Over the past season we have welcomed a lot of new listeners from all over the world, so I thought for the month of December it’d be fun to revisit the top four episodes of the past three seasons of this podcast.
We’ll start with your #4 favorite episode of all time: Growing Zucchini and other summer squashes. This is actually an episode from this season so for it to be in the number four spot means you guys were really interested in this information, and I am happy to share it again. I’ve edited it just a little bit to get right to the good bits, so let’s dig in!
Episode Resources and References:
American Indian Health - Health (ku.edu)
Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides - Growing Guide
Squash, Zucchini and Summer | College of Agricultural Sciences (oregonstate.edu)
Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group
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This is Positively Farming media.
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Welcome to December, my gardening friends here in the
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Northern Hemisphere. This is a time for rejuvenating
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ourselves and our gardens and maybe getting a jump on the
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garden plans by flipping through the pages of our favorite seed
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catalogs. I am doing all that and more
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here on The Farm right now, including playing catch up with
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all kinds of things both garden and podcast related.
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Over the past season, we have welcomed a lot of new listeners
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from all over the world, including those of you in the
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Southern hemisphere who are full steam ahead in your gardening
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season right now. I know there are a few diehards
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who have gone back and listened from episode one, and let me
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tell you, I love to hear that. But I know that there are lots
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of you who have not done that and no shame there.
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So I thought for the month of December, it would be fun to
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revisit the top four episodes of the past three seasons of this
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podcast. I find that I tend to retain
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information more effectively if I review the material multiple
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times and I find myself going back and referencing notes over
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and over again. When it comes to growing
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specific things in the garden, It's a lot of information to
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retain, trying to remember when things should go in the ground,
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what types of nutrients they prefer, their growing
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conditions, all of that stuff, especially when you like trying
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new things in the garden each season.
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So for your listening pleasure this week, we will start with
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your number four favorite episode of all time, growing
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zucchini and other summer squashes.
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This is actually an episode from this season, so for it to be in
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the number four spot means you guys were really interested in
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this information. So I am happy to share it again.
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I have edited it just a little bit to get right to the good
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bits, so let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and I started
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gardening 18 years ago in a small corner of my suburban
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backyard when we moved to A5 acre homestead.
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I expanded that garden to half an acre and I found such joy and
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purpose in feeding my family and friends.
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This new found love for digging in the dirt and providing for
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others prompted my husband and I to grow our small homestead into
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a 40 acre market farm. When I went back to school to
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get my degree in horticulture, I discovered there is so much
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power in food and I want to share everything I've learned
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with as many people as possible. On this podcast we explore crop
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information, soil health, pests and diseases, plant nutrition,
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our own nutrition, and so much more in the world of food and
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gardening. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
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Hello, my gardening friends, and welcome back to the Just Grow
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Something podcast. Whether you call them zucchini,
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courgette or marrow, summer squashes are a staple in most
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home gardens. In most cases, they're easy to
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grow, very prolific, sometimes too prolific, and can be a new
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gardener's best introduction to a successful harvest.
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Unless you live where I do, and you are constantly plagued by
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squash vine borers, squash bugs, cucumber beetles, drought, and
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everything else that wants to destroy our zucchini plants.
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We've grown massive, beautiful summer squash plants that were
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three feet tall and just as wide and produced all season long.
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And we've had plants that barely grew 18 inches and gave US1
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measly fruit before succumbing to whatever pest had devoured at
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the fastest. So whether you live in an area
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where summer squashes are being snuck onto neighbors porches in
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the middle of the night because they won't stop producing, or if
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your garden is a battle to the death with squash invaders,
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today we're tackling how to grow zucchini and all matter of
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summer squash. And trust me, we are going to
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talk about those pests. So I'm going to use the terms
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summer squash and zucchini interchangeably in this episode
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because regardless of what type or variety you grow, they are
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all the same subspecies. Some types are a vining crop,
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many have a more Bush habit, but the growing conditions are
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generally the same. The taxonomy of all squashes is
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really hard to keep track of because even though they're all
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the same species, we treat members of each subspecies
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differently, and that's basically just based on how and
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when we harvest them. So when we're talking about
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summer squashes, we're referring to the young, tender fruits of
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the plant and not those ones that we would leave on the vine
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until the outer skins have hardened for storage, like a
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butternut or a gourd, even though those are technically
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also grown in the summer and grown much the same way.
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So it's a summer squash based on the way it's used.
