Cooked Neck Squash are warm weather plants. In the garden here in Zone 8, they can planted directly into the garden around the end of March, First of April and can continue to be planted throughout the summer until about the end of August.

If you grow them in containers like we do you can start them much earlier and keep them longer, you just have to bring them inside if it gets to cold at night. We grow them all year long in the greenhouse.

If you do container or square gardening, only do one of these plants per container or square.

They take from a week to two weeks to sprout if planted from seed. You can start the seeds indoors 2 - 4 weeks before planting outside.

From sprouting to harvesting the first squash can take anywhere from a month and a half to two months.

These plants prefer full sun and need to be watered weekly without getting the leaves wet if possible.

All plants and varieties are different but we usually get a dozen or so squash off each plant. They are quite versatile and can be used in so many different recipes. They are also fairly easy to preserve, so I recommend growing 8 or 9 of these plants per person if you want to have them year round and once a week or so.