Acorn squash

A big part of my gardening adventures this year was growing Acorn squash.  Here is the fruit of my labor, some baked acorn squash stuffed with rice/sausage mixture. It was really good!

  As I mentioned earlier in my Squash Vine Borer (SVB) post, planting this is how I got introduced to these pests.  I planted my first batch in late April, and they grew very nicely and quickly outgrew the bed they were planted in.  They seed packet said they were semi-compact, but I didn't realize they would grow so big!

 I got about 6 squash in late May, but then the vines started wilting, and I noticed they were rotting from the base.  I just pulled up all the vines and planted again.   Then I read about the SVB and by the time I had my next set of plants going, some of the plants in my next batch  were infected too. ( I saw some frass, which looks like wet sawdust,  by the base of the plants.)

After reading as much as I could about the SVB, I tried a number of things.  I'll detail my SVB battle plan in my SVB post on this blog.  But I think with a combination of BT injections, and burying vine, I was able to salvage my next set of plants and the grew very nicely.  Here are what they looked like on July 31st. Plants looked very healthy.  I would go out most every morning, before work and look for SVB eggs. Some days I would pick  like 20 eggs off the plants.

I had lots of male flowers, but no female flower. When they finally appeared, the would wilt and die.  I think the problem was the intense heat.  We had a very hot end of July and early August, where we had  days and days of 100+ temperatures.  Squash fruit will not set in these hot conditions.  But the plants kept growing.  I had removed the fencing by now, and just let them spill over.

The above pic was from 8/17.  The weather was about to moderate, and I started having some female flowers show up. I finally got some fruit to set, but seemed to keep losing female flowers, many which would wither before they even opened.  The plant kept growing.  Here is from 8/24

By this time, the egg picking was becoming quite a task, as I had to inspect a lot of vines, plus also tend to my pumpkin vines.   I kept burying the vines whenever I got the chance.    So I had 3 nice fruit growing. Here is the first one:

Around the end of August the vine started declining.  I discovered some SVB damage in various places and was able to extract the larva, but by this time I think many of the vines decided the had born their one fruit, and then just gave up.  Here is what it looked like on Aug 29th :

It looks even worse today.


I already harvested and we ate 3 (see above dish), and there are 4 more on the vine that are almost ready. Those vine have quit growing. Their growing tips have died, and the plants have not produced any side-runners.

As of today, I only have one growing vine left.  Its actually totally severed from the main vine due to SVB but has survived because I had buried it as it grew.  It decided to go nuts producing female flowers recently, and  yesterday and today 2 fruit set on it, and I can see more female flowers forming.  I hope they don't wither and die, and I hope the poor vine can support them... We'll see.

So looking back on this experience, next year I will do the following:
1. Maybe still plant an early crop (April) and plant seeds again in early August.  Starting them in early July meant that when they were ready to produce fruit, it was WAY TO HOT!! and I missed the best window of opportunity.  If I start in early August, I think the fruit will form in late Sept, which will be perfect.
2. Cover my plants with netting to keep the SVB off of them. I can remove the covers to hand pollinate, or just remove them when I have enough female flower, and I should be able to harvest before the SVB do the plants in.
3. Bury in vines more, so they produce more roots. Try to plant them less crowded, and plan for their growth.  My vines were way too close together.