Spaghetti squash · Orël, Oryol oblast, Russia
When to plant spaghetti squash in Orël
Main outdoor window
19 Jun - 10 Jul
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
1 May
In Orël, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 31 Oct
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Orël
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
3-24 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
19 Jun - 10 Jul
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 15 May, which is too cold for it to start.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Spaghetti squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Orël
Why these dates
Start indoors four weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks after. Harvest when the skin has turned deep yellow and resists a thumbnail.
Killed at 0C. Harvest before the first frost and cure for a week or two, after which it keeps for several months.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Spaghetti squash are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Orël.
With one correction, which is the note at the top of the page: the offset alone would put this crop in soil that is still too cold for it. Where the frost date and the soil temperature disagree, the dates here follow the soil, because a seed in cold ground either rots or waits, and a sowing made a fortnight later usually overtakes it.
The median frost-free season here is 160 days, against 90 to 110 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Orël
Other vegetables to time
Growing spaghetti squash in Orël
When should I plant spaghetti squash in Orël?
Aim for 19 Jun - 10 Jul in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 19 Jun - 10 Jul - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant spaghetti squash earlier in Orël?
Frost is finished by about 15 May, but the soil is still too cold. Spaghetti squash will not start until it reaches 18°C (64.4°F), and here that is around 19 Jun. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will spaghetti squash be ready to harvest in Orël?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 31 Oct, based on 90 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will spaghetti squash tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Harvest before the first frost and cure for a week or two, after which it keeps for several months.