Harvesting Squash - summer and winter types

Harvesting squash isn't complicated, but you can get a few scrapes and irritations among the squash leaves and stems, so watch what you are doing.

Summer squash provides you with a bit of choice when it comes to harvesting - you can do it early before seeds develop or later when they're larger.

Winter squash is the last of the squash to be harvested, and their harvest is almost like picking up the pieces after vegetable gardening for the summer is over.

You can harvest winter squash too early, but you can harvest summer squash just about anytime you please.

Harvesting Squash - summer types

If you like small tender zucchini type summer squash, then the best time to harvest them is about 4 inches in length, while the tender blossom is still on them.

I prefer to harvest them just after the blossom has dried up. This makes them about 8 to 10 inches long.

As as alternative, you can allow a couple squash to grow to the size of your forearm before harvesting. This will provide a long and thick squash that you can hollow out and fill with a ground beef mixture. These hollowed out "boats" can then be baked in the oven.

Harvesting squash of the patty pan variety is best done when they are the size of a hardball. This is a good size for sauteing in a pan. Alternatively, we like to let a few grow very large - the size of a dinner plate - and then we harvest them for making squash pizza.

Use a pair of scissors for the patty pan squash and simply cut the "handle" that attaches it to the plant. I like to use a knife for harvesting squash of the zucchini type. Cut partway through the part of the squash "handle" that's attached to the vine and then twist. Sometimes simply twisting will release the squash from the vine, but this can also tear the end of the squash apart.

Be careful with the knife so you don't slice into the vine. When harvesting in this manner, instead of slicing, I like to pierce the end of the handle all the way through and then twist. This works very well.

You might also need to pick up the vine when harvesting those fruits that have grown down instead of up or out. It might even be a two person job if the squash is really trying to hide from you.

Harvesting Squash - winter types

Winter squash are easy to harvest. Basically you let them go until the first frosts set in and kill off the vines. If you live in an area with little or no frost, then you'll know the squash are ready to harvest when the outside skin is hard.

Using a penny, a fingernail or the tip of an old butter knife, test one of your squash during the middle of the growing season. Try to make an indentation in the skin using moderate pressure. You'll find that it's skin will be easy to penetrate.

Later in the year when you think the squash is ready, just perform the same test and note if the skin has become hard and highly resistant to penetration using the same techniques. When you're convinced that the skin is hard, that's a good time to harvest.

Done with Harvesting Squash, take me back to Harvesting Vegetables