(warm music)
- To be honest with you,
I don't even know why I'm making this video
because squash is a plant that is easy to grow
and so prolific there's actually an official day called
National Leave Your Squash on Your Neighbor's Doorstep Day
that I may or may not partake in myself.
But that being said, it is a delicious and nutritious crop
that is simple to grow.
So in this video,
I'm gonna show you everything you need to know
to grow successful summer and winter squash,
so cultivate that Like button
and I will bless you
with the exact amount of squash you want.
And let's get into the video.
If you've been a little nervous
to start from seed as a gardener,
then squash is the perfect plant for you.
I'll show you some seeds right here.
This is Early Prolific Straightneck,
which is what we have out in the garden behind me.
But the seeds are absolutely massive.
You don't really even need to do any soaking
or anything like that.
You can just direct sow them about an inch in the ground,
pointy side up,
and you're good to go.
That being said, of course,
you can always transplant something.
So we have a ton of squash hanging out here as backups.
I don't know that I'm ever gonna actually use these,
I have so much squash in my garden already.
But there are two different types of squash
you wanna consider,
or more like two categories.
So on the one hand, you have your summer squash,
and on the other hand, you have your winter squash.
Now, when I first started gardening,
I thought you grew summer squash in summer
and you grew winter squash in winter,
but it's not really like that.
The way that it works is that summer squash
are squash that are harvested younger
where the skin and the flesh are more tender
and the seeds are not mature,
so you can just eat it right there and then in the summer.
Now, winter squash, on the other hand,
is something that you're going to let mature fully,
so the skin is gonna get a little more tough,
the flesh is really going to mature up,
and then of course the seeds inside
will also be fully mature,
and you typically will be scooping those out.
Something like a butternut squash
is a really good example of a winter squash.
So you have to know,
number one, what type of squash
do you prefer to grow and like to eat?
And number two, it'll help you know
when you should be harvesting any particular variety.
So while I have a ton of squash seedlings here on the table,
I have even more in the garden, so let's take a look.
Let's talk now about just the basics of squash care.
This is my summer squash bed here in the backyard.
I have two varieties here,
Straightneck and Cocozelle, both doing well.
And you'll notice these are bushing style squash.
Summer squash tend to bush and winter squash tend to vine.
So if you know you're growing a winter squash variety,
you may want to put some sort of trellis up
so it really can climb,
or at least give it enough space to sprawl out like crazy.
Now, it's a summer crop regardless,
so you're gonna wanna give it
those classic summer conditions, six to eight hours of sun.
This is southwest facing,
so it's getting blasted all day long.
I'm giving it about an inch or two of water per week.
What I notice is,
especially in the summer when the heat ramps up,
you wanna increase that watering a little bit,
but don't freak out if it starts to wilt in the midday.
That's pretty common with squash,
especially once they get big.
It will perk back up as the temperatures cool off.
That being said,
still make sure that you're watering
that one to two inches of water a week.
I would say the biggest tip with squash
is making sure you have enough organic matter in the soil.
It is a voracious plant.
I found more than my fair share of squash
growing in compost.
So what we like to do is build a bed up a couple inches,
maybe even more, of good quality compost
when you're planting it in,
and it will take off.
One of the more common questions
you'll get when growing squash is,
how do I know how to pollinate them?
Because squash is a plant with male and female flowers.
It's not something like a tomato
where the male and female parts are in the same flower.
Take a look at this, I'll show you.
So right here, I'll rip this one off,
this is a female flower.
The way you know is because here's the flower right here,
and behind it there's actually
a very small unpollinated fruit.
In this case, this one actually has been pollinated.
It would be a little bit smaller than this.
So this is your female flower.
Now, let me find a male.
The reason you know this one's a male,
well, compare the two.
This one does not have any immature fruit behind it.
If you have a thriving garden
with all sorts of pollinators around,
the bees buzzing around my face right now,
you don't really have to worry
about manually pollinating squash.
