Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Amateur Gardening

    Focus on…Winter squashes

    Apr 14, 2020 5 minutes

    THEY’RE rampant, yield generously, store forever and taste delicious, so why on earth wouldn’t you grow winter squashes? Here are my hints for a bumper year.

    Temperature and timings

    Winter squashes are part of the cucurbit family and botanically they belong to three main species: Cucurbita maxima, C. moschata and C. pepo. Like pumpkins and marrows, they have the ability to set hard skins and store well into the winter.

    “Winter squashes store forever and taste delicious”

    Many have a long growing season, needing more than 100 days from sowing to fruit maturity. Being tender, sowing outdoors early in the year isn’t possible (at least 13°C/55°F soil temperature is needed), so the solution is to start them off under cover instead.

    Seedlings are ready to transplant outside four-five weeks

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Amateur Gardening

    Amateur Gardening7 min read
    The Best Blooms For Eating
    I have been a reader of Amateur Gardening for many years and have written about gardens and plants at different times in its past. It is great to see it saved and re-invigorated by Kelsey Publishing and editor Kim Stoddart. When I moved to my town ga
    Amateur Gardening5 min read
    Forward Thinking-naturally
    My experiences attempting to garden entirely for free for the Guardian newspaper more than a decade ago changed the way that I garden forever. I had to politely put aside the conventional gardening ‘rule book’ of the time in order to figure out how t
    Amateur Gardening2 min read
    Sensational Squash Family, Resilient Salad Leaves And Succession Sowing
    I adore pumpkins, courgettes and squashes - and I know I’m not alone. So, let’s take a look at this vast group of huge edibles - there’s more to them than you might think. Botanically, all these plants are in the cucurbit family. Specifically, seven

    Related