Home / Seed database / Zucchini (summer squash)
Vegetables · annual
Zucchini (summer squash) from seed
Cucurbita pepo · also searched as courgette, summer squash
- Germination temperature
- 75 to 95°F (24 to 35°C)
- Minimum soil temperature
- 60°F (16°C)
- Sowing depth
- 1 to 1½ in (25 to 38 mm)
- Days to germinate
- 3 to 12 days
- Light
- Cover the seed; darkness helps
- Before sowing
- Nothing needed
- Start indoors
- 3 to 4 weeks before planting out
- Plant out
- 1 to 2 weeks after the last frost
- Sow outdoors
- 1 to 2 weeks after the last frost
- Spacing
- 36 to 48 in (90 to 120 cm)
Your dates from your last frost Seed not coming up?
Sowing
Sow two seeds per spot where the plants will grow, a week or two after the last frost, or start indoors in separate pots 3 to 4 weeks ahead. Zucchini is ready about 50 days after sowing.
Care and transplanting
Plants are hungry and thirsty. Give them rich soil, even water at the base and plenty of room.
Problems
Seed rots in cold, wet soil, so do not rush. Damping off, powdery mildew and squash bugs are the usual problems; row cover helps until flowering. Flowers without fruit often just need more bees or hand pollination.
Saving seed
Squash cross freely within a species, so saved zucchini seed can give odd fruit. Save only from a fully mature fruit left to ripen far past eating size.