Summer Squash: Easy, Prolific and Best Fresh From Your Vegetable Garden
Wednesday July 16, 2008
It’s that time again, when otherwise stable gardeners sneak out in the wee hours to leave baskets of zucchini on unsuspecting neighbors' doorsteps. You never have just a little zucchini. But when you think about it, zucchini season is so fleeting and fresh zucchini is infinitely better than store bought, so we should be grateful for our abundance.
Summer squash grows to maturity while you’re looking at it. Does any other crop offer such immediate satisfaction? Make some room for these prickly vines in your vegetable garden. Summer squash is more than just long, green zucchini. There's the trumpet shaped tromboncino that is still edible at 3' long, scalloped patty pans, bumpy or smooth orange or gold crooknecks - and they’re all easy to grow. There’s still time to plant a few varieties in your garden and grow your own summer squash.
Comments
I need help. My zucchini plants are growing but the leaves turn yellow and brittle. The zucchini is growing but the leaves don’t look good. Has anyone know what is going on.
Yellow and brittle sounds like not enough water.
If there are yellow spots that are merging together, it could be a fungus. Spraying with a fungicide, copper or neem might help, but it’s getting ate in the season.
If it’s yellow mottling that’s spreading, it is probably a virus and there’s not much you can do about that.
If you could send me a photo, I might be able to make a better guess. You could also post it on the Forum, for more eyes to help out.
Zuchini or in UK courgettes are easy to grow but how many ways can they be cooked .I am getting fed up with boiled and fried . Any Ideas plese
Did you try the Summer Squash and Zucchini Cakes recommended in the lower links? About’s French Cooking Guide is very creative with zucs. How about Zucchini and Squash Noodles?
Our Italian Food Guide stuffs them with meat or with a cheesy meatless filling, as main dishes.
The Southern US Cooking Guide makes a Zucchini Creole with Tomatoes and Peppers. That page also lists several other summer squash recipes. Don’t give up on eating zucchini just yet!
My zucchini plant are growing like giants and overtaking the space I gave them. Is it ok for me to cut some of the leaves or will that damage them or limit my crop? I didn’t realize that they would grow so high!
It’s fine to trim a few leaves, but don’t go crazy or the plant won’t be able to make enough food to keep itself going. You’ll only limit the crop if you trim the growing ends of the vines.
I find that after awhile of all this vigorous growing, the plants get exhausted anyway. So I usually seed another crop around now, to replace the fading crop in August. Of couse, you could be really tired of zucchini by then.
Keith, wash and cut you zucchini into a skillet with a bit of butter and cook just until it turns green. I add sone sweet onion at the same time and then I add about six eggs which have been stirred together and continue cooking just until set. Some bacon crumbled on top finishes the look and serve right away.
i might be moving from zom=ne 6 in ky to waycross ga. what zone is that i know it more hot and humid there
Dot, Waycross is listed as a Zone 8. That means a whole new world of plants is opening up for you. It may be more humid, but so many plants will be perennial there and you’ll be able to start gardening much earlier in the spring. I think you’ll enjoy it.
My scalloped squash was growing and blossoming very well but it is not yielding any veggies. Some of the leaves are turning yellow and I am in a state of shock, I don’t know what to do! I thought that it would take about 40-50 days for a yield and it is just knot happening for my crop. Do you have any suggestions or ideas for me.
Desparate in Chicago
I wouldn’t panic about the yellowing leaves. The older leaves on squash plants always yellow and wither.
Do you have any female flowers on your plants, flowers with tiny squash behind them? If not, it could just be that the plant is putting out too many male blossoms. It’s frustrating, but there’s not much to do about it until the plant is ready.
It could also be that there aren’t enough bees finding and pollinating your plants. If you do have female flowers, pick the male flowers and use them to dust pollen right onto the female flowers. That should help.
How can you tell whether or not the flowers are male or female?
Female squash blossoms will have a tiny fruit behind them. The male blossoms are attached directly to their stem. There’s a photo of male and female zucchini flowers posted in the forum
Yes, I do have a few female flowers and I will do as you advised and see what happens from there. I was also advised to water them once a week with miracle grow, what do you think about that?
Thank you for your advice and I will keep you posted as to their condition.
I’ve never been a big Miracle Grow proponent, because it does nothing for the soil. But those who use it seem to swear by it and use it regularly throughout the season. When feeding weekly, I always suggest people mix the fertilizer at half strength.
I garden organically, partly because it means I’m not always out there feeding my plants. I work a lot of organic matter (compost and manure) into the soil in spring and fall, so it’s pretty rich. Then I toss in a slow acting granular fertilizer in the spring, just before planting. And I use a seaweed/fish emulsion fertilizer about once a month. Either method should give you a good yield.
My zucchini leaves are spotty gray, some stems are rotten. Is there a fix for this?
The leaves probably have powdery mildew. It won’t kill the plant, but a bad case will weaken it. Here’s a home remedy to take care of it.
The stem rotting is something else. Could be the soil is wet for too long. If the rest of the vine is still healthy, find a healthy section of vine near the base and pin it to the soil with a rock or something with weight that won’t squash the vine. Then cover is with a little soil. It should send out new roots and keep the vine going.
We’ve got zucchini everywhere but we’ve got a problem. On some we are getting fruit, sometimes not very big and then the stem turns black and dies right before the fruit so it can’t get any nutrients and doesn’t grow anymore. We live in northwestern Montana. Anybody know what is happening?
can you trim summer squash leaves back the same as zuccini