Squash is one of those vegetables that I really like to grow in my gardens, but it can be
a tricky crop to grow well, especially in the maritime climate of Ireland.
Our summers are relatively cool, and the frost free growing season is not very long, and
the winds that we get can be an issue for the big tender leaves of these plants.
I used to be really frustrated with this, as squash is one of my favourite vegetables
in the kitchen, but now I quite enjoy the challenge.
With vegetables that are quite easy to grow in this climate I find that I don’t learn
so much, or as quickly, but with marginal and difficult crops like squash and pumpkins
I find that there’s lots of opportunities for learning, mainly through failure, or at
least lack of success.
For the past few years I've been growing the same variety of squash in 6 of my family scale
gardens, and the differences between the years and between the gardens has been quite interesting.
This year started off quite well, with the plants growing strongly for the first half
of the season, mainly due to protection that I gave the young plants early on.
But then the conditions for the rest of the season didn’t allow the plants to properly
finish what was started.
I still ended up with a lot of squash but they weren't as good as I think they could’ve been.
The six batches of this variety of squash were grown in a total area of about 65m2,
and produced 90 mature squash at the end of the season, which weighed a total of 304kg,
more than half of which came from the much larger planting of the Simple Garden.
This averaged out to be 4.7kg of squash for each square meter of growing space, which
was noticeably more than the 2018 season, but basically same as the 2017 harvest.
Overall this seems fairly consistent harvest in over the past few years, but when I looked
at the number of mature squash produced each season, the results seemed quite a bit different.
In the previous 2 seasons each plant had only grew on average of just over 2 mature fruit
each, but this season 3.6 squash were produced per plant on average, not counting the immature
fruit that would not have had a chance to develop properly.
And the typical weight of each squash that I harvested this season was slightly lower
than it has been.
So overall there was a slightly larger total weight of the harvest, but consisting of a
lot more squash that were generally quite a bit smaller.
And this was despite the fact that it was the same variety of squash, grown in the same
size of beds, and the number of plants remained relatively consistent.
Looking at the details of the yields this season across the 6 gardens, the crop of squash
from the Extensive Garden was significantly lower, but a certain amount of this can be
expected.
The yield from the Polyculture Garden was really low, which dragged the average for
the year down quite a bit.
Looking at all of the plantings of this variety of squash that I have made since 2016, this
season's harvest from the Polyculture Garden is the lowest ever, and the result of a few
key errors that I made.
The only other batch that was almost as bad, was the 2017 crop from the Extensive Garden
where I had tried an experiment of direct sowing that didn’t work.
The yield this season from the Polytunnel Garden was about the same as it was last year,
but the other 4 gardens had 20-50% higher yields compared to last year.
I find this quite interesting as last season we had an extended period of unusually hot
weather, during which these heat loving squash plants should have thrived.
But I suspect there there just was't enough water in the soil during these hot and dry
conditions, and a cool autumn that followed prevented these plants from really taking
advantage of the heat from earlier on in the summer.
This season we've had much more consistent soil moisture levels, but it hasn’t been
so warm, so the higher yields are a bit unexpected.
I think a really big factor here is the extra protection I gave the young plants because
of the cool and windy period of weather that we had just as the plants needed to be transplanted
into the garden beds.
In 4 of the gardens I had used a double layer of fleece and crop cover stretched over buckets
and containers filled with water, in order to create a better micro-climate with reduced
wind and higher temperatures.
The containers of water served both as a support for the crop material and as a thermal mass
to help keep the plants warmer over night.
But in the Polyculture Garden, I had only used a single layer of crop cover, and had
removed it earlier than I had in the other gardens as the runner bean plants that had
been tried into the same bed at the same time needed poles to climb.
This lack of protection during the cool weather we had at the beginning of the season, combined
with the fact that I didn’t add enough fertility into the soil, meant that these squash plants
in this garden really suffered.
The number of plants that I've grown in each gardens over the years has remained fairly
consistent, but the average number of squash that each plant produces has varied quite
a bit.
This year most of the gardens had more fruit per plant than they have had in previous years,
apart from Polytunnel Garden, and I suspect is an issue of lack of pollination.
There was a significant increase in the number of fruits per plant in the Extensive Garden,
and even more in the No-Dig Garden, but only a slight increase in the Intensive and Polyculture
Gardens.
Given the few errors that I made, I'm not surprised about the lower number of fruits
that were set in the Polyculture Garden, but I do wonder why the plants in the Intensive
Garden didn’t follow the trend of the other gardens.
In the Simple Garden the increase in the number of squash per plant was huge, more than double
the average of the other gardens in 2019, and also double what was previously been produced
in this garden.
