How to grow winter squash

Winter squash is grown for the fruit it produces in fall, not for anything picked along the way. Vines sprawl widely across a bed, carrying separate male and female flowers that depend on bee visits to set fruit; the first flush of blooms is usually male and drops without producing squash, so fruit set lags behind the first flowers opening. Unlike a zucchini or summer squash pulled young and eaten within days, this crop stays on the vine until the rind hardens and the stem dries and browns, then cures afterward so the flesh sweetens and the skin toughens enough to store through winter.

The hardest part of growing winter squash well is catching a squash vine borer before it does lasting damage. University of Minnesota Extension describes the larva burrowing into the crown and vines, which causes the whole plant to wilt. Because that wilting looks identical to ordinary heat or drought stress, a second-year gardener typically responds by watering more, not by checking the stem base for the small entry hole and frass that mark an infestation. By the time the mistake is obvious, the vine beyond that point is cut off from its roots, and fruit sizing up on it shrivels before reaching a curing shed.