: A Woodsy Home Welcomes Animals and Plants

By Louise Lakier

An open-hearted couple builds a home in the forest that shows a love of the land and (almost) all of its inhabitants

FARM YOUR YARD Houzz Call: Home Farmers, Show Us Your Edible Gardens

By Stacy Briscoe

We want to see where your tomatoes, summer squashes and beautiful berries are growing this summer

GARDENING GUIDES Join Us for a Parade of Pumpkins

Fall eye candy: Get to know 9 winter squash varieties, including Long Island Cheese and Blue Hubbard

Sponsored

MCR ROMERO WORK LLC

Innovative & Creative General Contractors Servicing Franklin County

More Discussions

gave my garlic a haircut today

14

Al's Potting Mix-pine bark fines

6

Potato mold, disease or fungus?

15

Overnight low of 43 - peppers ok?

2

More bite marks

1