Last edited on 2 Nov 2026. View history
Zimbabwe Squash
A variety of squash
How to sow Zimbabwe squash: Direct seed indoors or outdoors
Sun requirement for Zimbabwe squash: Plant in Full Sun
A small, round squash about the size of an orange. Like Zambezi gem, it is said to have arrived on early ships via South Africa. The flesh is moist, sweet and nutty and the skin stays green when ripe. Eat young as a courgette or ripe as a squash; good up a fence or trellis in urban gardens.
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Zimbabwe squash facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Zimbabwe squash, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 6°C and a shortest growing cycle of 40 days at its best temperature, about 700 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Zimbabwe squash will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing Zimbabwe squash
- Sow seeds in pots 4 weeks before planting out
- Dig a pit and fill it with compost 2 weeks before planting out
- Harden off the seedlings 1 week before planting out
- Set or refill beer traps for slugs and snails at planting out every week
- Water deeply at the base 1 week after planting out every week
- Mulch around the plants 3 weeks after planting out
- Hand pollinate the female flowers 6 weeks after planting out
- Check leaves for powdery mildew 8 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Lift fruit onto a tile or board 4 weeks before first harvest
- Pick fruit regularly at first harvest every week
- Pull out finished plants 8 weeks after first harvest
Plant Zimbabwe squash with
chives
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Cucurbita pepo L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Violales Cucurbitaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb, vine |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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