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OK, you feel me? All right, So now that we're all
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on the same page, let's start with the basics.
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The scientific name for squash is Cukurpita peppo, and the
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subspecies peppo is referring to the summer squashes.
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They are in the Kirkupatacier family, which is the cucumber
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family or the Kirkupits. Squash in general is one of the
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oldest domesticated species, so squash has its ancestry in the
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Americas, specifically Mesoamerica.
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They were native to today's Mexico and the northern parts of
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South America. So when the European
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colonization of the Americas started, squash were brought to
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Europe, and apparently the first variety, actually known as a
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zucchini, was developed in Italy in the 19th century near Milan.
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Which brings us to the ethno botany of the squash.
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Ethno botany is the study of a region's plants and their
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practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local
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culture and its people. Again, squash are native to the
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Americas, where they were a key component of indigenous diets.
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Archaeologists have located seeds in Mexican caves that
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suggested it was first cultivated about 10 years
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ago. Now we're talking about squashes
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in general here because they grew the same plant for both
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summer eating and winter storage.
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American Indians planted squash long before the other Three
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Sisters plants of corn and beans were ever actually cultivated,
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and they were eaten at every stage from the time they started
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to form all the way to full maturity.
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Mature squash were often baked whole in the coals of a fire or
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sliced and boiled. Strips of squash were laid in
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the sun to dry and then stored for use in the winter time.
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Dried strips were then rejuvenated in the winter months
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by a quick soaking or by boiling, and the seeds of the
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squash were removed, dried, roasted, spiced, and then added
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two mixes of pemmican nuts or fruits.
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Of course, there were other uses for them besides food.
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Mature squash were often used as decor for ceremonial dances, and
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the hardened, hollowed out squash were used to hold and
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store water, and one of the reasons squash has been
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cultivated for so long is that it's good for US.
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One Cup of raw zucchini has 21 calories, .4G of fat, 3.9 grams
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of carbohydrates, 1.5 grams of protein, a little over 1g of
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fiber, a little bit of sodium, a touch of sugar, and it has
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vitamin C, potassium, folate, B6 and magnesium.
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And of course, it's just very versatile.
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Adding shredded zucchini to other foods is a common culinary
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practice to increase the moisture, the nutrients, the
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fiber, and the volume of other foods.
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So adding zucchini to baked goods, for instance, it helps
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them stay moist, and it also adds essential vitamins and
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minerals. You can shred it.
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You can slice it. People spiralize it.
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Now use it in place of pasta or in pasta dishes.
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Casserole soups mixed with eggs added to smoothies.
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In fact, one of my favorite ways to use zucchini is to freeze it
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and then use it as a replacement for the ice in my smoothies.
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I don't need to add milk at that point because the zucchini gives
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a nice creamy texture to the smoothie.
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I had a customer at one of the farm stands.
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Tell me this one time and I swear by it.
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I know it sounds weird, but try it.
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I promise it's really good now. One little caveat to the wonders
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of summer squash They can occasionally contain
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curcupitasins, which makes them extremely bitter.
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Now, curcupitasins as a compound are actually under basic
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research for their biological properties, including toxicity
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and potential pharmacological uses for inflammation, cancer,
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cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
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But the toxicity associated with the consumption of foods that
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are high in curcumitations is sometimes referred to as toxic
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squash syndrome and most varieties nowadays have been
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selected to have fewer of these toxins.
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But there are cases in which they can be increased and
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concentrated in the fruit and this is usually in home grown
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varieties when the plant has not had enough water and it's been
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facing high temperatures or it is accidentally cross pollinated
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with a wild cousin. What can happen is these
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curcumitations will build up and then consuming these squashes
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can cause someone to become sick to include nausea, stomach
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cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. This is not something that is
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super common, but maybe something to be concerned with
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if you're growing your squash in a high stress environment.
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So if they begin to taste bitter, well, maybe toss them in
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the compost pile just to be on the safe side.
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So zucchini is a warm season crop.
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Most summer squashes require at least 50 days of frost free
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weather to produce, and they really prefer air temperatures
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above 60°F for healthy quick growth.
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The minimum soil temperature required for germination of
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these squashes is 60°F, but the optimum range is between 70 and
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95 Fahrenheit, and this is for both indoor seed starting and
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outdoors. And when transplanting, the soil
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really should be at about 70°F or above.
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And be sure the overnight lows aren't dipping below 50°F.
