WOW - Start collecting squash recipes now, and by the time the SVB's are squash bugs get them, you will probably already be tired of them. I don't get SVB but I sure get squash bugs.

Kelly, If you like pickles, squash make wonderful pickles.

You will need to do something with them or you will be buried in them. It sounds like you have enough planted that picking them will be a full time job.

Larry

Kelly,

I love squash and grow all kinds. Rumbo, along with Red Warty Thing, is one of my favorites.

Around here, you don't have to lock your car most of the year, but you have to lock it during the summer months so a "kindly neighbor" won't leave a big bag of squash in the seat of your car for you to find. Of course, when they can't do that, they'll just leave it on your porch.....but if you are lucky, the racoons will find it first. So, does that answer your question about the productivity of squash?

Summer squash tends to produce many fruit per plant as long as the plants are staying healthy and the pollinators are around. After a while, I generally start hoping for squash bugs to show up and wipe out the plants.

Winter squash produce later in the season and are harvested later in the season. You have to wait until the rind is really hard before you harvest them. In general, they produce fewer squash per plant than summer squash do, but it varies a lot, depending on the mature size of the squash. In general, the larger the mature winter squash, the fewer produced per plant. Some, though, produce like there's no tomorrow and Seminole is one that produces very heavily here at our place.

In the best/worst squash/pumpkin year we ever had, we had about 30 different kinds of summer squash and winter squash, including pumpkins, and it was a great year. We ate all the squash we wanted, preserved all we wanted, used a wheelbarrow load of winter squash and pumpkins for fall decorations, gave some to the dogs to play with, gave some away, etc. etc. etc. We stored a lot of winter squash and were still eating them the following spring. So--that's what is in your future.

Remember to pick your summer squash while they are still on the smallish side in order to get the highest quality produce. When you let them stay on the plant too long, the quality suffers....and it slows down the productivity of the plant too.

If you get tired of them, do yourself a favor, pull up the plants and compost them. Just because you "can" produce a huge number of squash doesn't mean you "have to".

However, squash freezes well and even if you tire of it in the summer months, you might enjoy having some to cook during the winter months. (Zucchini is an ingredient in some chocolate cake and cookie recipes, and in zucchini bread, so you can use frozen zucchini in many ways.)

Squash plants are prone to lots of diseases in wet years, and have quite a few pest problems from time to time. So, your plants may sail through the summer and produce all summer long or they may do well for a while and then get taken out by pests or disease.

Dawn

Dawn,

When you say pick them on the smallish side, approx. what size do you recommend? In the past I have picked them between 4-6", or at least try to. Later in the year when they get out of control some may get larger since I don't always find them hidden in there.

Matt

Matt,

If you mean 4-6" for zucchini, that's the size I pick them. With the other summer squash, it varies depending on their mature size. I think they have better taste and texture when picked smaller as opposed to when picked bigger. The larger they get, the more watery and sort of mushy.

With winter squash, of course, it isn't really possible to pick them small because you have to let the skin/rind get hard.

A lot of people wait and pick their zucchinis when they are 12" long or longer and I find those great big ones not really worth eating. That's just my opinion....some people probably like them big and watery.

Dawn

I must be the only one on the planet that never gets too many summer squash. No matter how much I plant, we eat it all. Last year, I had to play the meanie and make the family stop eating so much fresh so I'd have some to dehydrate. We plant several dozen plants. We either need to plant more or eat less. LOL And, for the record, I've never, ever lived near anyone that was overrun with summer squash enough to give it away. Tomatoes, yes. Summer squash, no.

Do I live in some alternate bizarro universe?

Diane

Diane,

Yes, you do! LOL

One year, a friend of ours decided to plant his first garden. He'd been to our house for years and his then 5 or 6-year-old son was just fascinated with the garden and most especially with the small Blacktail Mountain watermelons. (We always helped him search for a ripe one he could pick "by himself" and take home to eat.)

So, they planted a garden (and never said they were planting one until it was mostly done) and I gave them 4 "leftover" tomato plants, which is all he had room for.

