Never grown squashes before, this is my first year.
I've read that you can grow them upwards, to save space, but not sure exactly how much support they need.
I've got a couple of cheap rose arches. They are metal, not plastic, so hopefully fairly strong. Do you experienced squash growers think these would work as supports?
TIA :)
Why not!! So long as the fruit are not TOO big to hang without breaking the plant ;D
I have managed to acquire a couple of gates to create an A frame!! The objective is to keep the fruit dry and allow them to be exposed to the sun more.
Of course you could always plant them in the compost heap ... triffids anyone?! ;D
That makes sense - so its the smaller ones up the 2 arches, and the big 'uns on the ground to run rampant through the sweetcorn :D
Thanks!
;D
my big uns seem to support themselves well, well not the pumpkins though! ;D Would work a treat I would think!
This is from the Square Foot Gardening site,
I couldn't put a pointer to it, so here's an extract
The trick is to have the vertical support whether it be string or netting or just a stake, very close to the plant. You can do that by putting a stake in the ground first and then planting the seed or young plant around it so you don't drive the stake into the roots of a growing plant. That way it is much easier to gently lift and bend the plant end up and tie to the stake or string. After you get it started up your string or netting every few days it will have grown out a few inches. Not up, but out and it will try to lay down again. You just gently talk to it, lift that head up, and tie it again to your vertical support. You just keep doing that every couple of days.
Why Vertical
Because of all of the advantages. What are the advantages and is it all worthwhile ? It seems like a lot of work doesn't it. Well first it is a challenge, next it is kind of fun and third it looks great in your garden. Of course, the real reason is so it doesn't take up so much space in your Square Foot Garden, only a couple square feet. Now here is the “ coupe de grace†? Or in gardening terms, here's the “ cooty grow â€. After I perfected this method of growing vines vertically on a frame or Stake, I noticed a completely different growth pattern of the basic squash plant, particularly the summer squashes. In single row gardening, the plant spreads out with its single stem having blossoms and fruit forming near the near. Back near the base the leaves start dying and the stem becomes quite ugly. The end continues to grow new leaves and fruit but only out there at the end. With Square Foot Gardening and growing the squash vertically I noticed almost the opposite growth pattern. Once the plant got a few feet high instead of the bottom stem being bare and ugly, the plant started sending out new leaves and fruit all along the bottom and middle of the plant. No ugly bare base was visible, hence it was not only much more attractive, took up less space, but turned out to be more productive, more fruit per plant as well as more fruit per square foot. Now you can't beat that so why not give it a try.
The SFG site is
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
Ah, even better then!! Thank you :)
Hi all,
My pumpkin patch is next to my blackberries on a compost heap. Last year it spread through the blackberries growing upwards and made immature fruit within the brambles. It found its own supports and direction and wasn`t trained or tied in. If it hadn`t ran out of growing time I think it would have made full size pumpkins right in the middle of all those thorns - it would have been interesting trying to harvest them :o
Col
It would have given you a reason to get rid of the brambles.
Hi Robert, :D ...
:o My brambles are my pride and joy.
I say brambles when I mean my lovingly cossetted, double fenced, pruned, tied in, trained, huge, juicy, tasty, steal these and die, jam - factory.
I have blackberries as a fence on both short ends of my plot. I still have frozen berries and huge amounts of jam from last years harvest.
I love the taste of blackberries they are a taste from my childhood.
Col
I get you. I can pick all I like along the canal, a few hundred yards away as the bee flies, and a good mile by the railway bridge, so I don't bother.