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So you're going to be planting these right around the same time
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that you are planting, like your tomatoes and your Peppers.
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And whether you choose to direct sow your seeds in their place in
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the garden, or start them indoors and put them out as
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transplants or buy transplants depends on a number of factors.
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We talked about this a little bit in last week's Focal Point
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Friday episode. The length of time that you have
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to grow the plant, like your number of frost free days, how
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many pests you're dealing with, and the amount of time that you
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have to dedicate to protecting little seedlings is going to
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factor into whether or not you direct sow or you transplant.
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Honestly, I bounce back and forth every year depending on
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what the weather has been looking like and whether or not
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I have the space for more seedlings inside.
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This year I had planned on transplants to help avoid some
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pest issues, but the timing didn't work.
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So it looks like I'll be direct sewing the first round and just
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covering the area with insect netting before they even sprout.
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The good thing about this is squashes.
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Summer squashes specifically sprout very quickly and they
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don't take very long to get to size.
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So from the time you start them to the time they're ready to
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transplant could be just two to three weeks.
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So you really can make this decision at the last minute.
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Now, I haven't decided yet if my succession plantings will be
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seeds or transplants, but it will more than likely be seeds
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because it just gets so hot here so quickly that transplanting
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basically becomes kind of a watering nightmare.
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And seeds just seem to acclimate themselves if they're sprouting
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in place. So my succession plantings will
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more than likely be seeds, and we'll talk about succession here
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in a little bit. So no matter which way you
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choose, zucchini and other summer squashes like beds with
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well drained soil, lots of organic matter, lots of
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nutrition, and APH between 5.8 and 6.8.
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OK, the pH is pretty standard for most of our garden plants
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and summer squashes can grow really well in really rich soil
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that's been amended with a lot of compost.
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But a lot of our garden beds are just going to require a little
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bit of an additional feeding for us to get the best production in
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squash. So side dressing with a balanced
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amendment throughout the season is good.
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We water in with some of Elm Dirt's plant juice right at
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transplant time if we're transplanting.
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Or I will water it afterwards if we're just doing a direct sew
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and then following up with a foliar application of like their
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bloom juice as soon as the first blooms appear, and then all side
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dress with another balanced amendment about two weeks later.
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We've got areas on the farm with a vastly different soils, and I
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can tell you there are some fields where zucchini will grow
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beautifully and others where I might as well not even bother.
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And it's honestly just not worth the effort.
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So soil, organic matter and good nutrients are important for the
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success of summer squashes. They do need about 6 to 8 hours
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of sun. This is not one that's going to
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tolerate a whole bunch of shade, and they like pretty even
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moisture, so water generously and use lots of mulch.
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The mulch also helps to keep developing fruit up off the
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ground so it doesn't get bruised or water damaged, and it's less
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access for the squash bugs. We'll talk about those later.
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So while you can plant zucchini in Rose, which we do because of
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the sheer number of them that we grow, healing those rows or just
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making small mounds will provide you with some benefits.
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Hills of soil will warm up more quickly early in the season.
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So if you need to sow seeds as early as possible after the last
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chance of frost, or you need to transplant very early because of
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a short growing season, Hills help with this.
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Hills also provide better drainage.
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So even though it's kind of a thirsty plant, you don't want
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those roots waterlog. So hilling up that soil will
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help with that drainage. When you plant, if you're going
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to direct sow, put those seeds 1/2 inch to 1 inch deep and sow
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them four to five seeds per hill.
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And then space the hills three to four feet apart.
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And when those plants are about two to three inches tall, then
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thin them down so they only have two to three plants per hill.
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When you thin them, snip off the plants that you don't want so
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that you don't disturb the roots of the ones that you're leaving
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in place. And if you're growing in rows,
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sow the seeds 4 inches apart. In rows that are 4 to 5 feet
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apart. These plants can get very wide,
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so you don't want them encroaching on each other.
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Sometimes we'll go as close as three feet apart, but they will
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definitely be kind of touching and overlapping at that point.
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Snip off the plants once they sprout to thin, to one plant
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every 12 to 24 inches. And if you're transplanting
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seedlings, that's the distance you want between the plants too.
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Whether it's in hills or in rows, you want them about 12 to
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24 inches apart. Depending on the variety and
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whether you plant several plants to a large hill or in rows that
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are hilled, you want to be sure that you're planting several
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squash close by each other to help with pollination.
