Vegetable · Cucurbitaceae
When to plant patty pan squash
A summer squash picked at the size of a large coin or a saucer, firmer than a courgette and considerably more productive per plant.
Start seed indoors
3 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
2 weeks after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Sow direct
2 weeks after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make patty pan squash plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 3 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 2 weeks after the last frost.
- Sow direct 2 weeks after the last frost.
- Expect 50–65 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
Getting the timing right
Sow two weeks after the last frost. Pick constantly from midsummer; the plant crops until the first frost provided nothing is left to mature on it.
Frost tolerance
Killed at 0C, with no partial hardiness at all. The whole plant collapses the morning after the first frost.
Classified as tender, with damage expected below 0°C (32°F)32°F (0°C).