Space for Winter Squashes.

[Peanut]

Hello folks,

I want to ask your advice on my possible plan for my Winter Squashes. I have an end of bed about 1.5m long x 1.3m wide, running north to south.
I'm wondering how many Squashes of Potimarron and Autumn Crown I could fit into this space if I put in some trellis for them to scramble up and over?

[ameno]

I would not advise trellising any large squash variety, such as Autumn Crown. The squash a likely to be too heavy for the stems to bear, and will snap off. And even if you support them with nets, as one might melons, there is the chance of them just breaking the trellis under the weight. And squash grown vertically are always less productive, and the plant struggles to send the water and nutrients against gravity.
Ideally, they should be allowed to scramble along the ground. Maybe across the path and through flower beds, or between other crops?

I grow my squash at home in a bed about 1.8m by 80cm. I grow 5 plants in that space, usually. I find that gives them enough root space, and then the vines grow all over a nearby Japanese quince, in amongst all my fruit trees, and through a wild area at th bottom of my garden. One even climbed the back fence and escaped into the back alley the year before last.

So if you can give the vines sufficient space to grow outside of that bed, you could certainly fit 5 plants in there, diagonally staggered to give more space between each plant. You will need to water and feed more at that spacing, though, and a mulch would be beneficial.
If you want a more conventional spacing, three plants may be better.
You will get more fruit per plant when you space them better, but you will get more fruit overall from the whole bed if you plant more plants.

[1Bee]

Bear in mind that if you let them scramble around (which I do! ) the vines will often root along the stem if left to their own devices, so if you want to move them do it quickly. I once let a Crown Prince do its thing through the onion bed, which caused merry hell for weeding.

[1Bee]

(I meant move the trailing vines.... not the plant, in case that wasn't clear!)

[TrixC]

I do a similar thing to Ameno with my winter squashes - plant them fairly close together but let them scramble around through other plants. With the larger fruited squashes I only ever seem to get one squash per plant irrespective of spacing so I would rather put in more plants. I would probably put around 6 plants in that space.

[Peanut]

Thank you all for your advice.
I've decided to put my Potimarron in my Bean bed to scramble about beaneth (see what I did there) them. My Autumn Crown is further down that bed to scramble amongst a couple leftover Toms and Cuc plants and my Sweet Dumplings are being trained up an old repurposed archway with some Morning Glory plants.
Fingers crossed that should all work out just fine.
Now to dig out my Brassica Bed and plant up my Annuals.

[ameno]

I do a similar thing to Ameno with my winter squashes - plant them fairly close together but let them scramble around through other plants. With the larger fruited squashes I only ever seem to get one squash per plant irrespective of spacing so I would rather put in more plants. I would probably put around 6 plants in that space.

I find the same with the large-fruited ones. Once they set one fruit, they keep aborting all subsequent female flowers.
I still grow exclusively large-fruiting varieties, though, as I can never reliably get a large enough number of fruits of a smaller one to be comparable.
From a a plant with 1kg fruits I might get an average of 3 fruits per plant in an average year. That's 3kg per plant. Whereas if I grow a variety with 5kg fruits, I may only get one per plant, but that's 5kg per plant.
I find the larger ones usually taste better and keep better, too. The only problem is what to do with them once you cut them open. I find they keep for about 10 days in the fridge once cut, which is usually long enough to use around two-thirds of it, then the rest I usually chop into chunks and freeze - it can be roasted straight from frozen. Sometimes I make soup with the excess, too.

[TrixC]

I find the same with the large-fruited ones. Once they set one fruit, they keep aborting all subsequent female flowers.
I still grow exclusively large-fruiting varieties, though, as I can never reliably get a large enough number of fruits of a smaller one to be comparable.
From a a plant with 1kg fruits I might get an average of 3 fruits per plant in an average year. That's 3kg per plant. Whereas if I grow a variety with 5kg fruits, I may only get one per plant, but that's 5kg per plant.
I find the larger ones usually taste better and keep better, too. The only problem is what to do with them once you cut them open. I find they keep for about 10 days in the fridge once cut, which is usually long enough to use around two-thirds of it, then the rest I usually chop into chunks and freeze - it can be roasted straight from frozen. Sometimes I make soup with the excess, too.

Yeah I generally prefer the larger ones, although there are a couple of smaller ones I really like, Black Futsu and Jester. These are both very productive and delicious, and you can do things like stuff them whole, which you can’t easily do with the bigger ones.