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Questions tagged [squash]

One of four species of genus Cucurbita; also known as marrows.

One of four species of genus Cucurbita, also known as marrows in some countries. The four species of squash are:

  • C.maxima: Hubbard squash, Buttercup squash, and some varieties of prize pumpkin
  • C.mixta: Cushaw squash
  • C.moschata: Butternut squash
  • C.pepo: Acorn squash, summer squash, , and most

In North America, squashes are also loosely grouped according to season.

Squashes were first cultivated in Mesoamerica over 8000 years ago, and was one of the cultivated by Native Americans.

Botanically, squash are fruit because they contain the plant's , but are cooked as savory .

Use this tag for all questions about growing squashes.

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Squash plant wilting bottom up?

I planted spaghetti squash from seed a few weeks ago. It did well in a starter pot, and I moved it to a larger one. It kept getting bigger, up to a fifth leaf and the start of a vine, but now it seems to be doing poorly. When the cotyledons wilted…
Tesserex
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What kind of squash are these?

Earlier this year I had a spaghetti squash that was sprouting internally, so I cut it up and planted the pieces. Now the plants are big and healthy and squash are growing! The confusing thing is that the two plants appear to be growing different…
David K
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Squash vine stopped growing?

I've seen this on several squash plants, where the vine seems to stop growing but the growth tip is still trying to produce fruit. Not sure what this is called - internode shortening or something? I've seen possibly unrelated behavior on some…
engil
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Is it possible to preserve male squash flowers for pollination?

I have only one plant of each, Zucchini and Butternut squash. Sometimes female flowers bloom when no male flower is open. Can I somehow preserve the male flowers to pollinate by hand later ?
Meera
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Butternut yellow and fall off before blooming

So far my Butternut squash plant was doing fine. The first two fruits turned black and fell off after blooming, which I think was because there was no male flower available. Now three more fruits bloomed and I supported pollination by hand and they…
Meera
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How do I know when to take butternut off the vine?

My family recently added butternut to the selection of fruit and vegetable plants in the garden. The plants are in a reasonably sized pot, growing onto concrete at one side and an earth/stubbly grass plot on the other. Our particular experience that…
Nij
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How can I grow better shaped yellow squash?

I am growing some early prolific straight neck yellow squash in my raised bed. I am getting a lot of flowers and squashes but they don't seem to be growing to full size. Am I doing something wrong? See pictures.
JStorage
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How to keep cucumber beetles/bacterial wilt from spreading when removing infected plant?

I have some cucumber plants that are very infested with cucumber beetles (mostly striped, some spotted). The plants are dying from bacterial wilt, and although it's hard to access all leaf surfaces to get an accurate count, there's probably at…
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Should I prune my Zucchini's flowers?

I have two very young zuchinnis that are starting to grow flowers, they barely have 4 or 5 little leaves so I think they're very small to allow them to have fruits. Should I prune the flowers?
Juan M. Almodóvar
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How much to remove when trimming dead leaves on a squash plant?

I am specifically asking this regarding a squash plant, but general advice would be useful. If I have dead leaves, which I assume I should remove, should I remove the whole stem that it is growing from, or just the leaf? The stem looks perfectly…
Joe Tait
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What is this green and yellow vegetable which looks like a star from above?

We found this vegetable, apparently a gourd of some sort, growing at a farm in Michigan, but we're not sure which particular species it could be. It seems to most closely resemble an acorn squash, but the star-shaped spike pattern on the outside…
Lyallpuri
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Can I save seeds that already started sprouting for storage?

I have harvested seeds from a huge squash I grew. I put them i water for a few days. When I now pulled them out to dry them for storage, I see that some have just started sprouting already (the shell is open and the root is visible, up to about…
Trygve Flathen
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What type of squash/gourd is this?

I planted what was supposed to be a gourd and it has given a few of these fruits from small flowers (similar to cucumber) that have reached around 20cm long and about 2kg. Any idea what they are?
Mehdi
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How do we deal with abnormally heavy rain?

I just started gardening this year, and we've tried a few methods to see what works best, including a straw bale garden, compost bag gardens, and a tilled field. Things were going great until about a week ago when the rain started. Since then,…
Logan Bertram
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Is this discoloration on a pumpkin plant stem caused by squash vine borer?

I have a big, healthy looking pumpkin plant with a dozen small pumpkins starting to bud. Today I went in and got a good look at the base of the vine and found this discoloration. Is this squash vine borer? If so, how can I save the plant? So I did…
Michael T
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