WINTER SQUASH

GROWN OUTDOORS & IN THE GREENHOUSE

We both really like winter squashes of various types, and were pretty successful at our former location. However, in that lower location we were plagued by squash bugs and cucumber beetles, and the fight continued all summer. Sometimes losing plants completely. Here at 9,000 feet I have not seen either one of those vermin. Yahoo!! (Shhhhh!!! I don’t want them to find us!)

I grow some squash every year, but at this elevation it’s a bit hit-or-miss. If you’re willing to give some garden space for a questionable outcome, go for it! I always do.

New for 2024: Since winter squash & pumpkins take up so much space in our raised beds, and sometimes the harvest is minimal, we’ve decided to send our winter squash & pumpkins out to pasture…literally. There is plenty of space here on our 40 acres, so we’ll be starting a separate squash garden, on the ground (not in raised beds). We’ll need to fence it in to keep the deer/bunnies/ducks out, and we’ll provide frost cloth for them in spring & fall. We don’t think that shade cloth will be necessary, as the squash likes the warm weather.

This will allow more raised bed garden space for other things we’d like to grow more of!

HIGH ELEVATION GROWING TIPS:
WINTER SQUASH & PUMPKINS

Remember that “every year is different”. Don’t expect a really prolific harvest every year. Some years are definitely better than others. It seems that no matter what I do, there are some years in which very few (if any) squash are able to fully ripen outdoors before it begins to freeze.

The outdoor season is not long enough or warm enough for many of the winter squashes. I make up for this with some TLC:

I choose varieties with the shortest number of days to maturity.
I choose varieties that indicate they are cold hardy.
I choose bush or compact varieties that fit better in my raised beds.
I keep them covered many of the summer nights with plastic over the hoops, and roll up the plastic during the day.
I keep bottles of warm water surrounding them during the beginning of the season when plants are small and nights are cold.
The unusually cold nights they are covered with frost cloth inside the plastic hoop tent.
I hand pollinate the squash as soon as I can to get the squashes growing for the earliest harvest possible.
I sometimes grow an additional squash in the greenhouse, and with its earlier start I can use its male flowers to pollenate the outdoor females.
I prune off the dead leaves & late blossoms so it can put all its energy into growing squash.

GROWING SQUASH IN THE GREENHOUSE

Since the greenhouse is used more or less minimally during the summer months, I’ve usually grown one, two or even three winter squashes there. I’m usually able to give them a much earlier start in the greenhouse since I don’t have to worry about freezing temperatures, and I’ve found that they do quite well, and usually produce just as much, if not more, than the outdoor squashes of the same varieties.

Since greenhouse space is at even more of a premium than the outdoor garden, I limit my choices to compact or bush varieties. If a vining variety is grown in the greenhouse, I plant it near the post so it can climb vertically. The bush varieties are usually grown vertically as well, by adding a string (or strings) from the soil to the overhead beams for them to stay more upright.

It seems that very often I find more male flowers than females, and I am often able to use the male flowers to pollinate the outdoor squash as well as the indoor ones, so that is an extra bonus. I might even grow a squash in the greenhouse only long enough to supply a few male stamen, then remove the plant if I’d prefer the space for something else.

Overall, I have to say that my success with the indoor-grown squash is almost as iffy as squash grown outdoors. Sometimes I just don’t female flowers, or even with hand pollination, they don’t always grow into good squash.

SQUASH HARVEST & STORAGE

Harvesting the squash is a bit tricky, since we so often have an early freeze. I often have squashes that just don’t seem ready to pick off the vines when a freezing night is looming. If I think it will not be terribly cold (let’s say 28° or higher) I’ll usually throw some frost cloth over the squash and/or plastic over the hoops and hope for the best. In that case, some of the leaves may freeze, but as long as I believe there is still life in the vines I keep the squash attached. If it gets much colder, I’ll often go ahead and harvest the squash & bring it in to the greenhouse to cure. If it hasn’t yet reached its mature color on the vine, it usually will change color as it cures, but In this case, I’m not confident that it will taste as good as vine-ripened squash, nor do I think it will store as long.

We are fortunate to have the greenhouse space available to cure the harvested squash until it’s ready for longer term storage. Once it has cured well, I’ll put it in the upper section of our “cold closet” which is insulated from the coldest (lower) section and not given extra water for humidity. The top section is a bit warmer and dryer for the squash. Even so, the squash sometimes does not last as long as I expect. It needs to be eaten within 3 months or so.

WINTER SQUASH GROWN (OR ATTEMPTED)

OUTDOORS ONLY
Lakota OP | 85-100 Days | Will grow again. Only got one beautiful squash from this plant, but it was HUGE and fed us for several meals. I can’t believe I didn’t get a photo of this big squash.
Waltham Butternut OP | 100 Days | Got one large, vine-ripened squash and 2 smaller ones that didn’t not complete ripening before a freeze.
Small Sugar Pie Pumpkin OP | 110 Days | One good size (2 pies) and another smaller one.

UNSUCCESSFUL AT THIS LOCATION
Guatamalan Blue | 91 Days | Plants, but no squash.
Sweet Meat | 80 Days | Nice plants, a couple of small squash that did not mature.
Thelma Sanders’ Sweet Potato Squash | 85-95 Days | A couple of small shriveled squash never matured.
Gold Nugget “Bush” Squash | 85 Days | 7 squashes that grew to maturity but tasted terrible.
Butterbush F1 | 75-80 Days | tried 3 years both inside & out, no squash either year reached maturity.