Many gardeners find that once their squash plant grow and are fully developed, the squash leaves are huge, almost like umbrellas to the squash plant. Since we are told to make sure that our squash plants get lots of sun, are these large squash leaves healthy for the plant? Should we allow more sun to be getting to the fruit below?

Don’t cut off you squash leaves
The very sort answer is no, do not cut off your squash leaves. There are many reasons why cutting off squash leaves on a plant of a bad idea.

The first reason is that it opens the plant’s vascular system up to bacteria and viruses. The open wound where you cat the squash leaf off is like an open doorway to destructive viruses and bacteria. The wound will only make more possibilities for these organisims to invade the plant.

The squash leaves also act like a sunscreen for the fruit. While squash plants as a whole like sun, the fruit of a squash plant does not. Squash fruit are actually very susceptible to sun scald. Sun scald is like a sunburn n a plant. The large, umbrella like leaves on a squash plant help shade the fruit and keep it from getting sun damage.

Besides this, the large squash leaves help to keep weeds from growing around the squash plant. Since the leaves act like huge solar panels on the plant, the sun’s rays do not go beyond the leaves and weeds do not get enough sun to grow around the plant.

Believe it or not, in this case Mother Nature did know what she was doing with squash plants. Leave the leaves on the plant. You will do far less damage to you squash plant by leaving the leaves on.