The Return of Summer Squashes

Village Farm Team,

Summer squashes will be making their comeback this week as we make the first harvest from our most recent succession! The varieties planted in this particular succession were chosen based on their performance during our first planting as well as their tolerance to high temperatures. We have three varieties planted: Dunja, Tigress, and Gold Star. Dunja is a zucchini variety that yields dark-green squashes that are relatively straight. Tigress is also a zucchini variety but it produces squashes that are a lighter green than Dunja and have small white flecks. Gold Star is a yellow crookneck squash variety that is a lovely shade of pale yellow when mature.

We’ve got both good and bad news when it comes to cucumbers and melons. The bad news is that our first successions of both of these crops are already done and gone. The good news is that we have second successions of each planted and they are coming along slowly but surely! We direct-seeded the cucumbers in place by the existing trellis system last week and are just starting to see signs of germination. Our watermelons are producing leaf growth but aren’t quite to the blossom stage yet. And, our muskmelons are just starting to set their lovely yellow blooms.

Our butternuts and pumpkins are coming right along despite the intense heat. We’re seeing butternuts in multiple stages of growth with some already several inches in size and pale in color while others are still green with the blossom attached. Just like most winter squashes, butternuts aren’t ready to harvest until the outer skin toughens and you can press your thumbnail into the skin without it leaving an indentation. As for our pumpkins, they were direct-seeded a few weeks back and are producing a lot of healthy growth. The variety we have planted is called Renegade. It produces round orange squashes that are medium to large in size and perfect for carving into a jack-o-lantern.