GROWER’S GUIDE (Squash)

Description

Squash – Grower’s Guide

Season
Best in Winter, squash prefer medium-low temperatures and not to climb.

Soil
Loam soil, good irrigation, pH 5.5 – 6.8 To plough the soil with dry sun 7-10 days To plough the soil deep 20-30 cm. Additional manure rate 0.5-1.0 ton/rai fertilizer 40 Kg./rai soil to cover up plot wide 80 cm. high 30 cm., 1 row/ plot 0.8-1.0 m. Use plastic or strew to cover up step end.

Agriculture
Trasnsplant sprout 10-12 days, open water in to plot, perforate on plastic space 50-60 cm.

Fertilizer
1. With plough formula 15-15-15 rate 40 Kg./Rai
2. After transplant 7-10 days formula 21-0-0 rate 20-25 Kg./Rai
3. After transplant 20-25 days formula 15-15-15 rate 25-30 Kg./Rai
4. After transplant 35-44 days formula 15-15-15 rate 25-30 Kg./Rai

Disease Important
Downy Mildew, Antracnose, Powdery mildew
Insect Important: Beetle, Thrips

Maturity
45-50 days

SQUASH FACTS: any of various fruits of plants (genus Cucurbita) of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), widely cultivated as vegetables and for livestock feed. The principal species are C. maxima and certain varieties of C. pepo.

Summer squash is a quick-growing, small-fruited, nontrailing or bush type of C. pepo. Plants are upright and spreading, 45 to 75 cm (18 to 30 inches) high, and produce a great diversity of fruit forms, from flattened, through oblong, to elongate and crooked fruits, coloured from white through cream to yellow, green, and variegated. Fruit surfaces or contours may be scalloped, smooth, ridged, or warty. The fruits develop veryrapidly and must be harvested a few days after they form (before the seeds and rinds harden) and used soon after harvest.

Winter varieties of squash, C. maxima, are long-vining, generally large-fruited, long-season kinds. The fruits after harvest can be stored many months (into wintertime) if kept dry and well above freezing. The fruit stems are greatly enlarged next to the fruits;the fruits show a wide range of sizes, shapes, and colours; and the rinds are relatively harder than those for summer squash and usually inedible to human tastes. See also pumpkin.