Cucurbita pepo var. fastigata
Spaghetti squash
Common names: Spaghetti pumpkin
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 90 cm, rows 120 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Apr–May
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 2 °C
- Water need
- High
Photo: Rudolphous · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The spaghetti squash is a culinary curiosity: when cooked, its flesh disintegrates into long, spaghetti‑like strands that can be served like pasta with sauce. The elongated yellow fruits have a mild flavor and provide a low‑carbohydrate alternative to pasta.
Care instructions
Start indoors in April, then transplant after the last frost (mid‑May, week 20) to a sunny spot with nutrient‑rich soil and ample trellising space. Water regularly at the root zone and mulch to prevent drying. Harvest when the shell is uniformly yellow and hard and the stem begins to dry out; allow the fruits to ripen for one to two weeks before storage.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingApr–May
HarvestSep–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 13 °C, ideally 24 °C
- Days to sprout
- 5 to 10 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 2 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, nutrient-rich
Spaghetti squash needs a deep, loose, humus-rich loam that holds moisture and drains excess water well. Loosen heavy, compacted soils generously with mature compost before planting, and be sure to avoid waterlogging, as the roots will otherwise rot.
Cucurbits (cucumber, squash, courgette) are heavy feeders. Give them plenty of compost and a break of about 4 years on the same bed.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Mar, Apr, Jun, Jul
In spring, before planting, work mature compost and horn shavings shallowly into the soil. This feeds the plant through the whole summer. From fruit set (from about mid-June) you can top up with an organic liquid feed such as nettle liquid or compost tea, which encourages strong fruits.
Overwintering
Spaghetti squash is an annual and dies off at the first frost. The plant does not overwinter; you sow afresh in spring. Harvest all the fruits in good time before the frost and store them dry, dark and cool (about 10 to 15 °C), and they will keep for several months.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate spaghetti squash by sowing only. For the early start, from mid-April place two seeds on their edge (about 2 to 3 cm deep) in each 10 to 12 cm pot of low-nutrient seed compost and put it in a warm, bright spot at around 18 to 21 °C. After germination (usually 8 to 15 days), leave only the strongest seedling. Squashes are very sensitive to cold, and warmth is the most important factor. Plant out no earlier than after the Ice Saints in mid-May (the soil should stay above 12 °C) in a sunny, sheltered spot with humus-rich soil; harden the young plants off outdoors for a few days beforehand. Direct sowing in place is possible after the Ice Saints: put several seeds in each spot and thin to the strongest plant as soon as it has three to four true leaves.
Saving your own seed only works with open-pollinated varieties, not with F1 hybrids (many spaghetti squash cultivars such as ‘Tivoli’ are F1), whose offspring do not come true. So check before saving seed whether your cultivar is open-pollinated. With open-pollinated varieties, leave individual fruits on the plant to ripen fully, until the skin is hard and a fingernail no longer leaves a mark. After harvest, store the fruit for at least three to four weeks, then open it, wash the seeds clean with cool water and dry them for about two weeks on a plate; turn them daily until they snap rather than bend. Because spaghetti squash belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo, it crosses readily with other pepo cultivars (courgettes, patty pan squashes, ornamental gourds). A cross with ornamental gourds is particularly risky because their bitter cucurbitacin can pass into the offspring; such fruits are inedible to poisonous. If you want pure seed, grow only one pepo cultivar in the season, keep a wide distance from other pepo plants, or hand-pollinate individual flowers and close them straight afterwards.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
legume family (Fabaceae)
Beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen, which cucurbits, as heavy feeders, can make good use of.
For example PeaBush beanPole beanBroad beanSnow peaWrinkled pea and 36 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
nightshade family (Solanaceae)
You should avoid planting potato and cucumber together because they share disease pathogens such as leaf and brown rot and stand in each other's way as strong feeders.
For example TomatoSweet pepperCocktail tomatoEggplantCape gooseberryChili and 13 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop-rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Spaghetti squash yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
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