How to Plant and Grow Banana Squash

Cucurbita maxima

Banana squash is a marvel of the vegetable backyard.

They appear like outsized pink or blue bananas, weigh 60 kilos or extra, and comprise candy flesh that’s excellent for roasting, baking, or turning into warming autumn or winter soups.

So, if you wish to get quite a lot of bang on your buck this season, it is best to plant and develop banana squash!

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With massive to extra-large fruits that develop on lengthy, vining crops, these summer season annuals thrive in gardens the place there may be loads of room for them to sprawl.

On the uncommon events that gardeners complain about banana squash, it’s normally a humble brag – as a result of the fruits are so ample that only one can replenish most of a freezer.

In our information to rising winter squash, we cowl how one can develop these long-keeping cucurbits. This text focuses on banana squash particularly.

Right here’s a sneak peek at what we’ll cowl:

Banana squash fruits are usually round 18 to 24 inches lengthy, and about 4 to 5 inches huge, making them straightforward to slice up and rework into scrumptious roasted veggies, soups, or pies.

The fruits have pink or blue pores and skin, and yellowish-orange to orange flesh that has a easy texture. In truth, they’re much like butternut squash in each style and texture.

These vining crops are varieties of Cucurbita maxima, which originated in South America.

Different varieties derived from the identical species embody Hubbard, turban, buttercup, and kabocha squash.

Banana squash are additionally associated to pumpkins (C. pepo) and different winter squash corresponding to ‘Delicata,’ ‘Butterkin,’ calabaza, and spaghetti squash – in addition to summer season varieties like zucchini!

Though they’re referred to as winter squash, don’t strive rising them throughout the chilly months. These greens are frost tender, and wish an extended stretch of heat climate to develop and mature.

They require 100 days or extra to provide a crop and may be grown as annuals in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 11.

How you can Sow

When planning your backyard, maybe with the assistance of a gardening journal, permit room for vines which can be 15 toes lengthy or extra and two to 3 toes huge.

Right here’s how one can proceed:

Direct Sowing

If you wish to sow seeds instantly into the backyard:

Begin by eradicating any weeds or lifeless vegetation within the rising space, then combine a couple of shovels of compost into the soil.

Mound up the soil in the course of the rising space.

Sow two to 3 seeds an inch deep within the mound.

Water proper after sowing, and irrigate each day till germination, which ought to occur in 5 to 10 days.

After germination, skinny to 1 to 2 seedlings per planting, eradicating the weakest seedlings from every mound.

When younger crops develop into established, lower irrigation to upkeep ranges.

Beginning Indoors

Begin seeds indoors two to 4 weeks earlier than the final spring frost is an choice if in case you have a brief rising season.

These crops don’t actually take pleasure in being transplanted, so in case you can, it’s finest to direct-sow.

You’ll want the next provides: seeds, seed beginning rising medium, and biodegradable seed beginning pots or trays. You might also want a warmth mat.

Begin by filling the pots with moist rising medium.

Sow a single seed one inch deep within the heart of every pot.

Situate the pots close to a window the place seedlings will obtain six to eight hours of direct daylight, or place them underneath a develop lamp.

Maintain the pots at a temperature of 70 to 95°F, utilizing a warmth mat if crucial.

Water as wanted to maintain the rising medium moist, however not waterlogged, and count on germination in 5 to 10 days.

After germination, maintain the rising medium moist however not soggy. After the final frost date has handed, harden off the seedlings earlier than transplanting.

Transplanting

Clear the rising space of weeds and spent vegetation forward of transplanting the seedlings.

Use a hori hori or a trowel to dig a gap within the backyard soil that’s twice as huge and deep because the nursery pot.

If seedlings are in biodegradable pots, take away the rim of the pot previous to inserting the transplant into the opening.

For these grown in plastic pots, take away the plant from the pot gently, taking care to not disturb the roots, then insert the basis ball into the opening.

Backfill with soil, overlaying solely the basis ball.

Water the crops on the soil stage. Within the absence of rain, water each day for one to 2 weeks because the transplants develop into established.

How you can Develop

Let’s take a better have a look at how one can maintain these veggies joyful.

Mild

The vines require full solar to efficiently produce fruits. Which means you must select a spot within the backyard that receives a minimal of six hours of direct daylight per day. Extra is healthier.

Soil

Banana squash prefers loamy backyard soil and can flourish in a pH vary of 5.8 to six.8. It’s a good suggestion to work in some compost earlier than planting.

The soil completely have to be well-draining. Standing water or oversaturated soil will result in rot.

In case your backyard has predominantly clay soil, it’s possible you’ll need to think about using raised beds.

Water

When crops are established, water your patch sometimes however deeply, growing water as temperatures rise and when the times are sunny.

Fertilizing

Compost is the perfect fertilizer for these crops so begin by working some well-rotted compost into the soil earlier than sowing or transplanting.

A few times throughout the rising season, you may also work a couple of handfuls of compost into the soil close to the plant’s roots so as to add vitamins.

Cultivars to Choose

When selecting a banana squash selection on your backyard, you should definitely decide one that matches the variety of days in your rising season – in addition to one which you should have no hassle carrying to your kitchen!

Listed here are a few of the hottest varieties:

Georgia Sweet Roaster

Included on the Sluggish Meals Basis for Biodiversity’s Ark of Style, ‘Georgia Sweet Roaster’ is an heirloom with a particular historical past.

Search for seeds from sellers specializing in heirlooms and plan for a minimum of 112 days to maturity.

