Warm weather vine crops are ready for harvest now. Summer squash and zucchini can either have varieties with long, rambling vines or bush types that fit easily in any garden. Summer squash (Cucurbita pepo), including zucchini, crookneck, straightneck, patty pan and other types are common in Nebraska gardens.
You can eat them cooked, raw, shredded, grated, roasted, grilled or fried. Their blossoms are delicious batter fried so they are versatile. Squash plants have separate male and female flowers.
A slender stem attaches male flowers to the plant. Female flowers grow close to the main vine. Between the flower and vine is a small round ovary, the unfertilized fruit.
An insect must move the pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers. Bees are common squash pollinators. Pick summer squash when they reach the size you prefer, (I personally like them around 6 inches) but before they are over-large, with large seeds, hard skins and fibrous or watery flesh.
Tiny “baby” fruits are tenderer. If your squash planting is large, you may choose to pick some at the baby stage, but most gardeners desire the medium sized fruit. If you leave very large squash fruits on the vine, plant yield will decline, so remove fruits that have grown too large even if you will not use them.
Harvest often, but be careful not to disturb the plants, as they often send out new roots from joints in the vine. Disturbing the vine can break these roots. Do not pick fruit when the vines are wet, because .