It truly isn’t very hard to learn how to grow winter or butternut squash. And if you already have a garden in your backyard, it’s even easier.
Winter & Butternut Squash Growing Guide
Squash is considered by professional green thumbs to be one of the absolute easiest vegetables to grow. This makes it a perfect match for the gardener who hasn’t yet done much gardening. Squash is, in essence, a beginner grower’s best pick.
These veggies love the heat, so if you live in a cooler climate, you may want to check with your local nursery or home and garden store to ask which varieties may grow the best in your neighborhood.
However, summer squash matures in fifty days or less, so if your summers are warm enough where you live, you may just get away with it anyway.
In the following sections, we’ll take a look at how to grow squash in your own garden or patch and then offer you some hints and tips to make sure your crop is the best it can possibly be.
How to Grow Squash: A Simple Guide
Learning how to grow squash really is an easy task. Here’s a step by step guide to get your own patch started this year:
- Wait until the danger of frosty weather has passed, then pick up your squash plants from your local nursery or home and garden store.
- You want to choose a place to plant your squash that gets plenty of direct sunlight and has pretty fertile soil that drains well.
- Plant your squash in little hills that are three to four feet apart from one another. You should put two seedlings in each hill.
- You’ll want to keep your squash plants under floating row covers to keep them nice and warm and protect them from cool winds. Remove the coverings when flowers begin to appear.
- Use plenty of organic matter to mulch your plants. This helps keep the weeds away and preserves moisture.
- Your squash plants should be getting about an inch of water every week.
- Wait until the squash is big enough to be used, then pick them and enjoy!
How to Grow Squash: Special Tricks of the Trade
Take a look at these great hints and tips from seasoned professionals to help you with your crop of squash this year and further down the line:
- Learning how to grow winter squash (and therefore learning how to grow butternut squash and a number of other varieties that include buttercup, acorn, Hubbard, and Spaghetti) is great if you want a yield that will have thick skins and the ability to be stored for long periods of time.
- There are an incredible variety of squash species out there because they cross breed so well. If you want to have a really great crop next year, full of new and strange looking varieties, keep your seeds from this year to use.
- If you want to help keep away pests that are common annoyances with squash, plant some radishes in your patch. They are natural pest repellants.
Return from How to Grow Squash to Growing Vegetables
Return from How to Grow Winter Squash to Best Garden Designs & Tips
Related Articles:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Why do small squashes die off after only growing to a couple inches in diameter?
Should I be pruning the new shoots that are growing off in all directions?
Are the two things related?
I have not had this problem in the past.