As it turned out, he'd made a lot of rookie mistakes like not properly improving the caliche soil and he planted the tomatoes and a lot of cool season crops very late. He never got a ripe tomato, but he'd planted a whole row of zukes and a whole row of yellow crookneck squash and every single one of those plants produced like crazy. He kept bringing over more and more and more zucchini and squash....I think it was his way of saying "thank you" for the years and years of tomatoes, watermelon and guinea eggs we'd given them. Keep in mind we already had our own plants that produced far more than we'd ever eat and preserve in a year's time, and then we had all the ones he brought us a couple of times a week. By the end of that growing season, I could hardly stand to look at a zuke or squash.

And do keep in mind, dear friend, that you have a few more mouths to feed than some of us do : )

I enjoy squash, but I don't "love" it the way I do tomatoes. I could eat tomatoes 5 times a day. With squash, two or three times a week is plenty for me.

How's the garden and how are the chicks? Our little roosters are learning to crow, which is hysterically funny (and, at the same time, painful) to listen to.

Dawn

Diane,
I have to agree with Dawn. In fact one of my rodeo friends always said if the USA would just give the malnourished nations squash seeds they could solve a lot of the hunger in the world. Last year was the first year I've ever seen when squash production was so poor you could actually sell one around here if you had one. Winter squash did well last year and summer did late. But until mid August production was skimpy for most. I don't grow much anymore. Growing some spaghetti squash as I have people asking for it. Jay

I am growing ZUCCHETTA RAMPICANTE TROMBONCINO for the first time. Turns out that it is easier to grow than it is to say. LOL I have eaten it before and I liked the taste. I have three plants and they are just starting to bloom.

Soonergrandmom:

I grew that a couple of years ago and we loved them. Be prepared, however, for some of the shapes they form if you're the blushing type. ;-)

Jay:

I grew spahetti squash for the first time last year in my lower (farther away) garden. I completely ignored it and it produced like crazy! I still have a few leftover in my cabinet to cook up soon.

Dawn:

Ah, we just completed (for now) the chicken coop and run tonight! I'll link below to the pictorial post on my blog I just finished up. Below the chicken coop entry is another post from tonight with some current state of the garden photos as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: The House That Sweat Built

Diane,

The coop looks wonderful and so does the garden. Steve and the kids did a great job while you and Josie supervised. Now, if only the heat will stay away for a while.

I just had to read the entire blog entry (of course!) and can't believe how much Josie is growing. Nor can I believe Nellie is 4 years old already. When I first started posting to this forum in Jan. or Feb. of 2005, you were pregnant with Nellie! In fact, the kids all look so much older than the last time I saw pics of them. (I need to go back and read some older posts on your blog and catch up on the kids and the house!)

The dog is going to be a very useful addition to the family too. I hope he keeps those "white tigers" away from y'all.

Happy Gardening....and fresh eggs from the rapidly maturing hens soon!

Dawn

Diane,
A very nice and well built coop. I plan on putting up one hopefully this summer. If not may use the old building I have before and just put a 6 foot chain link fence around it on a concrete footer. I got the fence earlier so have it and the posts. Your coop will last forever. Jay

Thanks, guys. :-)

We had another coop but it was a simple, quick thing and we wanted to build a fully predator-proof one that would last the rest of our lives. I'm thinking this one might do just that.

In one of the blog pics, there's a shot of the chicken coop flower bed. In the cinder block holes is planted something I was given at the plant swap we attended, right after Nellie was born, I believe. Ah, I just looked it up and it was the following year, 2006. It's become one of our favorites because it endures and even seems to thrive on our various abuses and neglect. I can't remember what it's called but it makes me remember the good time at the swap and smile. I love plants and seeds with a personal history -- those shared among gardeners rather than bought cold from a seller.

Diane

I have squash for the first time too, yellow and zucc, from a couple of seed packets I forgot about and left outside, and they got rained on, and I opened the packs and they had sprouted so I just stuck them in the ground, and they all produced nice little plants.;) the stuff I carefully planted didn't do near as well (beets and radishes)

I think if I start getting too many we will start frying and stuffing the blossoms like we ate in Italy. But my DH could eat zucchini every day, so that might not be a problem.