Coming soon!
Winter squash is one of the most conflicting crops! It takes up so much space and delivers such an inconsistent and low value harvest, but it’s so valuable in winter when growing fresh tasty calories is so difficult.
I use a rating system to help me decide what to grow and it considers lots of factors, but the main ones are how tasty it is, healthy it is to eat, how expensive it is to buy, how big it's harvest is, when it's harvest period is and whether I can buy it organically and if not how much it's sprayed.
Winter squash doesn’t score very well in this rating system. It takes up a huge amount of space, during the peak summer growing season and delivers a very low value harvest compared to most of the things that I grow. It’s also a demanding plant, needing a lot of nutrients and water, to deliver what can be an unpredictable harvest, varying from small to huge depending on the year.
Even so we continue to grow it because it’s such a versatile crop in the kitchen, and we are eating it at a time when fresh tasty calories are hard to come by. It also looks great and is fun to grow, especially to watch growing!
They do best in full sun, but a little shade during the day isn’t a problem.
Winter squash is a very unproductive crop, but it does give you a lot of stored calories in winter. The yield will depend a lot on variety, but we like Crown Prince best and a single plant grown in typical ground (ie not a compost heap) will probably yield 2 fruits. One fruit will probably be enough for 2 weeks of roasted squash and some soup for one passionate squash eater, more likely two typical people. Squash keeps from October to May in good conditions, although it’s possible to keep it longer. Lets assume 8 months, which means you will need 16 fruits for 2 people, which means at least 8 plants, each plant taking 1m2, so 4m2/person. If you are only growing for one person, choose a variety with smaller fruits, but a similar amount of space. Note however that squash can be grown vertically, in which case very little space in needed.
There’s a huge range of squashes (cucurbits) available to suit lots of different growing environments. Smaller varieties give a reasonable harvest when grown in a 35-50 litre container. Larger ones grow best given lots of space and rich soil. Still others climb well, provided you support the fruits. See my list of varieties later for details.
Personally I think the plants are much easier to justify growing when grown vertically, I use mine instead of a fance between allotment plots and to provide shade to summer leafy greens and me, when I’m sitting outside.
Winter squash need to be pampered when young, when the nights are cold and the winds fierce in late spring and early summer. Once established though they romp away at an incredible pace. Once fruits reach a reasonable size you have the option of eating them fresh - some varieties are better than others - or leave them to mature until mid-autumn. Their skins toughen as they ripen, creating a seal that allows fruit to stand on the soil and to store easily from late autumn until the following summer - in optimum conditions - if you can grow enough to last that long!
Squash are distinct from pumpkins, which are larger, thinner-skinned, and have more watery flesh, meaning they rarely keep beyond December.
We remove ours in late September or early October, to leave plenty of time to plant alliums and field beans in their place. Or - if grown vertically - harvesting by October still leaves plenty of time for winter lettuce and spinach to grow once they are no longer casting shade.
<aside> 💡 For more details on the model that I use for describing harvest periods (first earlies, second earlies etc) please see the chapter on my growing framework
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