Large-fruited vining types need plenty of room to sprawl and may take over small gardens. Soil containing plenty of well-rotted compost or manure is ideal, although good crops may be grown in average soils, which have been adequately fertilized. For extra early fruit, plant seeds in peat pots in greenhouses or hotbeds, and transplant about three weeks later after danger of frost. Older plants that have hardened off and stopped growth will not transplant well and should be discarded. Cover seed with 1 inch of soil.
Squash plants have separate male and female flowers on the same plant.
Pollen must be transferred from the male flowers to the female by bees. Use insecticides late in the evening to prevent killing bees which use the pollen as food and will carry them back to the hive. Powdery and downy mildews, blossom blight, bacterial wilt. Cucumber beetles, squash vine borers, pickleworm. If the rind is too hard to be marked by the thumbnail, the fruit is too old.