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This is important because the flowers need to be pollinated to
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form a viable fruit, and each female flower is only open for
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one day. No pollination means no squash,
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so if you have multiple plants growing near each other, your
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chance of pollination has been greatly improved.
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Now, they can be pollinated from any plant in the genus, so your
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pumpkins can pollinate your zucchini and vice versa, and
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that's perfectly fine. The only thing this will affect
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would be the seeds. So if you plan on saving seeds
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for next season, well then maybe this isn't a great strategy.
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But if you only need one or two zucchini and one or two yellow
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squash and one scallop squash, they can all be planted near
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each other. They can all pollinate each
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other, no problem. Now, if you've only got room for
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one or two plants, you may need to hand pollinate, which
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thankfully is really easy because the flowers are so
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large. The male flowers generally start
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developing and start opening first, which is good.
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The male flowers will start to draw in the pollinators, so by
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the time the plant is more mature and the female flowers
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start to open, the pollinators will already be present.
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So don't freak out if you have a bunch of flowers, but they're
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all males. The females will come
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eventually, and you'll be able to see the difference between
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the two if you look closely specifically at the base of the
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flower and of course the insides once they open the bonuses.
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Both types of flowers are actually edible, so hand
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pollination may be the way to go if you only have room for one or
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two plants, or if you're growing in containers.
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And yes, you can absolutely grow summer squashes in containers.
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You just need the right variety and the right container.
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Raised planters are perfect for this.
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I've got 4 new beds that I got from Planter Box Direct situated
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directly behind the greenhouse this year, and they are
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designated for specialty summer squashes, specifically 8 ball
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zucchini, which is a really cool round variety, you know, shaped
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like a billiard ball, 8 ball and some Patty pan squashes, which
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the little kids at our stands often referred to as UFO squash
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because they're shaped like a spaceship.
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They're also called a scalloped squash, but even if you don't
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have planter boxes, you can grow squash varieties in large pots,
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especially if there are more Bush type variety.
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Just look at the variety description or search for
00:17:33
compact plants. You can grow the larger
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varieties and pots by trellising the zucchini plants up a steak,
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and this is a method I have not tried yet, but I plan to
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experiment a little bit with this season.
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You can do this in larger beds too.
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Basically you put a stake at the base of the plant and as it
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grows you tie it to the stake, pulling the large leaves up
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against the stake, removing the lower leaves beneath each fruit,
00:18:00
and then continuing to do this as the plant gets bigger.
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I'm not sure if I'm explaining that right and just Google it,
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you'll see pictures. It saves space, for sure, but my
00:18:11
experiment is more about how it can help deter squash bugs.
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And yes, you knew we were getting there.
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Let's talk all about the pests that can plague our summer
00:18:21
squashes right after the break. All right, So what wants to get
00:18:32
our squash the most popular, I guess, pests to to summer
00:18:38
squashes are squash bugs. Squash vine borers, cucumber
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beetles, aphids, leaf miners, pickle worms, and melon worms.
00:18:47
So we'll take these one by one. Squash bug.
00:18:50
Very important to remove any debris from the garden at the
00:18:53
end of the season because these guys overwinter as adults and
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they will come out as soon as it's warm enough and they can
00:19:01
find their first bit of food and they immediately start
00:19:03
reproducing. This is why you will often see
00:19:06
multiple generations all at the same time on one plant.
00:19:10
You'll have the eggs, and then you'll have the nymphs and
00:19:13
you'll have the adults. So you're going to want to bury
00:19:15
or compost your plant residue after the harvest.
00:19:19
And while it takes a lot of work, the most effective
00:19:22
approach to managing these is to check for the pests.
00:19:26
Every single day we have to go out there and check for the egg
00:19:29
clusters. These are usually located right
00:19:31
where the veins of the leaves form AV, so you can crush the
00:19:35
eggs. You can wipe them away.
00:19:37
If you put some gloves on them and coat them in some petroleum
00:19:39
Jelly, you can wipe them away that way.
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Pick off and kill any of the adults that you see.
00:19:45
You can trap these by playing a piece of the cardboard
00:19:48
underneath your plants and let it sit overnight, and when you
00:19:50
come out in the morning you can collect and kill any that you
00:19:53
find underneath. We're also going to see if we
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can choose row covers early on to help at least deter them for
00:20:00
a little while. But of course those row covers
00:20:02
have to come off. Once the plants start to bloom,
00:20:04
so it's going to be fair game after that.
