Tips For Planting Summer Squash Seeds

 

Before you start planting summer squash seeds, determine their preferred soil conditions. Squash prefer a pH range of 6.0 to 6.5, and full sun is essential for successful growth. They need six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day to thrive. They also benefit from two to three inches of organic mulch, which will suppress weeds, retain moisture, and prevent squash leaves from touching the soil. To ensure success, follow these steps:

 

Direct seed 1/2 inch deep in hills or rows 4 to 5 feet apart. Thin the plants after they sprout and after a week, thin them to one plant every twelve to twenty-four hours. In addition, heirloom summer squash seeds need to be pollinated. Male flowers emerge 40 to 50 days after planting. Female flowers emerge a week later. When these flowers develop, they will fertilize the fruit. Picking the male flowers will help increase your harvest.

 

After sowing your seeds, prepare the soil for planting. Prepare your garden bed with compost and amend it with soil amendments. Afterward, till the soil to loosen it for the roots. After this, plant the seeds about one inch deep in the soil, spacing them about 12 inches apart. Water them frequently, but remember to water them deeply, because they have deep roots. Apply fertilizer to the soil around your plants once the squash plants are established.

 

Squash plants have separate male and female flowers. The male flowers grow at the base of the plant, while female flowers are located close to the main vine. Both flowers produce edible fruit. A bee or other insect needs to move pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers. Bees are common pollinators of summer squash and other summer vegetables. They are part of the Cucurbitaceae family. Acorns, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkins, and summer squash are all edible plants.

 

For a summer squash harvest, you should wait until the last spring frost has passed. Soil temperature should be 70 degrees Fahrenheit when you plant the seeds outdoors. In the meantime, you can start indoors by sowing the seeds at least 4 weeks before the last frost date. Sow the seeds in a warm place between 70 and 95 degrees. After seven or ten days, thin them to one per pot. Once you have a small crop, you'll have delicious summer squash.

 

Summer squash seeds varieties come in various shapes. Some are round, while others are crookneck. Some varieties have interesting water marks on the leaves. Picking summer squash is easy, as long as they are picked when the flesh is firm and glossy. Harvesting them before they reach a certain size can suffocate the development of more fruit. The best time to harvest them is 55 days after planting. If growing conditions are right, summer squash can be harvested daily or even every other day.

You can get more enlightened on this topic by reading here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_squash.