Connecticut Garden Journal: Training squash to grow up

Most vegetable gardeners are familiar with the benefits of growing veggies vertically. Certainly we know peas and pole beans love to climb. Tall varieties of peas, such as 'Tall Telephone' and 'Sugar Snap', climb up a trellis or fence with ease. Pole beans like to wrap around a pole or support as they grow. But there are other veggies that can also be grown vertically to save space and reduce disease and insect damage. Some summer squash, zucchini and winter squash varieties can be trained to grow up. Old summer squash varieties, such as 'Yellow Crookneck', and new zucchini varieties, such as 'Incredible Escalator', can be attached with Velcro brand plant ties to a fence and trained to stay off the ground. This gives you better yields on cleaner fruits. Even small-sized, winter squash varieties, such as 'Delicata' and 'Climbing Honey Nut' butternut, can also be grown this way. You can even construct a hog wire fence tunnel to grow heavier, vining, winter squash beauties. The vining Italian summer squash, 'Trombocino', is one of my personal favorites. This vine grows quickly up a fence, covering it with squash leaves. Come mid summer the fruits form and can grow very long. But they're best eaten when less than 3 feet long. The long, thin, neck is seedless and ends with a bulb on the bottom. It has dense flesh and a nutty flavor. If you want to try some exotic fruits, bitter melon or squash is an Indian vegetable I grow. It produces warty, green skinned fruits with a slight bitter flavor. It also grows quickly up a fence or trellis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.