Vegetable · Vining crop
Winter Squash (Pumpkin)
Cucurbita maxima / moschataWinter squash is the long game of the vegetable patch, sprawling widely through a full warm season before rewarding patience with dense, sweet flesh that stores for months. Vines need real room to roam, and fruit needs a long stretch of heat to fully ripen and cure. The one rule: cure fruit in the sun before storing, which hardens the skin and sweetens the flesh.
Sow depth
1 in
Spacing
3 ft · rows 5 ft
Sun
Full sun
Germination
7–10 days
Time to harvest
90–120 days
Difficulty
Moderate
When to sow winter squash (pumpkin)
- Sow from about 2 weeks after your last expected frost until about 20 weeks before the first expected autumn frost.
Direct sow once soil has warmed well — cold soil rots the seed.Sow in small mounds, or hills, to improve drainage around the roots.Thin to the strongest two or three seedlings per hill.
Give vines plenty of room to sprawl — crowding invites disease.Water deeply at the base to keep foliage dry and reduce mildew risk.Slip a flat board or straw under developing fruit to prevent rot.
Harvest once the rind resists a thumbnail and the stem has dried.Cut fruit with a length of stem attached to improve storage life.Cure in a warm, sunny spot for a week or two before moving to storage.
Companion plants
Keep fromPotatoes
Sprawling squash leaves shade the soil in the classic Three Sisters planting, suppressing weeds around corn and beans.
Watch out for
Squash vine borer — Moths lay eggs at the stem base, and larvae tunnel inward, wilting the vine. Wrap the base of young stems in foil or fabric as a barrier.