Vertically Growing Summer Squash

Here's a photo of the spaghetti squash today - not a great one, sorry!  But you can see how large the squash are already and the stems holding the fruit are over an inch thick.

These are horizontal wires stretched between two 7' fence posts.  They are about 10 inches apart all the way up the post.  

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wow, very nice. Squash is so heavy that it can be very pricey at the store, sold by the pound. That makes it a very high "return on your money," or ground space, crop that I wish I had more success on.

My spaghetti vines are pushing 5'.  I have no idea what I'm doing  but if I can get one or two little fruit from each I will be ecstatic.  They have PM and I'm spaying almost daily with baking soda with Neem every few days.  Paint brush at the ready. The butternut is only about 1 foot but the stake is ready for it.

@sanderson wrote:My spaghetti vines are pushing 5'.  I have no idea what I'm doing  but if I can get one or two little fruit from each I will be ecstatic.  They have PM and I'm spaying almost daily with baking soda with Neem every few days.  Paint brush at the ready. The butternut is only about 1 foot but the stake is ready for it.

Audrey, Do you clip or tie up the vines?

Yours are still growing, sanderson? I've been thinking of pulling mine out.

I just planted them! Maybe, like 3 weeks ago?

Oh yeah, you live in Fresno! Not quite the threat of snow I've gotten used to thinking about up here in Oregon.

I'm up the mountain from Sanderson about 45 minutes. We're about 1500 ft elevation so we get freezes and every couple years some snow.

I do not tie the spaghetti squash at all. It is vigorous and spreads itself and holds on. I will wrap it around the wire as it's growing and make sure the fruit is hanging in a good spot. I give it a lot of room and plan shorter things under it so it spread probably 10-12 feet. I've not trimmed it much unless it's crowding out something near by.

I lost my Sp. Sq. last year to Powdery Mildew, but I've had none of it this year. I'm not sure why no big problem this year when last was so bad, the only think I can think of that's really different is I'm using a deep mulch so there is no soil coming in contact with the plants and the sp. squash is actually growing in a straw bale, not soil. Though the bale has composted down to the ground.

I have had a touch of PM on some cukes, but I've been looking for it every day and been able to simply pick off the leaves and then it will be a week or so before I see another.

The way the trellis is set up, I will be able to cover these with blankets and plastic to try and extend them as far as possible. I will get likely get at least 1/2 of the fruit to ripen - fingers crossed.

Why did I think butternut and spaghetti were winter squash?    I'm going to have to get a trellis instead of using 1 x 2 stakes.  Good grief!  Maybe DH can make the stakes into a trellis with extra cross stakes.

They are winter squash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_squash

Marc, Thank you.

Well.... Pride goes before a fall... literally!

One of my spaghetti squash fell off the vine today.  I has to be 5 or 6 lbs and is still green.  Does anyone know if it will ripen by itself?  What if I put it in a bag with some ripening tomatoes and just keep changing out the tomatoes?  

Bummer!  I normally entwine the vines manually around the wire supports and missed this one.

The spaghetti squash will still taste good cooked green. They do keep ripening after picked, to a degree. It must depend on how mature they were when they got detached from the vine. 5/6 pounds sounds pretty mature...... I would not bother trying to use tomatoes to ripen it, just let it sit and use it before ones you feel are more definitively ripened.

The frost killed the Spaghetti vines so I harvested the squash. The 2 light green ones with hard skins are still siting pretty on the counter. The third was delicious baked with oil, salt and pepper. PM was rampant but the squash unaffected??!!

@audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Well.... Pride goes before a fall... literally!

One of my spaghetti squash fell off the vine today.  I has to be 5 or 6 lbs and is still green.  Does anyone know if it will ripen by itself?  What if I put it in a bag with some ripening tomatoes and just keep changing out the tomatoes?  

Bummer!  I normally entwine the vines manually around the wire supports and missed this one.

I harvested my spaghetti squash easily about 2 months ago. Grew 'em up a cattle panel trellis arch. They were so green people thought they were watermelon. A hard frost was coming so I had to take the chance and just cut them down and see what would happen. I just put them in a plastic tub in DH's office and waited. Lo and behold, they're almost all yellow now. I just gave one away to a friend, and will probably bake one this weekend. HTH.

@mollyhespra wrote:

@audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Well.... Pride goes before a fall... literally!

One of my spaghetti squash fell off the vine today.  I has to be 5 or 6 lbs and is still green.  Does anyone know if it will ripen by itself?  What if I put it in a bag with some ripening tomatoes and just keep changing out the tomatoes?  

Bummer!  I normally entwine the vines manually around the wire supports and missed this one.

I harvested my spaghetti squash easily about 2 months ago.  Grew 'em up a cattle panel trellis arch.  They were so green people thought they were watermelon.  A hard frost was coming so I had to take the chance and just cut them down and see what would happen.  I just put them in a plastic tub in DH's office and waited.  Lo and behold, they're almost all yellow now.  I just gave one away to a friend, and will probably bake one this weekend.  HTH.

I forgot about this post!  I left that squash on top of the trellis (on a 4" wide board on top) and let it ripen in the sun.  We ate it a couple months later it was just as good as the rest of them.  So with both of our experiences being positive hopefully that will help someone down the road  

Ooops!    I didn't notice the date of your post!

Ah, well. Like you said, maybe it will be helpful to someone else.