All you need to know to grow summer squash

Zucchini bush in center

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Bush type zucchini squash

Squash is amazing.  It spans from huge pumpkins to small petit pattypan squash.  From the summer kings like zucchini to the fall princes like pumpkins,  squash has an amazing array of sizes, shapes, and tastes.

Squash originated in Mexico.  There are cave drawings from 8000 to 6500 BC depicting squash and the oldest remains found are from 8750 BC.  Squash was grown extensively by Native Americans as part of the “Three Sisters”-squash, corn and beans.  These three support each other's growth.  Beans provide nitrogen to the corn and squash.  The corn provides the stalks for the beans to grow up on.  The sprawling squash vines shade out competing weeds and keep moisture in the soil.  

Squash love organic matter.  If you throw a few seeds in your compost pile, you will be rewarded with exuberant vines.

Zucchini is a favorite summer squash and full of nutrition.  It contains antioxidants, carotenes, lutein, folates, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and B vitamins.  For more specific nutritional information, Summer squash nutrition info

Plant squash when nighttime temps are 55F or warmer consistently.  Add a fertilizer rich in phosphorous a week after transplanting, when flowers first appear and again when fruits begin to form.  They love water, too.  If growing in a pot, keep well watered and don’t let dry out.

Don’t panic when the first blooms fall off without producing any fruits.  There are male and female flowers.  If yours falls off, it was likely a poor guy that withered without the love a gal.  There can also be some false starts with malformed fruits.  Don’t worry, the plant will put on more blooms and you will be on your way to zucchini overload before you know it!

Baby acorn squash, blooms still attached

There are two basic categories of squash-winter and summer.  

Winter squash are those that take until late fall to ripen and can be stored inside for months.  Each vine does not produce many fruits.  Winter squash are hardened after picking so that their skins become hard so they will keep over the winter.  Winter squash includes pumpkins, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, acorn squash.

Baby zucchini squash, blooms still attached

Summer squash on the other hand has a soft outer skin and can be harvested all summer long.  They need to be eaten or preserved within a few days of picking or will spoil.  Summer squash includes the infamous and popular zucchini, patty pan, crookneck, tromboncino, cousa, zephyr and more.

Squash can be grown in pots or in the garden bed.  If growing summer squash in a pot, look for the bush varieties.  These are much more manageable.  I would recommend putting in a pot with a water reservoir as well since summer squash love moisture.  Decorative container gardening for edibles

Zucchini is notorious for getting huge overnight.  It is important to pick summer squash when smaller.  As they grow large, they become very seedy, their skin starts to get tougher and they just don’t taste nearly as good!  Check them daily.  If left to grow too large, you can always use them for zucchini bread which is delicious.  One of my favorite ways to preserve zucchini is to make it into spaghetti noodles with a spiralizer.

Since summer squash produces so many fruits, it needs to be fertilized and watered regularly in dry conditions.  I fertilize with an organic, granular fertilizer at least once a month.  I'll use tomato fertilizer on all my fruiting vegetables when I fertilize my tomatoes as it is good for all fruiting vegetables as well.  You can also make your own.  Make your own all natural, complete fertilizer

The two biggest pest problems are squash bugs (left) and squash vine borer (below left are eggs and right is the adult).  Inspect the plant for squash bugs.  You can wear gloves, pick them off and throw them in a bowl of soapy water.

Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays

The squash vine borer is best thwarted by planting early or late.  They fly in mid-June.  If planting early, be sure to inspect regularly the stems for any eggs.  Scrap off any that you find.  When the eggs hatch, the catepillar will dig into the vine and eat its way through its length.  You will have a strong plant one day and a wilted on the next.  You can wrap the stem base as a preventative.  The good news is that your plant does get infested, you can replace with another one.  They grow quickly in warm temperatures and soils of summer.  Plan on putting out a second crop in July to keep a strong harvest all summer long into fall.

The cucumber beetle can infect the plant with a bacterial disease called wilt or cucumber mosaic virus.  The cucumber beetles we get here look like yellow/green lady bugs (left).  There are also striped varieties (below).

Again, the gloves, pick and throw in soapy water technique works.  Or if you are not squeamish, you can just squish them.

In late summer in areas with high humidity, you can get powdery mildew.  This can be treated by spraying with baking soda, copper, fresh whey and other organic fungal sprays and soil drenches.  When watering be sure to not get the foliage wet and water in the morning so any extra is quickly evaporated.  I have found that planting a second plant around the first of July is the best approach.  This plant will be kicking in as the second starts slowing down.  Summer garden tips

With zucchini, you are begging people to take them come mid-summer.  I found some great ways to use all that extra  What to do with all that zucchini?!   I make into spaghetti noodles, use as a substitute for lasagna noodles, stuff, dry, and freeze.  You can also pickle or high pressure can.  There are many ways to creatively use and to preserve your zucchini harvest!  

I have started trying varieties that aren't as prone to disease.  I planted Trombetta last year in our community demonstration garden.  It is a vining type that was very productive and did not succumb to disease.  I am growing it and another vining type Serpent of Sicily.  Both produce very long curving fruits.  If picked young, you prepare them as you would a summer squash.  You can leave them on the vine and they will develop a hard skin and will keep like winter squash for 1-3 months.  The taste is similar to butternut squash.  If you decide to try this type of vining squash, be sure to grow on a trellis or leave plenty of space as they can easily grow 12 feet long.

If you are growing an heirloom or open pollinated variety, you can easily save the seed to grow next year's plants.  From your best plant with no disease, let one get large, remove from the vine and leave it out in the garden bed.  The inner flesh will deteriorate leaving the seeds.  Just scoop out the seeds, put in a plastic baggie, date and keep in the frig for next year.  You can also scoop out the seeds from the fruit right off the vine and leave the seeds indoors to dry on a paper towel or plate.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

If there is a variety that you love the looks and/or taste of from the store or farmers market, save the seeds and grow some of your own next year!  If it is an heirloom, it will come back "true" to the parent.  If it is a hybrid, it will be a surprise squash.  Either way, it is fun to try.

What do the terms GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, hybrid really mean?

Summer squash is a fun one to grow because it is so productive and easy to grow.  Just a few seeds will provide so much food!