Cucurbita pepo Squash

Planting position: Full sun. Ideal for warm season regions. Spacing 1m between planting mounds.
Requires regular watering (less during germination period). Well-draining, compost-enriched loamy soil and generous layers of mulching (avoid the stem). Added 2:3:2 to preparing beds, at a rate of 100g.m ² and 4:1:1 during flowering period (monthly). Pinching out of growing tips of trailing varieties to encourage side-growth.
Propagate from seed, pre-dusted with a proprietary brand of fungicide, and sown in situ.
Harvesting is done from 3 months after sowing when 15cm in diameter and cut these off with a sharp secateur.
Pests, diseases and their cures: Powdery mildew and Downy mildew - spray with copper oxychloride. Pumpkin beetle and 28 spotted ladybird - spray with carbaryl. Red spider mite - use dicofol control.

Summer- and winter squash, like the pumpkin, belong to 4 different Cucurbita species. Summer squash is usually round with a scallop-like edging. These small vegetables are eaten when immature. Winter squash is a warm season vegetable and varies in colour, size and shape. The hard, inedible skin covers a yellow to orange flesh and seeds.