Vegetable Gardening Tip For Forcing Squash To Grow In The Direction You Want

Forcing Squash

This article is going to look over some tips regarding squash and how to force the direction it grows. I will provide you with my personal tips and ideas. Let’s get started.

I wasn’t going to put the squash and zucchini in the main vegetable garden because it can take up so much space but decided to, last minute.

I planted the rows in my vegetable garden east to west, and for the squash, I gave them three feet on either side, north, and south.

The thing is the squash are unlikely to grow in a circle as I’d like to conserve space and so they don’t crowd our other vegetables, so I had to help them a bit.

As they started to sprawl, in the wrong direction, I just took rose canes we had cut down along our property fence, cut them into about 8-inch lengths, and used them to peg the squash vines in the direction I want them to grow.

Pegging The Vines

As you can see in the image below, I have moved the vine in the direction I want and then put a peg on either side of the vine to hold it there.

Since I have just purchased a pond liner and pump from Oase (see photo below), I believe it is important to mention that you should avoid planting your Squash seeds too close to your garden pond (if you have one). They are better spread within an area that is hillier, if possible.

I didn’t push the vines and further than they would move without tension so as not to damage the vines. I will continue to do this using the pegs I used earlier and will just keep forcing them to grow in the directions I want. This should allow me to keep them in the area I provided.

My first few years growing squash didn’t do as well as I had planned and hoped, but I did learn that slugs aren’t good for my squash as I watched each new blossom fall off overnight. I was wasting time using natural remedies I found online for the second year and still didn’t win the battle against the slugs.

Slug B Gone

I used Slug-B-Gon which seems to have worked. If you don’t have any locally, try eBay for a product to help you get rid of slugs and snails. Spread it around and under the leaves and the slugs lost interest in my squash plants. I managed to get more squash that we could eat last year and I hope to do the same thing again this year.

This was a quick guide providing tips on how to force squash to grow in the direction you prefer. If you want more tips, visit this interesting article. I wish you well with your gardening.

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