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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-205
Winter Squash
Cucurbita maxima
Winter squash is the strongest animal-feed plant and the only true ground cover among the vine crops in this group, provided it is given a compost mound rather than planted straight into heavy clay. Its fruit keeps for up to nine months in storage, so a spring planting becomes a January feed and a winter staple long after the vine itself is gone, tasting something like baked sweet potato. Left to sprawl across ten to sixteen feet of ground, its broad leaves shade out weeds and hold soil moisture the way a living mulch does, which is exactly the role it plays in a traditional three-sisters planting alongside corn and beans. Timing is unusually strict: a squash vine borer makes autumn planting a losing proposition here, so it is a once-a-year, spring-only crop rather than the two-season habit of some of its relatives.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–11
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Moist
Vertical layer
Vine- Soil pH
- 6–6.8
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 9–24 in
- Mature spread
- 10–16.4 ft
- Plant spacing
- 3–5 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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