Want lots of yellow squash with minimal effort? Buy Straightneck Summer Squash seeds.
Written: Jul 05 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: low maintenance, produces loads of squash, inexpensive
Cons: susceptible to powdery mildew
The Bottom Line: This Straightneck Summer Squash is a great choice for novice gardeners who have lots of sunshine available in their yards.
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| njchicaa's Full Review: Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash Packet |
I have two 10 x 10 raised garden beds on the side of my house in the backyard. I don't posess a green thumb, but I have had success growing greens (for my parrots), cucumbers, mini pumpkins (again for the birds), and both zucchini and yellow squash. When it is time to plant the yellow squash, I use the Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash seeds sold at the local Lowe's.
About This Product
Well, as the name implies, this particular variety of yellow squash has been bred to produce lots of fruit (yes, squash and zucchini are fruits) and to have them ready to pick/eat rather early in the summer. My husband and I, my family, and the three parrots really love eating Summer Squash, so I was happy to find an "early and prolific" variety when I stumbled upon it several years ago. I have no green thumb, so I imply drop 4-5 of these seeds in the ground in spots that are about 2-3 feet away from one another, cover with a bit of soil, and water regularly. That's it. The rest is up to Mother Nature and the plants and, WOW they don't disappoint!
To be fair, I do have to say that my raised garden beds get full sunshine for at least 6 hours a day and we do have soaker hoses run throughout them to keep them hydrated even when there is no rain. They aren't totally no-maintenance plants, but with a bit of planning they are very close to being self-sufficient. The large leaves of this plant are susceptible to powdery mildew which is a fungus that produces large white patches on the leaves. You can treat it with a fungicide spray or you can ignore it if you are going for an organic garden.
My Experience
As I said before, I have no green thumb so I simply plant a few seeds per spot, water regularly, and leave the rest up to nature. I planted the seeds the first week in May and we are now getting the first few Summer Squashes in this first week of July. They probably would have been producing crop loads of yellow squash by now if I had started them inside earlier in the spring, but I'm not going to lie... I'm lazy!
I've been planting Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash for years now so I can tell you exactly what is going to happen with the plants I have now in my garden. The plants are going to grow like it is their job and completely fill in the two foot spaces that currently exist between them. They also will produce several fruits each week for all of July and most of August. I usually plant 3 "spots" of this Summer Squash along with 3 of green zucchini. I get so much squash that not only to my friends and family get sick of it, but my parrots also start to toss it out of their bowls when they've seen too much of it. The plants are usually done by mid to late August and thus ends our giant haul of Straightneck Summer Squash.
I consistently wind up with powdery mildew fungus on the leaves of my squash plants every single year. I tried using a spray fungicide one year but it really didn't make a difference, so these days I just try to ignore it. I do pinch off some of the excess leaves to improve the ventilation around the rest of them, but that's as far as I go in trying to control the fungus. In all honesty, I haven't noticed it harming the plants or the fruit production, so I just let sleeping dogs lie as they say.
Overall Opinion
We love love love yellow squash! We sautee it with zucchini, onion and butter, we slice it in half and drizzle it with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs, and I once made a really phenomenal savory zucchini bread. I say once because I made it once and tried to recreate it about 15 times with disastrous results. I feed lots of this Summer Squash to my parrots and also shred it up and mix it into their cornbread-based "birdie bread" which is basically my attempt to trick the picky eaters into eating some veggies. And those are just my attempts to use up the incredible amounts of squash that we get from this Early Prolific Summer Squash variety. I also probably give away about 10 fruits each week during the height of the growing season to my parents, sister, and aunt.
Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash is extremely easy to grow as long as you have an area that gets lots of sunshine during the day. I'm no gardening expert, but I've had great results from these seeds for four years now. I love this Summer Squash and will continue to plant it in the future.
Recommended:
Yes
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