J. Mack of Olympia, Washington asks:

“I have a question on growing winter vegetables. All of the web sites I have looked at don’t mention squash and yet I have planted a package of winter squash in my greenhouse, hoping to grow it this winter. Will it survive the winter if I put it out in the garden?”

Thanks for this great question. The name winter squash is pretty confusing when you come to find out that winter squash actually grows at the same time as summer squash. And, winter squash is usually harvested at the same time as (or just a little later than) summer squash.

I like to think of winter squash as a more hardy-to-store squash than summer squash. You can harvest an acorn squash or a butternut and stick it in a dark drawer for weeks without having it go bad. If you tried to do this with a yellow crookneck or a zuccini, you’d have a slimy, smelly mush pile in the drawer.

To know when to harvest the winter squash, you want to feel the skin to see if it has toughened up a bit. Try thumping a pumpkin for a hollow sound to be sure it is ripened. Some people like to leave them in the garden until after the first frost. I don’t know that this really helps “finish” the fruits, but it sure is fun if you have a big pumpkin patch, and you want to watch out for The Great Pumpkin.

Since you have a greenhouse, you could try to keep the winter squash vines going. This would require running heat and summer-simulation lighting in the greenhouse, which is no small task in the long, cold nights of Pacific Northwest winters.

That being said, if the vines are growing now & the plants are starting to put on flowers and fruit, you could try to get a crop out them. There’s time left yet in our short summer growing season.

Thanks again for writing in & good luck!