Garden & Yard: Wonderful Winter Squash

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The Asian version of buttercup, kabocha squash, also has many fans, as do three C. maxima varieties — ‘Potimarron,’ ‘Hokkaido’ and ‘Red Kuri’ — that probably started out as the same thing and changed a bit as they traveled the world. Subtle chestnut flavor is this strain’s fame, whereas fast-maturing, North Dakota-bred ‘Gold Nugget’ is still endearing itself to gardeners with its orange softball-sized fruits 40 years after earning the 1966 silver AAS medal.

Buttery texture and user-friendly size aside, all of these squashes (and those of the C. pepo group) are much sought after by squash vine borers — pests that can decimate small garden plantings, but are not as bad in big fields of squash, where the mother moths have more plants to choose from as they seek host plants upon which to lay their eggs.

Both C. maxima and C. pepo squashes have the type of stem that squash borers love — wide and hollow in the middle, with a thick lining of spongy parenchyma, the preferred food of hungry squash borer larvae. However, C. maxima squashes have a way of defending themselves that the C. pepo lack: They vigorously develop supplemental roots where their vines touch the ground. You can improve the borer tolerance of long-vined buttercups by dumping a shovelful of soil over places where you see roots trying to get established in the soil. See “Stick it to Borers,”, for other strategies aimed at managing this pest.

Acorns and Delicatas

Worth skirmishing with borers, both heart-shaped acorn squash and delicatas (which can look like little striped pumpkins or oblong loaves, depending on the variety) are classified as C. pepo, as is spaghetti squash, which is grown for its pastalike strings. Acorns and delicatas are great for stuffing, and because of their small fruit size, they are usually very productive, spewing out six or more fruits per plant.

Yet, maximum productivity and flavor from C. pepo squash requires that you manage squash borers and squash bugs — half-inch-long shield bugs that weaken plants by sucking plant juices. These are the critters that lay groups of shiny brown eggs on squash leaves, which hatch into long-legged nymphs. Adults overwinter in mulches and other garden debris, and then emerge in early summer, just as squash plants hit their stride. Squash bugs infest other types of squash, too, but they are most damaging to C. pepo varieties, which typically have a limited number of large leaves on compact plants. The loss of only a few leaves to squash bugs will reduce a plant’s vigor, resulting in small, weakly flavored squash.

If you have a terrible squash bug and/or vine borer problem, the best solution is to grow squash beneath floating row covers, which are put over the plants soon after the seeds germinate or seedlings are set out. Be sure to allow plenty of growing room before you bury the row cover edges. Then let your squash grow for four to six weeks and remove the row covers when flowers appear (squash must be pollinated by bees and other flying insects).

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