Zucchini Follies
by Sheila Buff

Every September, gardeners around the country stand in a vegetable patch overrun by zucchini and yellow squash plants and ask themselves, "How did that happen?" The fragile little seedlings that looked so small and lonesome when they were planted back in May now have huge, prickly leaves and massive, thigh-thick fruits. The sight can drive even experienced, cynical gardeners to despair.

Short of not growing squash at all, is there any way to avoid the summer squash follies? Probably not. The best any serious gardener can hope is to keep the squash plants under some sort of control until the first frost solves the problem by killing the plants.

Choosing Squash Varieties
Summer squash is a catch-all term for a number of different squash varieties that have thin, edible skins. They fall into four main groups:

Yellow summer squash: long, thin, cylindrical yellow fruits with smooth or sometimes warty skin; usually straight, though some varieties are crook-necked.

Zucchini: long, thin, cylindrical dark green fruits with smooth skin; usually straight, though there are now some globular varieties.

Scalloped or patty pan: round, flattened fruits with scalloped edges, usually pale green or yellowish; faint resemblance to flying saucers.

Mideast: similar to zucchini, but fruit is shorter and thicker, with a paler green color; also known as Lebanese or Cousa squash.

Aside from the color, there's little taste difference between yellow summer squash and zucchini. Patty pan squash are similar in flavor to zucchini and yellow squash, but they have a small seed compartment and the flesh stays firmer when cooked. Cousa squash are also firmer in texture; some people think they are more flavorful than zucchini, but I've never noticed much difference.

Growing Tips
All summer squashes are easy--too easy--to grow. They love hot weather and are very sensitive to frost, so the one precaution you need to take is waiting until the soil temperature is around 70o. In our area, that means planting toward the end of May or even later. Squash seeds won't germinate in cold soil. To get a jump on the season, start your squash seeds indoors around the middle of May.

Plant the seedlings in hills of two or three about three feet apart. Adding a pinch of crushed eggshell at the bottom of the planting helps the fruits develop well and prevents blossom end rot A hill doesn't literally have to be a raised mound of soil--all the term really means is that you're planting the seedlings in clusters. Mounding up the soil to a hill about six inches high warms the soil faster, which summer squash like. If it's too much work to make the hills, this is a step that can easily be skipped. It doesn't really seem to make much difference over the long run.

After that, cultivation is pretty simple--put down a nice thick layer of organic mulch, water regularly at the roots, weed now and then, and watch the plants grow like crazy. Within a few weeks they'll have plenty of leaves and will start to put out large orange blossoms. The ones on long, thin stalks are the males; the ones on short bases near the main stem are the females. If you want to eat the blossoms, select the males. Sometimes the female blossoms drop off, generally because they weren't fertilized. A few unfertilized blossoms is normal. But pollination is by insects, usually bees, and a lot of unfertilized blossoms could mean that someone has been using insecticides in the area.

Summer squash are best if they're picked when they're six inches long or less (about three to four inches in diameter for the patty pan squash). Use a sharp knife to cut the stem near the base--to avoid damaging the plant, don't pull or twist the fruit off. Picking regularly keeps the plants producing.

Pests and Problems
One of the reasons summer squash are so easy to grow is that they don't have many insect pests or disease problems--or at least not enough of them to seriously reduce your crop.

Squash plants are subject to mildew. You can limit the problem by planting the seedlings a few feet apart and keeping the weeds down--this allows for good air circulation. Watering at the base of the plants keeps the leaves dry. Aside from improving your watering technique and maybe thinning out the squash plants if they're too crowded, there's not much you can do about mildew. It doesn't seem to have much effect on the plants anyway. Also, what looks like mildew--powdery white stuff on the leaves--may not be. Mature leaves naturally have silvery-gray splotches and streaks.

Much more annoying than mildew are insect pests. They come in waves as the season goes on. The first to attack are striped cucumber beetles, which can chew lacy holes in the young foliage and also may carry a disease called bacterial wilt. Keep an eye on your summer squash plants--if you see any small (quarter of an inch) beetles with yellow bodies and three black stripes, get out the insecticidal soap. Spray the leaves, including the undersides. Blast any beetles you see with the spray. Repeat every couple of days or more often if the damage continues or if rain washes the soap away. Generally speaking, your plants will survive some chewed up leaves.

Striped cucumber beetles have a sort of insect elegance--they look a bit like old-fashioned diplomats in striped trousers. Squash bugs, however, are just plain ugly. They're half an inch long and are grayish-brown all over. They chew up the leaves, making them wilt and turn black. These bugs are slow-moving, which means you can catch them and stomp on them--satisfying but inefficient, plus they give off an unpleasant odor. Try the insectidal soap on the leaves and blast any bugs with spray. Look for shiny brown eggs on the undersides of leaves and blast them too. The squash bug attacks are most likely in early July.

Of all the insect pests, squash vine borers are the worst. They usually turn up at the end of July and can turn your nice perky plants into wilted heaps almost overnight. Look around the woody base of the stem--if you see brownish gunk (that's a technical term) oozing out, you've got vine borers.

The squash vine borer is the caterpillar of a small moth. The moth lays eggs along the stems of the plant; the eggs hatch into a very soft-bodied white caterpillar with a black head, the caterpillar bores into the stem at the base to feed. Prevention helps here. If you spot the brown, flat, oval eggs on the stems, scrape them off with a knife blade. You can't spot every egg, though--or even any of them unless you're a fairly obsessive gardener. Try spraying Bt, a natural bacterial control agent, around the base of the plant once a week. Heap dirt up around the base of the plant to make it harder for the borer to get in. Once a borer does get in--and it will--you'll have to take more drastic measures. Use a sharp knife to slit open the stem. Scoop out the gunk and look for the caterpillar. When you find it, get it out and stab it. You may still lose the plant (by this point you may have had more than enough squash and won't be sorry to see it go), but as long as at least part of the thick stem remains intact, there's a reasonable chance of survival.

Zucchini Pickles

What to do with a superabundance of summer squash? Fresh summer squash keep well in the refrigerator for only a week or less, and they don't freeze well. One solution is this quick refrigerator pickle, handed down from my Great Aunt Gertrude, the Julia Child of New Bedford. 6 medium or 3 large or 2 very large zucchini and/or yellow squash (don't use the real monsters with thick skins--compost them instead)

3 cups white vinegar

1^1/2 cups sugar

1^1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons black peppercorns

1 tablespoon allspice berries

2 cinnamon sticks

10 small dried red peppers

10 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed

Wash and trim the squash. Cut them lengthwise in half and use a spoon to remove the seeds. Cut the squash into sticks roughly 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide and place them in a large non-reactive (glass or plastic) bowl.

Combine all the other ingredients in a non-reactive (stainless steel, not aluminum) saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for five minutes.

Pour the liquid over the squash and let stand until cool. Fish out the garlic cloves. Put the squash into glass or plastic containers, top up the containers with the liquid (including the spices), and cover tightly. Store in the refrigerator. Pickles are ready to eat within a few hours and will keep for several weeks.