Online Catalogue | Garden Seeds | Vegetable and Fruit | Squash Seeds
Squash Squashes and pumpkins are used very widely in many parts of Europe as well as Africa, America the Caribbean and Australia but have never really been picked up in the UK but they offer so very many options in cooking and are a very good source of beta carotene which the human body converts to vitamin A.
We all know courgettes and marrows but there is so much more to squahes than just these varieties. The winter varieties have a very good taste (some say better than the summer varieties of squash) and keep well if stored over the winter. Squash seeds should not be sown too early as they do not like cold weather so make sure you do not sow your squash until the very last of the frosts are over and the nights have warmed. May is not too late and neither is June so sow them under cover as pop them outside once they have a decent bit of body to them so that the slugs can't have a fatal effect on them.
Once they start to grow, THEY WILL GROW. You want to give each plant a good couple of meters of plot so that they can grow without getting in the way of the rest of your plot. They like draining soil which is good and healthy as well as plenty of water once they start to form their fruit. You must be hard with them. The more fruits on each plant them the smaller they will grow so be hard and remove some of the smaller fruits to ensure the more healthy ones survive and flourish.
Harvesting is normally during October and November when the temperature really starts to drop and remember to cut a few inches of stem with each fruit as this will stop rotting.
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