There are likely a number of different contributing factors here, but I think the main reason
for the big increase is the really good covering that I used in this garden at the start of
the season.
While the plants in the other gardens were covered with several layers of permeable fleece
and crop covers, for the Simple Garden I used a long sheet of plastic held down with a crop
cover.
The plastic was set to not touch the ground on the side away from the prevailing wind,
in order to make sure that there was enough ventilation.
I was really impressed with the exceptionally strong start that the plants in this garden
got under this temporary low tunnel or mini polytunnel, despite the cool and windy weather
that we had for the first few weeks after transplanting.
This better micro climate, combined with the black ground cover fabric, enough soil moisture,
and lots of fertility seemed to have encouraged the plants to produce more fruit, which was
a good start to the season.
Half way through the season, I was impressed by the number of squash that I could see growing
in among the vines, especially in the Simple Garden.
I was looking forward to a huge yield, but unfortunately the size of the squash at harvest
time was smaller than expected.
While the Intensive Garden produced squash with roughly the same average weight, the
squash in all the other gardens weighed on average about 20% less than last year, and
smaller than any other time that I have grown this variety.
I think the main reason for this is the cool autumn temperatures that we had, or more precisely
we didn’t get the period of unseasonably warm weather that was needed for the squash
to grow really well.
The number of squash that the plants started to produce was based on the extra protection
that I had gave the plants at the beginning of the season, and the generally warmer weather
in the end of June and for most of July.
But the size of the fruit would have been based on the available sunlight and warmth
throughout August and September, and it just wasn’t warm enough.
The plants seemed to struggle to grow all of the squash that were on the vines, and
this was especially the case with the SI garden.
My gardens are located on a site that generally gets a fair amount of wind, but there were
a few days in the middle of August where the wind was a bit stronger than usual.
And the large patch of squash plants in the Simple Garden was quite badly exposed to the
strong winds, which blew through a gap in the windbreak and up the hill towards the
gardens.
The squash plants in the other gardens were more protected from these gusts, but the wind
harrassed the plants in the Simple Garden quite a bit, causing the large tender leaves
to bash against each other.
By the end of August the majority of the leaves in this patch were dead or severely damaged,
and this likely put an more abrupt end to the growth and development of this crop.
And it was such a shame that the crop that had the most successful start, with the strongest
plants, and the most fruit developing on the vines, suffered the worst damage from this wind.
Despite all of this the yields from most of the gardens were higher than last year, and
to me this is a good indication that things are moving in the right direction, or at least
I’m getting a bit better at managing this crop.
I ended up with 300 kg of squash, which is a lot to feed ourselves and to share with
our neighbours, but unfortunately a lot of the squash don’t seem to be as ripe as they
have been in the past.
When I cut a few of the squash open there is still a layer of green underneath the skin,
and the flesh isn’t the same deep orange colour as it has been in the past.
The squash it still edible of course, but it just doesn’t have the same sweetness
and rich flavour as I've become used to with this variety, and I’m not sure how well
this year’s crop will store.
And this is a real shame as a little bit more warmth in the autumn could've meant that I
ended up with more than 300 kg of really good squash, rather than having 300 kg of just
mediocre squash.
So, there was a lot more to learn this season, especially in comparison to the last few years.
There seems to be definite benefits in covering the young plants early in the season, and
the closer I can get to the conditions of a polytunnel or greenhouse the better it seems.
And it would be great to try to keep this cover on for as long as possible even if the
weather is warm, and if I’m going to go to the effort of adding this protective layer,
then I don’t really need to worry about late frost damaging these tender plants.
Therefore, I might as well sow the seeds a lot earlier in the season, and take advantage
of the warmth that we often get earlier on in the year, and also to provide a longer
growing season for these plants.
Setting up a windbreak around the squash crops from the beginning of the season would probably
help quite a bit, or at least reduce the risk of damage, even if it does cause some overshadowing.
And I wonder whether it would be worth re-covering the mature plants in the early autumn, with
some form of fleece or other crop cover.
This could help to reduce the potential damage from wind and also raise the temperature a
little bit, to help the plants mature at the end of the season.
But this is a lot of area to cover, especially with the Simple Garden.
Next year I’m going to plant the same variety of squash in the same gardens once again,
and to try to find a balance between the effort and resources I need to put in, and the harvest
I can expect.
The aim is to create the conditions where these plants can pass that threshold where
they can produce an abundant crop of fully mature squash, regardless of the weather conditions
that we get, but without me having to put in too much effort or resources.
That could be difficult to do, but in the process I'm enjoying the challenge of figuring
what I can to get a great crop out of plants that normally don’t grow well in this climate,
and I’m learning a lot in the process.