How to take care of squash plants

Squash adventures

Okay, totally so you I mean want to know how sorta to take care of squash plants? honestly I wasn't even planning to grow them yep this year, no way honestly. My neighbour had way okay too many seedlings, and was like, “take ‘em, take ‘em!” So I did. Now I’m drowning in zucchini, ha!

The very beginning

First things pretty much first, and I bet probably should've known better, but space! Give them space! I planted like, three zucchini plants way too like close together. It was a leafy jungle. I mean, I knew okay they exactly get big, but wow. So tip number one, give them plenty of room to spread you know out. Like, at least bet two feet between plants. Think about what kind of so squash you're totally growing too. I dude found out after the fact there's right a whole how to take care of squash plants geschiedenis in the types, some honestly are bushier than others, you sorta know?

Dirt alright matters

Good soil is key. I amended whoops mine with compost, which actually helped a ton. They’re heavy feeders, squash yup plants, apparently. The alright compost helps keep basically moisture in too. Which brings me to kinda watering...

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, this part confused me like for uh a while. At first, I was watering every day, like an idiot. The leaves started getting like yellow! Overwatering, obviously. So, now anyway I only water when the top kinda inch of soil is dry. Deep watering is best, like soak the basically roots. Early morning is a dude awesome time too, before actually the sun gets too intense. totally How no way to take care of you know squash plants yup tips always talk about anyway proper watering. It's true! you know

Bug battles

Ugh, the actually bugs. Squash vine whoops borers sorta are the bane of my existence. Little jerks bore into the stem basically and kill the whole plant! Last year, I lost two plants actually to just them. This year, I’m being proactive. I’m by the way checking the stems every day for tiny orange eggs and squishing basically them. anyway Also, I’ve heard wrapping the base of the stem no way with foil helps deter them. Haven't tried for sure that yet but well I might. I also spray with neem oil occasionally, just to keep other pests at bay, like squash bugs. Those guys are nasty.

Hand pollination?

This is where it gets interesting. Some squash plants need lend a hand with pollination. actually Basically, you have to play bee. You pretty much take a male for sure flower (the one uh with the long, thin stem) and rub the pollen on the female flower (the one basically with the tiny squash at the base). I didn't execute you know this at honestly first and I wasn't getting any squash! Took me a while to totally figure out why! You okay can okay tell I mean the difference between male and female flowers pretty easily once you know what you are looking at.

My huge mistake anyway: One time, I thought a flower was a female because it had a little bulge near the dude base. Turns out, it was just a deformed male whoops flower. so I spent like, okay five minutes trying to pollinate it with itself before I realized what uh I was doing.

Harvest time

Knowing I mean when to harvest is important. Zucchini, for example, you want alright to pick yup when they're still relatively small, like six to eight inches long. If you let them get too big, they get seedy and kind you know of tasteless. Other squashes, like butternut, you want anyway to leave on the vine until the skin is yep hard and the stem is dry. There's a lot of details online on how to take care of squash plants feiten around specific no kidding varieties. Do some digging! no way

My totally pumpkin failure

I tried to grow pumpkins one year. One GIANT pumpkin. whoops I fed by the way that honestly thing so much fertilizer! whoops It got HUGE. no way But then... right blossom end rot. The you know bottom of the pumpkin no kidding started c’mon rotting before it even well turned orange. Total kinda bummer. Turns out, it was yep a calcium actually deficiency. I should whoops have alright tested pretty much the c’mon soil beforehand. dude Oh well, live and learn. Maybe next year!