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Vegetable Gardening

How do you prune winter squash?

alrightypewriter

17 years ago

So I'm growing butternut squash and the vine is just getting ridiculously wild. I haven't gotten any blooms pollinated so it's not producing fruit yet. But it's just getting too big and I'm afraid I won't be able to contain it if it grows 3 or more feet, which I'm pretty sure it will. Can I prune it without damaging the plant?

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Comments (2)

bb
17 years ago
I just move the vines around to contain them, they just grow up and over each other
iam3killerbs
17 years ago
While there are bush butternuts, the standard variety grows vines 6-10 feet long depending on the fertility of the soil and the nature of the weather. If you try to prune it to 3 feet chances are that you will get no squash at all.

You can direct the vines to grow in a convenient direction and you might even be able to direct it up a trellis (you may need to support the fruit with hammocks of stretchy material), but winter squash need elbow room and you can't change that.
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