What is fall without the special harvest of the winter squashes? When we think of planting our gardens, winter squashes (Curcurbita spp.) are often overlooked, and yet they are so delicious as meals and even more nutritious than their summer cousins.

In fact, they rate as “excellent” on the World’s Healthiest Foods list. Winter Squashes include butternut, spaghetti, acorn, delicata, buttercup, pumpkin and hubbard. With their mild, sweet flavor and their fine textures, these vegetables are used in many traditional winter recipes including soups, pies, purees, gratins, and plain roasted dishes.


Winter Squashes’ Nutritional Value

Winter Squashes are high in Vitamins A and C. They offer good amounts of Fiber, beta-carotene, potassium and manganese.


Planting Winter Squash

Because winter squash needs soil that is 70-90 degrees to germinate, it’s best to sow seeds indoors 3-4 weeks before the last frost date in your area. Plant them ½”-2” deep in seed starting soil.

Don’t start the seeds too early because you’ll be tempted to put them out into their bed early and winter squashes are very sensitive to frost. Plus, older plants don’t transplant nearly as well as the younger crowd.

The squash seeds will germinate in 6-10 days. When the soil outside reaches 70 degrees, harden off the seedlings by placing them in a cold frame or bringing them or a covered porch area for a few hours a day to acclimate them to being outdoors. Let them have sun, little by little, until they are in full sun and then transplant them into their permanent bed.

Growing Winter Squash

Winter squashes are bigger than their summer counterparts and therefore feed more heavily. Blending in a generous amount of compost or composted manure will benefit the plants greatly. You can add compost periodically throughout the growing stages of the squash.

These squashes need heavy, even watering and full sun to perform their best. They’re good candidates for using a landscape cloth or black plastic underneath them in order to take full advantage of the heat. Not to mention the cloths act as exceptional weed barriers. Good companions for winter squashes are celery, corn, onions, and radishes.

Winter Squash can easily take over everything if you don’t pay attention to direct the vines away from the garden bed. You can also train them to go over something that you would actually like to cover with vines, such as the outside of a compost bin if it’s made of a weld-wire or another material that’s easy for the vines to climb.

To guarantee successful pollination (which is how you get fruit), you can quite easily pollinate the flowers yourself. Squash vines have male and female flowers. You can spot the female flower by the small fruit
(potential fruit) that’s behind the blossom. Take a male flower and gently pull off the petals. Rub the remaining middle part all over the female flower’s middle part. Instant fertilization.

Once the first sowing is out and growing, the soil should be warm enough to start seeds outdoors. If you plant more winter squash seeds directly into the bed every two weeks until early summer, you’ll have a harvest for months on end. If your original plants get attacked by pests or hit with a powdery mildew, not to fear – there’s more on the way.



Harvesting Winter Squash

Winter Squash is ready to harvest when the skin of the fruit becomes so hard that it can’t be cut with your thumbnail and when the stems begin to dry up and shrivel. The exception is pumpkins whose skin remains a bit soft when it’s ripe.

Because even a light frost can damage a winter squash, some gardeners prefer not to risk it and harvest before the last frost date. Some gardeners feel comfortable waiting until the frost date, but at the very least, be sure to harvest them before a hard frost.

When you pick the fruit off of the vine, it’s recommended to leave at least 1” of stem on the fruit as they tend to store better. The best way to cure the skin is in the sun. So, leaving them in the sun for 10 days after harvesting is optimal before storing them.

The spaghetti, delicate, and acorn squash should be eaten first as they don’t store as well as the others. Butternut and buttercup squash have the longest storage time. Like a fine wine, the flavor of both these squashes actually improves over time.