When to Harvest Zucchini & Other Summer Squash Varieties

If you’ve ever grown a zucchini plant, you know they grow fast from the time you plant a zucchini seed to the time you harvest. Like all squash, it can be hard to know when the fruits are ready, and you don’t want to miss the optimal harvesting window.

When a plant is producing zucchini, it seems like you can’t blink or you’ll have huge, overgrown zucchinis that have lost their tenderness.

This guide explains when to harvest zucchini, how to harvest, and how to preserve it. Plus, I’ll share the harvesting mistake you don’t want to make because it can damage or even kill your plants!

Resources For Growing Squash

I love growing squash for their prolific production and nutritional benefits! They produce a surprising amount of food from just a few plants.

Whether you’re growing squash for the first time or are a seasoned gardener, this easy-to-follow advice will help you successfully grow any type of squash:

• How to Grow Zucchini or Other Summer Squash

• A Guide to Types of Summer Squash

• Preventing the Squash Vine Borer

• How to Grow a Pumpkin Plant and Other Winter Squash

• Exploring The Many Winter Squash Varieties

• When to Harvest Pumpkins and Other Winter Squash

Maximizing Your Zucchini Yield

Harvesting zucchini at the right time will ensure the best taste and keep the plant producing. Small, young zucchini are more tender and delicious. As they grow larger, zucchini get more seedy.

Harvesting regularly encourages the plant to produce more, which helps maximize your yield. It also staggers the harvest, so you are not overwhelmed with too much squash all at once.

Proper harvesting techniques can make or break the health and longevity of your squash plants, as I'll discuss further in this blog post. The longer your plant is healthy and thriving, the more produce you’ll get.

When to Harvest Zucchini

Zucchini and other summer squash are best harvested early, when they are still small and tender. Because they grow so quickly, you should check your zucchini regularly, even daily, and harvest them often!

You may hear the recommendation that zucchini should be 6 to 8 inches long when harvested. That is a good size to harvest, but it is not a hard, fast rule that they have to be that specific size. More importantly, they should be the color you would expect when ripe and harvested when still small. Pro-Tip: Not all zucchini will turn dark green! For example, Golden Zucchini plants produce bright yellow fruits and Round “8 Ball” Zucchini are often a brighter green with light green flecks.

Tools For Harvesting Zucchini

Knowing how to harvest zucchini plants correctly is key to getting the most out of them. I do not want you to make the mistake of using your bare hands when harvesting!

I know we’ve all done it, including me, but when you do it, you run the risk of damaging or even killing your plants! I really recommend using tools when harvesting summer squash and other produce in your garden.

My go-to tools are:

• Micro-tip Snips - These small yet extremely sharp cutting blades allow for precision cutting and harvesting in small spaces. Intended for using on cut flowers and herbs, I also use them in the garden all the time to harvest or prune things like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, and asparagus.

• 5/8” Hand Pruner - The razor-sharp, precision-ground blade stays sharp, and a low-friction coating makes every cut easier and helps resist rust. I use these for bigger things, like zucchini and melons!

How to Harvest Zucchini Properly

You might be surprised to learn that there is a right and a wrong way to harvest zucchini and summer squash!

Many people recommend taking a zucchini in your hands and twisting it off to harvest it. You can harvest zucchini that way, but up to 50% of the time, doing that will break the fruit or damage the main stem.

Breaking open the fruit will invite pests like slugs and squash vine borers, who are attracted to the scent of the fruit you just opened up. This could be the beginning of the end for that zucchini plant!

If you twist off the fruit and it breaks too high, damaging the main stem, the plant will have an open wound. Now, disease or squash vine borers can get into that open wound and severely hurt the plant.

Follow these steps to protect your plant and protect your fruit when harvesting summer squash:

1. Check Regularly - As I’ve said, check your zucchini often and harvest them regularly! Make sure to gently look behind and under the leaves. It is easy to miss a zucchini hiding under a leaf.

2. Cut - When you find a zucchini ready to harvest, use a sharp knife or hand pruners to cut the stem one or two inches above the fruit.

It’s that easy and takes almost no time at all!

How to Preserve Zucchini

We are often inundated with zucchini during the growing season. Even using these creative zucchini recipes, we can’t eat them fast enough. Because summer squash isn’t good for long-term storage, we love to preserve our harvest.

I like comparing summer and winter squashes to soft and hard cheeses. Winter squash stores well, like a hard cheese, with a thick skin that protects it from mold, dehydration, and aging. Like a soft cheese, summer squash doesn’t have a hard skin. It spoils more quickly, so you will need to consume it soon.

That is where preserving comes in. Zucchini can be preserved by pickling, dehydrating, canning, and freezing. Watch this video to learn how to freeze zucchini.