Celebrate “National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day” (August 8) the right way by mastering the art of growing zucchini, crookneck, and other summer squashes that boast perfectly tender skin and luscious summertime flavor. In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to grow zucchini and summer squash from seed, how to keep these plants in containers or your garden, and how and when to harvest zucchini to maximize yields!
Note: All types of summer squash require very similar care and the tips in this guide can be applied to zucchini, yellow summer squash, crookneck squash, pattypan squash, and more.
Harvesting
When to Harvest
Most varieties of zucchini and summer squash take about 60 days after planting to start bearing fruit and those fruits are usually ready to be picked about a week after flowering. That said, there is some variabiliy in harvesting times, so always check seed packets for more exact information.
For best flavor and texture, harvest zucchini and squash when the fruits are about 6 to 8-inches long. Larger fruit can look impressive, but it has little flavor and the skins get quite tough. Once fruiting begins, check zucchini plants regularly and often as it’s easy to overlook a hidden zucchini and wind up with massive, but tasteless, fruit!
How to Harvest
When harvesting, cut zucchinis off the vine with a sharp knife and leave about 1-inch of stem attached to each fruit. Resist the temptation to harvest zucchini by pulling on the fruit as this can damage your plant.
If your zucchini are producing too well, you can slow down production by harvesting the fruit when it’s still small or removing all the male flowers. Zucchini flowers are perfectly edible and can be used as salad toppers or stuffed, battered, and fried. Towards the end of the season, harvest all remaining zucchini before frost hits as the plants and fruit won’t survive a cold spell.
Storage
Fresh zucchini and summer squash has a relatively short shelf life and can be stored, unwashed, in a plastic or paper bag in your fridge’s crisper drawer for about 10 days. If you end up with more zucchini than you can use straight way, you can also pickle it or blanch and freeze it for up to 3 months.
Types
Zucchini come in bush-type forms, which are best for containers and growing in rows, or vining-type plants that can be grown on trellises. Here are popular picks and what makes each stand out.
- ‘Cocozella (di Napoli)’: A heirloom zucchini with dark green, slender fruits and excellent flavor.
- ‘Goldbar’: A yellow summer squash variety with a sweet and nutty flavor.
- ‘Ronde de Nice’: A funky, French heirloom, this plant produces globular fruits — and lots of them!
More Like This
Whether you train zucchini to grow vertically might depend on the space in your garden. If you have the space, it might be easier to just let the plant sprawl. However, growing them vertically saves space and allows more air circulation, which can help deter disease. It does, however, take a little more maintenance, with tying vines, etc. Although there are several systems you might employ, one option is to use a trellis about 5 or so feet tall. You can use strips of pantyhose for ties, and for slings for the fruit. Tie loosely (but with a firm knot) so as not to damage the growing vines.
These are the female flowers that are falling off? It is natural for the male flowers to do so, once they have finished releasing pollen. The female flowers that fall off without developing fruit can be because of poor pollination--either there were not enough pollinators (wet or windy weather can deter them), or the pollen itself was poor quality, possibly due to very cool or hot temperatures. In the morning, you might try transferring by hand (using something like a tiny paintbrush or a Q-tip) the pollen from the male flowers (those with a smooth stem under the flower) to the top (stigma) of the center part of the female flowers (those with a small bump at the base of the flower). Also, make sure that your plant is watered evenly--providing mulch can help. Sometimes zucchini will produce lots of male blossoms and only a few female blossoms early in the season. Later, female blossoms will appear in larger numbers. It could be that your plant will catch up soon. Normally, with good pollination and overall good plant health, there will be a few zucchinis growing at the same time.
The male flowers are the ones that open, release pollen, and then fall off the plant. The female flowers stay on the plant; it is from these that the zucchini come...IF the flowers are pollinated. If they are not pollinated, the female flowers fall off without producing fruit.
To pollinate zucchini by hand, first plan to do this in the morning when the flowers open up/are open. Then shake the pollen from a male flowers onto the stigma (center) of the female flower. Or touch a Q tip or swab to the male flower's pollen then transfer it to the female. Experiment with a couple. Then give it a few days.
You'll find that squash will cross-pollinate with other nearby squash varieties, creating some interesting results, such as orange squash.
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