In raised bed gardening, all squash need to be placed on the OUTSIDE edge of the bed. (Like in this plan.) Reason being, you want to spill them out into the path so they don’t take up garden space. THEY GET HUGE.
This can be accomplished by staking (which drove me insane) or by the grab-something-heavy method.
Two days ago, the below zucchini was totally choking out the peppers to it’s left. So, I forced it to grow the other way using an infamous outdoor candle with a stone base. Point the plant the way you want it to go, brace with something heavy. Easy fix, and totally repeatable if it starts getting greedy again.
Ivory
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Ivory- why are your car keys in your garden bed? For visual size comparison to the squash, or didja lose them?
I was wondering about the keys too, lol.
I have a giant zucchini plant taking over my main bed, is it too late to make it grow the other way? I am afraid of damaging it….its taking over 9 or so squares….
So true! My watermelons overflowed their squares and all the adjacent ones. Pretty soon they’ll be coming through the back window…
…aaaaaahhhhhh! Send help! ;o)
How well have your squash plants produced? We had three squash plants, placed about 3 ft apart where they produced 3-7 squash per day for about 1 month.
We then planted a square foot garden with four squash plants, one per square foot. The plants in the square foot garden only bear 1 squash per week each, and seem to have stopped growing. Still green, just not growing.
@Possenti2264–weird! I’ve never had anything make 7 squash a day! but mine are producing fine. The best they’ve ever done in a SQ foot garden was when I trellised them.
@Brown Thumb Mama–I can’t see you! Are you in there! Knock twice if you can hear me!
@Amanda–It will shock the plant a bit since it’s probably rooted in those squares, but the stem can take it if you move slowly. They’re much less brittle once they get big.
@Annie &Amanda–That’s my friend’s garden that I was taking care of. I threw the keys in the bed (not realizing that it was photographed until you mentioned it) because I had TOTALLY lost then in the grass the day before. Keep an eye out for me. I lose them all the time. Never neglect mentioning seeing the keys in a photograph. HA!
Slap a tomato cage over that puppy and train them up and over. It works great once the main leader vines are long enough to go over the top wire of the cage. Makes the squash easier to find too!