Haven't tried gem squash but I find that with squashes of many varieties they seem to reach an optimum size and then they go berserk and then I get inundated.

Here in Latvia people stack all their weeds in one big pile and then put some soil on and grow their squashes on that, or sometimes they grow them directly in a manure heap. Seems to work anyway.

We have grown patty squash this year on heaps of compost from the last two years and layered with straw to keep the weeds down and the water in and they are looking good and healthy and now they are producing. They did seem to sit for ages before taking off though despite putting them in after the cold spring when the weather was warmer. Perhaps I should have watered them more to get them going but that is a lot of effort in lugging buckets up from a pond down the hill about 100m away.