Grow Zucchini Vertically

Show the kids how easy it is to grow squash vertically. You know what they will say ?  "COOL"

Answer: Any that are not labeled or marked “ bush variety ” will probably be a vine. Some varieties will grow very long vigorous vines easy to train vertically while others will have short stumpy vines not as easy to train up your vertical frame.

Vertical growing of squash is quite a unique procedure in the general gardening field, and was virtually unknown by most of the traditional gardening authors, methods and seed companies until SFG came along. The planting spacing is quite different so it is not easy to find the right varieties that will do what you want to do in your Square Foot Garden. Let's see what sense we can make out of the whole situation.

Winter Squash

First lets identify the different types of squash. The first group is winter squash with varieties like hubbard, acorn, and the favorite of many people, butternut. These varieties are usually left to ripen on the vine and are good for storing inside your house well into the winter. You usually don't harvest them when they are young or eat them until they have become full size. That usually happens only after the vine has been killed by the first frost. After that frost, the vines will turn yellow and die then become quite brittle. At that time or slightly before, you can harvest the squash by cutting off and leaving a stem on the squash for proper storage. They can be eaten at any time after that. Just about every variety of winter squash grows with a very vigorous vine and is very easy to grow vertically as they will all climb by themselves. In fact, you have to keep them from jumping from one vertical frame to another or from dropping down from the vertical frame and starting to grow on the ground crowding out the rest of your square feet of crops. In an old fashioned, inefficient, single row garden, they just virtually take over the whole patch. They spread rapidly, growing very long vines, but in Square Foot Gardening, you can contain them on your vertical frame and still receive the same harvest from just a few square feet on the ground. Besides all that, they look spectacular growing on a vertical frame. It is almost a living wall of green.

Summer Squash

Just think how impressed your neighbors will be when you grow all your squash vertically in just a few square feet of ground space.

The next group of squash are called summer squashes and these include varieties like straight or crook neck, patty pan, and any soft variety of squash that you eat right away. You harvest while the plant is growing and before the squash gets too large. All of these varieties except those labeled bush will grow in a vine type with some being very vigorous and long vined while others have short stumpy vines. All the vine type can be grown vertically by just keeping the end of the plant or the vine up into your vertical netting or strings. They will hang on all by themselves with their tentacles. You just have to keep the top pointed up once a week or so. Remember now, this type of squash you do not grow to maturity, as they will get quite large and very tasteless. You harvest them very small, some just shortly after their blossom phase where the fruit is only four to six inches long. This type of squash does not store very well, certainly not for a long period of time like winter squashes do.

Zucchini

The last is also a summer squash but is in a class all by itself. In fact, it is quite often considered the queen of the garden. Everyone grows zucchini and let me tell you, zucchini loves all the attention. She will take over the garden with her leaves so big that each one will shade out an entire square foot of some other plant. The plants get huge although they do not have a long vigorous vine. Because the leaves are so big and the leaf stem is so long and thick it is very hard to coax them to grow vertically. They want to lay down on the ground and spread out. In fact is very hard to figure out how to grow them vertically.

My Secret

The trick is to have the vertical support whether it be string or netting or just a stake, very close to the plant. You can do that by putting a stake in the ground first and then planting the seed or young plant around it so you don't drive the stake into the roots of a growing plant. That way it is much easier to gently lift and bend the plant end up and tie to the stake or string. After you get it started up your string or netting every few days it will have grown out a few inches. Not up, but out and it will try to lay down again. You just gently talk to it, lift that head up, and tie it again to your vertical support. You just keep doing that every couple of days.

Why Vertical

Because of all of the advantages. What are the advantages and is it all worthwhile ? It seems like a lot of work doesn't it. Well first it is a challenge, next it is kind of fun and third it looks great in your garden. Of course, the real reason is so it doesn't take up so much space in your Square Foot Garden, only a couple square feet. Now here is the “ coupe de grace” ? Or in gardening terms, here's the “ cooty grow ”. After I perfected this method of growing vines vertically on a frame or Stake, I noticed a completely different growth pattern of the basic squash plant, particularly the summer squashes. In single row gardening, the plant spreads out with its single stem having blossoms and fruit forming near the near. Back near the base the leaves start dying and the stem becomes quite ugly. The end continues to grow new leaves and fruit but only out there at the end. With Square Foot Gardening and growing the squash vertically I noticed almost the opposite growth pattern. Once the plant got a few feet high instead of the bottom stem being bare and ugly, the plant started sending out new leaves and fruit all along the bottom and middle of the plant. No ugly bare base was visible, hence it was not only much more attractive, took up less space, but turned out to be more productive, more fruit per plant as well as more fruit per square foot. Now you can't beat that so why not give it a try.

Please don't write us or call us and ask what is the best variety that you can order so you can grow it vertically. Call or email the seed company and tell them that you want to grow a strong vigorous vine vertically for your Square Foot Garden. They know their own varieties better than we do and can advise you on the best variety to select for that purpose. Good Luck and have fun!

P.S. One of the reasons it's hard to get up to date practical advice for vertical gardening is that most of the gardening world is still teaching everyone how to grow the old-fashioned, inefficient single-row gardening method. In addition, they do the same thing with the vine crops—their advice is give them plenty of room so they can spread out and grow. In addition, the same wasteful practice of planting many seeds, then going back and thinning them out again, is still preached. For example, I'm looking right now at one of the prominent seed company's package and the directions for their zucchini squash is to “plant four to six seeds in groups or hills, spaced 1-1/2 to 2 ft. apart along rows spaced 4 ft. apart. Then they say thin to the two strongest plants in the group. Now think about that for a minute. All the companies guarantee that about 95% of their seeds will sprout. It's called the germination rate. So, if 95% of 4-6 seeds will sprout, that's 4-6 plants. Then they say thin to two. So why plant six if you only want two ? That's a lot of extra work and many wasted seeds.

And next, I'm going to quote from one of the very well recognized garden writers of America, on how to plant your squash. He suggests (uh-oh—I've given away who it could be, by at least 50%) plant a seed about every 8 inches in a row with the rows being 3-4 ft. apart, with the final distance between the plants 36 inches. Now why plant one every 8 inches only to rip out 3 of every 4 you plant ? Does that make any sense ? Why that's 75% WASTE. Using his directions, you would need between 9 and 12 sq. ft. per plant. Now if you look at the SFG book for summer squash grown vertically, it's recommended that three plants be spaced in a 4 sq. ft. which equals one and one-third sq. ft. per plant. That sure is a huge difference from the 9-12 sq. ft. needed. Actually, it's almost 10 times as much. Why waste all that space? Space that has to be amended, fenced, fertilized and roto-tilled, watered then weeded. It just doesn't make sense does it? So, stick with SFG and grow all your vine crops vertically on a strong frame like the one I've described in the book.