00:20:06
So you really just have to be absolutely vigilant.
00:20:10
Even in a professional setting, the use of pyrethrins and other
00:20:16
pesticides is difficult to control.
00:20:19
These guys, they just are that bad.
00:20:21
So honestly, hand control is your best option Now for the
00:20:27
squash vine borer. The adults of these will emerge
00:20:30
in late spring to lay eggs at the base of plants, and about
00:20:34
seven days later the larvae will emerge and they will feed by
00:20:38
boring into the stems of the plants.
00:20:42
They feed for a few weeks and then they Burrow into the soil
00:20:45
to pupate and they stay there until the next spring and they
00:20:48
start to cycle all over again. So this is where crop rotation
00:20:51
can be critical, because if you're planting squash in the
00:20:53
same place where the moths are emerging, well, they've got
00:20:57
their target right there when they pop out of the soil.
00:21:00
So you're going to know if you have a squash vine bore larvae,
00:21:04
because you're going to see the burrowed area at the base of the
00:21:07
plant where the larvae have dug in.
00:21:09
You will see the frost coming out of that stem.
00:21:12
So you need to cut open the stem, remove the larvae by hand
00:21:17
and destroy it. The many gardeners swear by
00:21:20
wrapping foil collars around the base of their plants to prevent
00:21:24
the moth from laying the eggs of the base of the plant in the 1st
00:21:26
place, and I'm going to try some of that this year and I'll do
00:21:29
some side by You can also find out what the life cycle of this
00:21:41
moth is in your area and just wait to plant your first
00:21:46
planting until after that cycle ends.
00:21:48
Around here, that's supposed to be around the first week of
00:21:52
July. Now we need our zucchini plants
00:21:54
earlier than that just because of our customers.
00:21:56
But for a home gardener where you just want zucchini, it
00:22:00
doesn't really matter when you get it.
00:22:01
This might be a viable option. So wait until later in the
00:22:04
summer to plant your first plants.
00:22:08
The next one is a cucumber beetles.
00:22:11
You can these can be striped or spotted cucumber beetles
00:22:13
depending on where you are. One of the best ways to deter
00:22:17
these? Again, construct tents of insect
00:22:19
netting or cheesecloth, or use floating row covers to cover the
00:22:22
young plants, but you're going to have to remove them at
00:22:25
flowering. It's kind of important to
00:22:28
control the cucumber beetles though, because they spread
00:22:31
bacterial wilt. I've used First Saturday Lime
00:22:35
before to dust over the plants early on.
00:22:38
It seems the beetles don't like the texture of the lime, but
00:22:41
with a really heavy infestation I found that even that doesn't
00:22:44
help. So exclusion really is the the
00:22:48
first line of defense with these guys.
00:22:51
Aphids These are tend to be less of a problem than some others.
00:22:55
They can be handled with a really good blasting from the
00:22:57
hose. You also can encourage predatory
00:22:59
insects like ladybugs, lady beetles.
00:23:02
If that fails and you've got a really bad infestation, you can
00:23:05
try neem oil or insecticidal soap.
00:23:08
Sometimes the bigger concern with these isn't necessarily the
00:23:11
damage that they do from feeding, but it may be them
00:23:13
transmitting A viral disease to your plants.
00:23:17
Next up we have leaf miners. Adult leaf miner flies lay eggs
00:23:21
inside, leave, and when those larvae emerge, they chew their
00:23:25
way through the foliage of the plants and they leave behind
00:23:28
this trail of tunnels. It looks like a maze that's
00:23:32
going all along the leaf. You will know what it is when
00:23:34
you see it. The width of these tunnels
00:23:37
increases as the larvae mature. So the the good thing is that
00:23:42
parasitic Wasps are a really important enemy of the leaf
00:23:46
miner. So if you can plant things like
00:23:47
dill or cilantro or fennel nearby, that will encourage
00:23:51
those parasitic Wasps to come to your garden and then they'll
00:23:53
find the leaf miners. Now if an infestation isn't bad,
00:23:57
you can actually just pinch along the tunnels to squash the
00:24:01
larvae, and if that grosses you out, you can also use row covers
00:24:04
early on and again and then pull the covers off as the plants
00:24:07
begin to bloom. And thankfully this usually
00:24:10
happens after the laying season for leaf miners has passed.
