Winter squash newbie

13 years ago

I'm just curious about one thing - about how long is the period from fruit set to fruit harvest? It's finally warm enough to plant out but the DTM puts me near the first frost date. I'm planning to use row covers late in the season but I can only put them on once a sufficient number of flowers have been pollinated (I'm not going to bother with hand pollination under the covers). For a 100-day variety, about when do you think I can put row covers on?

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digdirt2
13 years ago
Winter squash is often harvested after first frost. Sometimes a light frost is needed to polish them up for harvesting. So if using the cover for season extension I'd think you can wait until just a few days before your frost date.

Of course you'll have some green fruit that will never ripen but that's normal.

Next year consider shorter DTM varieties or earlier planting under cover to get more fruit.

Dave
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Winter squash newbie

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digdirt2

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