Don’t lose hope. I had to work with winter squash for several years before I found a variety and technique that works for me. I’d tried pumpkins for several years and thought they didn’t like the heat. LOL. Little did I know that I was a breeding ground for SVB’s for the whole neighborhood LOL. *sigh*
Here’s what I do to help mine along as much as I can.
I get the biggest peat pots I can find, usually the 6” ones. Fill them with seed starter or potting soil. Plant my winter squash seeds, usually 4 per pot, spread in a circle around the outer diameter of the pot. Those I place in a plastic tray and fill it with water.
Meanwhile, I save all my newspapers, cardboard cereal boxes, grocery store and walmart ad papers and what not throughout the year. MIL saves them, hubby gets old newspapers from the breakroom at work, etc. I decide where I’m going to let my squash run (we live in the country so HOA isn’t a factor). I cover that area with the paper/cardboard and then lay 4”-6” of mulch on top of that covering the edges carefully (if the wind blows and you have exposed newspaper or boxes it can ‘catch’ under the edge of those and blow it around) and then water that down to make it ‘stick’. If you don’t have rain in the next 10d or 2w after that you might want to rewater it again. This helps the cardboard/paper and mulch (I use hay from a local farmer) to meld.
About 10d-2w later when my squash seeds have sprouted and have the 2 seedling leaves and maybe a teeny true leaf my hubby takes a sharp shooter shovel and digs however many holes I have pots, about 8” or so deep. I put a scoop of osmocote or compost in the bottom, fill it part way with soil, tear off the side/top of the peat pot (if it sticks out of the soil it will ‘wick’ moisture away from your plants and they’ll suffer and/or die) and then put it in. I usually take a big bag of some organic potting soil or garden soil with me and fill in/around the pot with that. I water in thoroughly.
We put those holes in the mulch about 5ft square from each other. I usually mulch a section 12-15ft wide and about 50-60ft long. I try to keep the squash vines on that early. This lets them put down roots somewhere that will stay moister during dry spells. The mulch helps with that a whole lot btw. And if you train them you can lay a soaker hose on the mulch and they’ll looooove that if it gets dry. Once they’ve kind of filled in the mulched sections I let them take the yard, nicely. If you ‘train’ them in straight lines you can keep them convenient to use a push mower in between and/or weedeater.
As I said, we grow a whole lot of these. We probably use 300-400lbs of them (unprocessed) every year. They go in my kids pancakes, stews, and a breakfast cake I make during the winter. We rely on these calories to make ends meet.
The mulching takes a little time up front but if you do that they get a running head start and I’ve found will make more. And no weeding or tilling or whatever. Once or twice during the season I’ll water the ‘mother’ site and a few selected other sites with ‘algoflash’ regular. Just because.
Wonderful description. Thank you! Do you have any pictures? The squash plant is so beautiful. This is just my 2nd year of vegetable gardening, and I’m very eager to learn. Thanks again.
Hi Black Agnes. Thank you so much for this info-wow. Sounds like you have this down to an art! I’m saving your post in a file for later reference. This really sounds like an efficient and smart way to grow winter squash.
Would love to have your “cake” recipe-if you can?
Sorry....what’s an SVB?