How to Grow Squash and Other Vining Plants

I can’t imagine summer without zucchini or pumpkin! In my home squash is our essential summer treat, side dish, and snack. We make zucchini bread, squash chips, baked zucchini, and so much more. As I’m writing this I’m realizing we have some sort of vining plant with almost every meal! Like I said squash is essential.

How to Grow

We have a joke in our family about squashes. We always say “Squash could survive the apocalypse.”  Even if my entire tray of starts dies I can always count on the zucchini to grow. Squashes are super hardy plant and could grow through anything. Somehow every year I’ll end up with ten cumcumber plants when I only wanted one or two. I’m definitely not saying it’s impossible to kill a vining plant, but it’s pretty hard. Zucchini’s great type of squash for beginners and it’s a staple in any garden. Buying a squash start is great and super easy but I always like to grow from seeds. A start can be a little expensive and plants like zucchini are so easy to grow that I personally think it’s a waste of money to spend ten to fifteen bucks on a start. Squash doesn’t need a lot of work during their seed growth. Plant them in a tray with good seed soil. Make sure that the bottom of the tray has plenty of water. You should see sprouts growing in about a week or two after you planted them. Your zucchini will be ready to harvest about 50 days after they were planted. For mor information about growing from seeds check out the growing seeds article on the gardening page . 

How to Care For 

Squashes have the usual problems of fruits and vegetables. Slugs and snails, as well as one disease. The big thing to worry about when planting a zucchini is the amount of space it takes up. As it grows make sure that it doesn’t kill other plants by taking over their space. Another thing to watch out for when growing a squash is a type of mold that will develop on your plant. It usually comes more towards the end of summer so late august. It is a white dust (A type of mold) that appears on your plant and slowly spreads across it eventually killing whatever it rests on. This disease is super easy to kill if done early on. To kill it spray the leaves with baking soda-water mixture. Make sure the baking soda makes up at least 50 percent of the mixture. If a leaf or the actual produce is completely cover in mold just cut it off and throw it away. Be careful not to shake dust of in the process of throwing it away though. To prevent this disease from developing on your plant try not to water the leaves of the bush but rather the base. A great way to do this is by installing a drip irrigation or a base irrigation system. The mold develops when water is just sitting on the leaves. Good airflow will also help prevent the mold from spreading. 

Basic Facts

Light: Full sun for at least 6 hours 
Water: plenty of water but on the base of the plant.
Size: average 2 yd (different per variety though)
​Notes: Very large, great produce