Summer squash
Cucurbita pepo
Quick, heavy-bearing and short-lived: two plantings a year rather than one long one.
When to plant in Bay
Summer squash is planted more than once a year here. Both windows are shown below and labelled; they are two separate plantings, not one long one, and the months between them are not part of either.
- Direct sow · MarchOpens in 24 weeks
March 20, 2027 – April 30, 2027
UF/IFAS North Florida planting dates: late March to April. The guide writes this as "late March" rather than as a date; the 20th is this platform's reading of it and the boundary is soft.
- Direct sow · AugustOpens in 43 weeks
August 1, 2027 – September 30, 2027
UF/IFAS North Florida planting dates: August to September.
- Harvest · SeptemberOpen now
September 10, 2026 – November 19, 2026
Derived, not published as a window by the guide: the August to September planting plus the guide's 40–50 days to harvest from sowing.
- Harvest · AprilOpens in 29 weeks
April 29, 2027 – June 19, 2027
Derived, not published as a window by the guide: the late March to April planting plus the guide's 40–50 days to harvest from sowing.
Growing it
- Days to maturity
- 40–50
- Sun
- Full Sun
Summer squash is direct sown once frost risk has passed and again in late summer for an autumn crop. It bears fast and then declines, and in this climate the decline is usually driven by disease and by vine borers rather than by age, which is the argument for a second planting rather than nursing the first.
From the guide: UF/IFAS gives the North Florida planting dates for this crop as late March to April, and again August to September. It gives 40–50 days from seed to harvest, 12–24 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart, sown 1–1½ in. deep. On the crop itself it says: Summer squash and zucchini are usually bush types. All cucurbits have male and female flowers separated on the plant and pollination by insects is required for fruit set. Leaf and fruit diseases are common.
Where these dates come from: the North Florida column of the UF/IFAS Extension Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP 103/VH021), which defines North Florida as everything above State Road 40. Walton County is well inside it, and the Central and South Florida columns of the same table give different months. The guide is written for home and market gardens, so its spacing and days-to-harvest figures are a starting point for a field planting rather than a commercial schedule, and days to harvest varies by variety.
Common problems
- Squash vine borer
- Squash bug
- Silverleaf whitefly
- Downy mildew
- Powdery mildew
- Pickleworm