When to Plant Squash?
Squash is a tropical vegetable. When temperatures get below freezing, the plants die. Temperatures in the 32-50F range make squash languish with unhappiness. When temperatures are steadily above 90F, squash flowers may fail to set fruit. Typical North American summer highs of 70-85 with nighttime lows of 50-70 are perfect for squash.
Here in Western North Carolina, we plant squash in the garden around the first half of May. That’s safely after the last frost, and it gets hot quickly as the seedlings germinate and begin to leaf out. It also works fine to wait until June when the soil is warmer and the days are long. Everything grows faster then and could catch right up with cooler-soil plantings.
You’ll only plant winter squash once per year. If your season is long enough, like ours, you might plant summer squash twice, once in spring and once in early summer. But for me, there’s too much other good stuff to eat from the garden in August and September to care much about zucchini, if I’ve already filled the ‘frig with it in July.
How to Plant Squash Early
I know farmers who take special measures to be first to market with summer crops, planting them in April or even March with special protection against light frosts that may come. You can try this, too. These farmers plant summer squashes and cucumbers in holes in black plastic mulch. Over the top is a heat-trapping floating row cover fabric, such as Reemay, weighted with rocks to keep it in place when Spring winds blow. A fancier system involves cutting thin PVC pipe into hoops, or buying wire hoops for this purpose. These are placed over the row to hold up the fabric & create a low tunnel, also known as a hoophouse.
If you want to grow the full range of squash and live in a cooler Rocky Mountain climate, or way up north where there’s a short summer, you may need to cheat the season in this way to get any squash at all, especially winter squash, which takes longer to mature.