00:24:14
So if you can cover them early on and then wait until they
00:24:17
bloom to start uncovering them, then hopefully you should be
00:24:20
fine. And the next two I am not
00:24:23
familiar with. The first one is pickle worms,
00:24:25
and from what I've read, pickle worm damage occurs when the
00:24:29
caterpillars tunnel into flowers, buds, stems and fruits.
00:24:34
Apparently they prefer the fruits, so the frass, which is
00:24:38
their insect poop, basically will.
00:24:41
You'll often see it coming from small holes in the damaged
00:24:45
fruits, but sometimes you don't even know that the fruit is
00:24:48
damaged until they're cut open. And those damaged fruits
00:24:52
apparently are not edible. So sometimes the flowers and the
00:24:56
buds, sometimes the entire plants would be killed from
00:24:59
these things. So apparently if you select
00:25:02
early maturing varieties and plant as early as possible
00:25:06
before the pickle worm population peaks, you can avoid
00:25:10
them. I guess they are more prevalent
00:25:13
in much warmer areas, destroy damaged fruit and crush the
00:25:17
rolled sections of the leaves that will kill the pupae.
00:25:20
And again, there are resistant varieties that you can that you
00:25:25
can plant that will that will resist the damage from these
00:25:28
guys and still give you a decent harvest.
00:25:31
And the last one is melonworms, another one that I'm not
00:25:33
familiar with. Apparently the larvae feed on
00:25:36
leaf tissue, often leaving the veins intact, so they create a
00:25:40
skeletonized look in the leaf. It's also common to see leaves
00:25:45
rolled or folded over to serve as a hiding spot as the Melan
00:25:49
worm pupates. The adult moth is very
00:25:53
distinguishable. I looked at pictures of this
00:25:55
thing. It's got a pearly white body,
00:25:58
wings with this thick dark outline and brushy hair pencils
00:26:02
at the tip of its abdomen. Once you see it, you know what
00:26:05
you're looking for, and the melan worm usually completes its
00:26:08
life cycle within 30 days, so the spring planted.
00:26:13
Squash plants will usually escape most of the melon word
00:26:17
damage, but if you're planting them in the fall, careful
00:26:21
scouting will help reduce infestations and damage.
00:26:24
Keep an eye out for the moth, and there are many beneficial
00:26:27
insects that prey on or parasitize A melon worm, like
00:26:30
parasitic Wasps, tacketing flies, ground beetles and
00:26:33
soldier beetles. So try to attract those to the
00:26:35
garden. And as if those pests weren't
00:26:38
enough, we've also got diseases in our squash bacterial wilt.
00:26:42
We talked about this one already.
00:26:44
That's the one that's passed on by cucumber beetles.
00:26:46
So you definitely want to keep those at Bay.
00:26:49
And then if you see plants that are infested, you want to remove
00:26:53
and destroy them. Powdery mildew.
00:26:56
This one usually is transmitted from wet foliage.
00:26:59
So if you're going to water, water early in the day so that
00:27:02
the above ground parts of the plant will dry as quickly as
00:27:05
possible. Avoid crowding your plants.
00:27:08
Keep weeds at Bay to help improve the air circulation.
00:27:12
Again, I've used First Saturday lime here to help keep the
00:27:15
leaves dry and to modify the pH of the leaves when I see powdery
00:27:20
mildew sort of creeping in and that seems to keep it under
00:27:23
control. Scab is another one.
00:27:26
Again, wet foliage here, so watering early in the day and
00:27:29
avoiding crowding the plants. Viral diseases.
00:27:33
These are the ones that can sometimes be transmitted by
00:27:35
aphids. So if you see an infested plant,
00:27:38
you want to remove it and destroy it immediately along
00:27:41
with the surrounding soil and any soil that is clinging to the
00:27:44
roots. So if you have viral diseases of
00:27:47
squashes in your area, you definitely want to control
00:27:49
aphids early in the season by washing them off with the water.
00:27:53
You know a hard stream of water and any infestation of of the
00:27:57
plant. Get rid of it so it doesn't
00:27:59
spread to the next plants. The good thing with all of this,
00:28:04
the pests and the diseases combined, is that zucchini is a
00:28:07
fast grower. I mean it often produces fruit,
00:28:09
you know, in just 50 to 60 days from the time that you seed it.