Guatemalan Blue

With blueish-gray pores and skin and orange flesh, ‘Guatemalan Blue’ reaches 15 to twenty inches lengthy and weighs 5 to eight kilos at maturity. 

Harvest ‘Guatemalan Blue’ in 90 to 110 days after sowing, and count on a easy texture and fruity taste.

‘Guatemalan Blue’

You will discover ‘Guatemalan Blue’ seeds in a wide range of packet sizes from True Leaf Market.

North Georgia Sweet Roaster

Smaller than the opposite sweet roaster described right here, ‘North Georgia Sweet Roaster’ reaches 18 inches lengthy and weighs eight to fifteen kilos.

Fruits are pink with blue ideas and comprise orange flesh that has a easy texture and a scrumptious taste. It’s particularly cherished for pie filling.

Plan for about 100 days to maturity.

‘North Georgia Sweet Roaster’

Decide up packets of 10 or 30 ‘North Georgia Sweet Roaster’ seeds from the Tomorrow Seeds Retailer by way of Amazon.

Pink Banana

‘Pink Banana’ produces fruits that attain 18 to 24 inches lengthy and weigh 10 to 50 kilos.

These are an attractive salmon shade with yellowish orange flesh that has a medium dry texture and candy taste.

‘Pink Banana’ might be prepared to reap in 100 to 120 days.

‘Pink Banana’

Buy ‘Pink Banana’ seeds in packets of eight from Botanical Pursuits.

Pests and Illness

A upkeep process you’ll need to carry out pretty frequently is checking for indicators of pests or illness. Right here’s what you’ll must search for:

Herbivores

Relying in your location, a large variety of herbivorous mammals would possibly prefer to snack in your banana squash crops, whereas the most typical are deer and rabbits.

To maintain deer out of your backyard, use a tall fence.

As for rabbits, the fence needn’t be tall, however the fence mesh have to be small.

Discover ideas for holding rabbits out of the backyard right here.

Bugs

Aphids can typically be discovered lurking on the stems and undersides of the leaves.

Begin through the use of a hose to blast them off with a robust jet of water. Repeat this technique as soon as per week and after a couple of weeks, the aphids ought to be gone.

Our information to controlling aphids as extra ideas.

In case your crops are wilting, test for squash bugs, a sort of true bug that feeds on banana squash crops, damaging and finally killing them if left uncontrolled.

Decide off and kill grownup and nymph bugs, and destroy their eggs, that are normally discovered on the undersides of the leaves.

Whiteflies are typically most noticeable once they fly away from crops in a white swarm.

Illness

Ailments on banana squash crops are pretty frequent. Listed here are a couple of to be careful for:

This isn’t brought on by a pathogen, it’s a physiological subject associated to water and calcium uptake.

Learn our information to blossom-end rot in zucchini to study extra.

Downy mildew and powdery mildew are frequent fungal illnesses that may seem throughout damp, humid circumstances.

The previous causes fuzzy leaves and angular, yellow or gentle inexperienced spots on the foliage.

If it seems like somebody took a bag of flour and sprinkled it in your squash foliage, your plant could also be affected by powdery mildew.

Quite common within the vegetable backyard, it’s fairly straightforward to manage and usually doesn’t do quite a lot of injury.

Keep away from watering from overhead and guarantee that there’s ample airflow between and across the vines to keep away from fungal points.

Harvesting

The fruits will progressively change shade as they mature and dimension up. However simply because they appear like the proper dimension and shade on the skin doesn’t imply they’re essentially prepared for harvest!

Earlier than you harvest, test the times to maturity of your chosen selection.

Then rely ahead out of your sowing or transplanting date – that is your estimated harvest time, which may vary from 90 to 120 days, relying on the range.

When sufficient time has handed for the fruits to mature they usually have grown to the anticipated dimension, maintain your eye on the vines and stems – they are going to begin drying out and turning brown.

Enable the banana squash to remedy within the solar for per week earlier than storing them in a cool location.

Preserving

Wish to protect your harvest? Your choices embody cool storage, freezing, and dehydrating.

Banana squash may be saved for roughly six months in cool storage. What makes cool storage? A temperature of fifty to 60°F and a relative humidity of fifty to 70 p.c.

An unheated basement or storage, or perhaps a root cellar could give you the results you want!

If you wish to freeze the flesh, it’s finest to prepare dinner it till smooth, then retailer it in containers within the freezer. It can maintain this manner for as much as a yr.

Be taught extra about how one can dehydrate backyard produce right here.

Cooking Concepts

You should utilize banana squash in its place in any recipe that requires pumpkin or butternut – and most of people who name for candy potatoes.

Why not begin with a soup? Merely puree the cooked flesh, add water or broth till it achieves the specified consistency, and taste with sage and scorching peppers.

When you’re within the temper for a responsible pleasure, why not make some oven baked fries? Simply observe this recipe for butternut squash oven fries on our sister web site, Foodal.

Have a hankering for one thing candy?

How about some spiced pecan pumpkin muffins, made with banana squash as a substitute of pumpkin? Use this recipe, additionally on Foodal.

Boatloads of Banana Squash

You’re now outfitted with the information to develop these mammoth greens in your personal yard backyard, small farm, or neighborhood backyard.

Which sort will you develop? Are you aiming for some tremendous massive banana squash or hoping to maintain your harvest manageable? Tell us within the feedback part beneath, and if in case you have any remaining questions, you may ask them there as effectively!

Want extra ideas for rising squash in your vegetable backyard? We’ve got extra studying for you proper right here:

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