But if you are paranoid
or maybe a balcony gardener, apartment gardener,
this is a great way to guarantee you pollinate.
So you take your male flower,
and you can strip away the leaves,
so you just peel them away like this,
and then what you'll do,
this is closed for the day but it'll look roughly like this,
is you'll then open up the female flower.
It should be open when you do this.
And take the male part
and just rub it on the inside manually.
It's a fantastic way to guarantee you pollinate
and get all these squash.
But trust me, the bees typically find it.
You'll actually probably find a single bee
in most of your squash flowers.
But it's a good hand pollination tip,
just to guarantee you get your squash.
Okay, let's talk about harvesting your squash,
why I have my big chef's knife here.
So I've actually made a mistake
and I wanna show you that mistake.
This is a Cocozelle summer squash, but like I said,
you wanna bias towards harvesting those
a little bit earlier.
Winter squash you let mature fully.
This one, I let mature a little too long.
So I'm gonna give it a twist.
We'll take it off.
How do I know?
Well, you can even see it start to yellow
just a bit here at the end.
But remember what I said about summer squash;
they wanna be tender on the skin, tender on the flesh,
immature or underdeveloped seeds.
That's how you're gonna get
that good summery flavor out of it.
So what I'll do is I will cut this
straight down the middle for you
and show you the development
so you can get a sense
and you don't make this mistake yourself.
So there we go.
Let's pop this guy open.
And I wouldn't say this is super far gone,
'cause these are underdeveloped right here.
But these ones,
which is really where the meat of that flesh is,
I just cut these all in half.
These are mature seeds.
So this is gonna go to my chickens.
Just don't do this.
Harvest your summer squash a little earlier.
There are a few pests and diseases
that can mess up your squash.
The first pest is squash vine borers.
It's probably the one
most people get the most frustrated about
because what it does
is it actually gets into the interior of the stem.
The larvae will kind of eat it out from the inside,
and sometimes you don't even know until later.
So one thing you can do
is bias your planting towards the midsummer
and skip their active season,
which is roughly spring to early summer.
That's actually the same for squash bugs,
which is the other major pest.
The other thing you can do is take an X-Acto knife
and slice in and kill the larvae.
And then you can actually bury that sliced part around
and it will heal up and sometimes even develop some roots.
Those are some of the best ways
to prevent against these two pests.
I would say the absolute most optimal one
is just planting your squash slightly later,
trying to dodge the majority of their season.
The major disease you're gonna deal with,
I'm pretty sure you guessed it,
it's powdery mildew.
Here in San Diego,
it just seems like that's an inevitability of our lives.
We're gonna get it no matter what.
These days, I actually don't stress about it too much.
I sow two rounds of all of my powdery mildew-resistant crops
like squash here.
Now, one thing I will call out,
let me rip this leaf off for you here.
A lot of people ask me,
"Hey, my squash has powdery mildew."
Take a look at the leaves.
There's white stuff all over the leaves.
This is not what it looks like.
If you actually look,
this is a feature of this particular type of squash.
It has this kind of silvery, blotchy patterning on it,
so I wouldn't stress about that.
What you're really looking for
are these white, sort of sooty-looking patches
that end up spreading
and then they end up making your leaves look yellow
and eventually brown,
and it will take over an entire crop.
So there's a lot of different remedies for this.
We're gonna do a full video on it.
But one of my best remedies
is actually the acceptance remedy.
Accept you're going to get some powdery mildew.
Don't stress too much.
Harvest the squash early,
and maybe even reset that crop and throw another one in.
It's a prolific crop.
It's gonna grow really well for you.
Squash is one of those plants
that makes you feel good as a gardener
because quite honestly,
it's one of the easiest things to grow in the summer.
So if you like this video,
check out some of our other grow guides.
And if you like these squash varieties, check out our store.
We stock organic seeds on the Epic Gardening Store now,
and we're always adding more.
So until next time,
good luck in the garden and keep on growing.
(chill upbeat music)