00:28:13
And because these plants work so hard to produce fruit so
00:28:17
quickly, whether they've got a disease or not, the plants
00:28:21
production is kind of naturally going to slow down over the
00:28:24
growing season. I mean, of course this can be
00:28:26
speed up by the pests or diseases we've just learned
00:28:28
about, but it also means that we can rely on succession planting
00:28:32
if we do have a failure. Now, some gardeners can get an
00:28:36
initial glut of zucchini, and that's more than enough, so they
00:28:39
don't care whether their plants die off or not.
00:28:41
But if you like a steady supply, succession planting really is
00:28:46
the way to go. Depending on your climate, you
00:28:48
should be able to start new zucchini plants two to three
00:28:50
times throughout the growing season to have a consistent
00:28:53
harvest. We usually start with
00:28:55
transplanting seedlings and then direct sowing seeds about two
00:29:00
weeks later, and then direct sowing again about four weeks
00:29:03
after that. But you'll need to base this
00:29:05
timing on how long you're growing season is and how badly
00:29:08
your squash usually get hit with pests or diseases that take them
00:29:12
out prematurely. I'm hopeful this year our plants
00:29:16
will do a little bit better and I can get away with just two
00:29:18
plantings. So for harvesting zucchini and
00:29:22
summer squash, you want to do this when they are tender and a
00:29:25
little bit immature. For the straight varieties,
00:29:28
you're looking at about 6 to 8 inches long.
00:29:30
Oversized squashes don't tend to have as much flavor, but the
00:29:36
bigger zucchinis are really great for making things like
00:29:38
zucchini boats, so if you have one that goes a little too far,
00:29:41
that's OK. When you harvest, you don't want
00:29:44
to break or snap them off. You want to cut the fruit off of
00:29:48
the vine with a sharp knife because you risk damaging the
00:29:52
soft stem of the plant. Leave at least an inch of stem
00:29:56
on the fruit and if you find the stems of the plant are like kind
00:30:01
of prickly when you harvest, specifically in zucchini,
00:30:04
zucchini, squash, you can plant spineless varieties or ones that
00:30:08
have a more open habit. Just pick them frequently and
00:30:12
make sure you are checking daily because they can size up on you
00:30:15
very, very quickly. As far as storage, fresh summer
00:30:19
squash has a relatively short shelf life, so store them
00:30:24
unwashed in a plastic or paper bag with one end open to
00:30:28
encourage air circulation, and then put them in your
00:30:31
refrigerator crisper drawer. They'll keep for about 10 days.
00:30:35
Now, if you keep your refrigerator exceptionally cold
00:30:38
like we do, be sure that it's in the drawer or whatever the
00:30:41
warmest part of your refrigerator is, because summer
00:30:44
squash can suffer chilling damage if they're held below 40
00:30:48
Fahrenheit for longer than a few days.
00:30:50
The recommended temperature range is 41 to 50 Fahrenheit
00:30:54
with 95% relative humidity. So the crisper drawer is usually
00:30:59
perfect, the kitchen counter is not.
00:31:03
And if you find yourself with a glut of zucchini, which happens
00:31:06
to many gardeners in the summer, you absolutely can freeze it.
00:31:10
Depending on what you're using it for, you can blanch it first.
00:31:13
But I don't even bother with that.
00:31:14
I just dice it, freeze it in individual pieces on a cookie
00:31:18
sheet until they're solid, and then I drop them into a freezer
00:31:21
bag and call it good. It's perfect that way in soups
00:31:24
or sauces. And as the frozen component in
00:31:27
those smoothies I told you about, well, hopefully this gave
00:31:31
you some insight into how to grow zucchini in your particular
00:31:35
growing situation and how to avoid the pests and diseases
00:31:38
that may plague your area. We took last year off from
00:31:43
growing any curcumates because our squash bug and vine bore and
00:31:47
cucumber beetle problem had gotten to be so overwhelming.
00:31:51
We were planting 3, sometimes four times each season and still
00:31:56
only getting a meager harvest with maximum effort.
00:32:00
So hopefully this year I can add a few more tricks to my arsenal
00:32:04
and we'll have a better year. I'll let you know how it goes,
00:32:07
and fingers crossed that you get a fantastic summer squash
00:32:09
harvest. Until next time, my gardening
00:32:12
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk
00:32:14
again soon. You just finished another
00:32:16
episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
00:32:19
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00:32:21
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00:32:24
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00:32:28
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00:32:33
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00:32:35
Until next time, my gardening friends keep learning and keep
00:32:38
growing.