Container Gardening

Under normal circumstances, summer squash will thrive on their own. Occasionally, however, you will need to help them along. If your plants are too well sheltered from wind and insects to pollinate on their own, this help may extend to hand-pollinating your squash.

The first question, when growing squash, is whether hand-pollination is necessary. Your squash will not produce fruit under any circumstances if it does not have both male and female flowers on it yet. Just having a number of flowers does not guarantee that you have both male and female flowers: growing squash plants often produce many male flowers before producing their first female flower.

Distinguishing male flowers from female is fairly simple. Male flowers grow directly from a stem. Female flowers have a little fruit between the stem and the flower, from which a full squash will form if the flower is pollinated. If you have both male and female flowers, but none of the little fruits on the female flowers are maturing, you may need to help nature along.

There are two ways to hand-pollinate your squash.  It’s always best to hand-pollinate early in the morning, when the flowers are open.

The first method is simplest: pick the male flower and remove all petals from it.  You will be left with the stamen of the flower, a little yellow spike covered lightly with pollen, which looks like yellow dust.  Touch the stamen to the center of a female flower.  Leave the female flower to ripen into a squash.

The second method is a bit more complicated, but leaves the male flowers intact, in case you want them for either ornamentation or eating (you can eat squash flowers either plain or lightly cooked).  Instead of picking the flower and directly touching the stamen to the female flower, you will play insect.  Using a cotton swab, lightly touch the stamen of a male flower, picking up a bit of the pollen.  With the cotton swab, brush the center of the female flower, transferring the pollen over.  This is the same way that bees pollinate plants, by moving from flower to flower, bringing a residue of pollen along with them.

The very first vegetable I ever grew on my own was summer squash.  I was around 10, and the site of my garden was incredibly impractical.  I planted broccoli, corn, strawberries, brussel sprouts, zucchini, and crookneck squash.  The zucchini and crookneck squash fed my family all summer.  Nothing else had any yield at all.

Ever since then, every garden I’ve ever planted has had squashes in a place of pride.  Whatever goes wrong with the rest of my garden, I know I can get some kind of yield from the squash.  And I always have.

But can you grow good squash in a container garden?  Absolutely!  In fact, the nature of summer squashes makes them ideal for container growing.

Preparing

Before you get started, you’ll need to make sure you have the following items:

• Potting mix
• Squash seeds or seedlings
• A good-sized container — 2-4 gallons is enough for most squash, but I prefer to get 6+ gallon containers and plant a few squash together.

Choose a location that gets plenty of sun.

Planting

Squash are very easy to grow from seed, but if you want to start from seedlings you can save some time.

Plant 4-5 seeds per container, sowing them around an inch deep.  The potting mix shouldn’t be heavily packed above them.  Water that day and every 2-3 days after that if there’s no rain.  In around a week, you should see vines popping up, and then leaves will form shortly afterward.  Thin the seedlings, keeping the best 2-3 plants.

Growing

Summer squash are hungry plants.  They love fertilizer, sun, and water.  Weeding and watering regularly will help the squash plant to thrive.

Container garden squash can take two forms.  If you choose bush plants, the leaves will spread to tumble out of the container in time.  If you choose vining plants, you can train them to climb trellises or posts.

Tip: Vining squash can root all along their vines.  If you bury a few inches of vine in the soil, you will wind up with a much healthier and sturdier root system.

Harvesting

It takes summer squashes 45-60 days to reach maturity, depending on the variety.

The first few flowers you see on the plant will probably be male.  You can recognize female flowers by a swelling at the base, which male flowers will not have.  Male flowers will never produce fruit, but male zucchini flowers can be harvested for eating.  They can be fried or served fresh with salads.

Summer squashes will grow very large, but they are at their best if you harvest them smaller: around 8-10 inches long.  Pick them right before preparing for best flavor.

So, you’re looking to get started in container gardening, but you don’t know what to grow?  We can help!  Here is a list of five edible plants that grow well in containers.

1. Herbs
If you don’t have much experience with container gardening, herbs are hands-down the best place to start. 

With a little care and nurturing, you can keep a basil plant alive on your kitchen windowsill through a winter, and it is even easier to plant a container bed with several herbs at once to thrive through the summer months.  I always start my herbs from seedlings.  If you have an urn or windowbox, consider planting several varieties side-by-side.  I keep basil, parsley, chives, tarragon, oregano, and thyme in mine.  Find out what you use most!

2. Tomatoes
Depending on how much space you have, you can opt for the right style of tomato plant for you.  If you are limited in space, you can grow cherry tomatoes in baskets: they’re both decorative and tasty.  Good varieties to try for that include Florida Basket Tomatoes and Anmore Dewdrop Tomatoes.  Get more info on Growing Cherry Tomatoes in Containers.

If you have more space, you can upgrade to larger tomatoes in pots and planters of five gallons or more.  Roma tomatoes grow very well in pots.  Remember to stake and water well, and you can get a great harvest.

3. Radishes
Radishes can be a lot of fun to grow, especially with children, because they are very quick to grow and don’t need much space.  You can plant them in a windowbox or a little planter and have a harvest in 3-4 weeks!  Moisten the soil in a pot, plant radish seeds, and cover with 1/4 inch of soil.  Cover the pot with plastic wrap until the seeds sprout.  3 weeks after that, your radishes will be ready to eat!

4. Lettuce
Lettuce is a pretty plant, and works well as combination vegetable and ornamental container plant.  I like to plant it in windowboxes, for a nice bit of greenery.  They don’t need too much depth, but be sure to space the plants adequately.  Following the instructions on the package should be fine.  One advantage to lettuce is that you can find good partial shade varieties, which can help if you don’t get much direct sun.

5. Squash
In my experience, summer squashes are a terrifically forgiving plant.  You need a good-sized pot for container squash, but if you get a pot of around five gallons or more and try to keep them watered, you can get a fabulous crop from them.  Keep in mind, squash plants (especially zucchini) like to spread out and fill space.  You need to either prune them back or be prepared for crazy trailing leaves and vines.

Nearly any vegetable you can grow in the ground can be grown in a container, provided the container is big enough.  These suggestions should help you get started, but feel free to experiment on your own and find what works best for you.  Good luck!