Acorn squash is a little known squash that looks somewhat like a gourd, or alternatively like the end of a medieval mace. For this reason, it is not grown as much as it should be by gardeners. It is indeed edible and tasty (and only occasional used as a weapon).
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| Transplanting Acorn Squash May 9, 2015 from a peat pot grown inside. |
We wanted to grow acorn squash with the minimal amount of cost and effort possible. We started some acorn squash seeds inside in a peat pot (saving money, as buying plants is expensive and seeds last for several years in the fridge), and transplanted the plant outside after danger of frost had passed. We planted it in a little mound surrounded by weed cloth (we cut a hole in the weed cloth under the mound), to prevent grass from interfering with our squash plant.
The device that will take most of the effort out of our growing of the squash, the exceptionally designed bucket, is the
Groasis Waterboxx. This device was designed to grow trees in deserts, but it works so well that it can be used to grow plants in more humid climates while eliminating all watering needs. It collects dew and rain water, stores it in a 15 liter (~4 gallon) reservoir, and slowly releases it to the roots of the plant through one (or several) wicks.
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| A cut away view of the Groasis Waterboxx, showing how it would collect rain and dew water with its cream colored lid, funnel it into the green reservoir, and trickle it out to the roots of the growing plant. |
We placed a Waterboxx around our acorn squash and filled the Waterboxx with water. We then forgot about the squash to tend to other plants in our garden.
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| Acorn Squash on June 6, 2015 after growing with the Waterboxx for a little under a month. We haven't watered this plant or filled the Waterboxx once since planting - the Waterboxx refills itself with dew and rain. |
Our neglect would have killed most plants due to drought (as it has been a very dry May here in Indiana), but the Waterboxx kept the plant happy and growing.
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| The Acorn Squash less than two weeks later on June 18, 2015. The Waterboxx has not been refilled with any water and is still present hidden under the thick leaves. |
Our acorn squash continued to grow like wildfire with the Waterboxx providing consistent moisture. Even though the leaves began to cover the Waterboxx lid, the Waterboxx was still able to collect dew and rainwater by collecting run off from the leaves (similar to how the area under a tree eventually gets wet in a rainstorm after the water trickles through the leaves).
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| An early acorn squash growing at the bottom of a flower on June 18, 2015. These squashes have been pollinated by bright orange squash bees, a key ally for those of us growing cucurbits or squash like plants. |
Squashes are prolific, and this plant has taken over a raised terraced area around our patio. No matter, because the first several (about a dozen) acorn squashes are now maturing (as of June 18). We still haven't added one drop of water manually to the squash, the soil around it, or the Waterboxx since planting.
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| Our largest acorn squash (of about a dozen currently) on June 30, 2015. We will have so many squashes produced with our Waterboxx PlantCocoon® that we will have to give them away. |
We did add 3 small Jobe's organic fertilizer spikes to the soil around the Waterboxx sheltering the plant on July 1.
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| Acorn squash from planting to fruition in less than 10 weeks with the Groasis Waterboxx PlantCocoon®. No water was given to this plant at any time since planting - all was provided by natural process and the Waterboxx. |
Our season is now over here in mid August - but we harvested 13 large acorn squash in total this growing season. These will provide us with a tasty treat and will keep for several months. We are growing several other plants with the Waterboxx, a complete list is available
here.
You can
buy the Groasis Waterboxx here.
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