Harvesting Squash

Summer squash is meant to be picked before the fruit is totally ripe. Generally for summer squash varieties, when the fruit is six to eight inches long and under two inches in diameter is the time to pick the squash. Use summer squash immediately. Summer squash can be eaten raw and their skin is soft, so there is no need to peel. Cut the squash from the vine leaving about two inches of plant on the squash. Summer squash is takes forty five to fifty days from seed to harvest.

Winter squash is meant to be picked when at the end of the growing season before a hard frost. Winter squash that are ready to harvest will be deep, semi gloss, and colorful with no soft spots and hardened skin. As with summer squash, cut off each winter squash fruit leaving abut two inches of the plant on each winter squash. Winter squash will store for a good amount of time in the proper conditions. Winter squash has a long period between planting and harvest, with it taking seventy to one hundred and ten days from seed to harvest.