How to Grow Zucchini
Zucchini At a Glance
Difficulty
Easy
Category
Fruit
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Frost Tolerance
Frost Tender
Cold Hardiness
Survives to 5°C
Plant Family
Cucurbitaceae
Growing Season
Warm Season
Plant Lifecycle
Annual
How to Start It
★ Recommended for beginners
Zucchini cannot take frost, so sow it 1 to 2 weeks after your last spring frost, once the soil feels warm, since cold, wet soil rots the seeds. Push 2 seeds 2 cm deep into a small mound of compost-rich soil, and give each plant 60 cm of room. They sprout in 5 to 7 days: keep the strongest seedling and snip off the other at soil level. One or two plants feed a whole family.
Zucchini is one of the most generous plants you can grow, ready about 50 days after sowing, and it keeps you picking all summer. The trick is to pick the fruits small and often: a zucchini left to grow huge slows the whole plant down.
When To Start
First chance to plant
10 Days After Last Frost
Last chance to plant
60 Days Before First Frost
When should you plant Zucchini?
Your planting dates depend on your local climate. Sign up and add your location to unlock personalized dates.
Your Zucchini Planting Window
Start planting
May 15, 2026
Last chance
Sep 10, 2026
Your Zucchini Calendar
Set your location to turn these into exact dates and reminders.
Sow zucchini outdoors now that the soil is warm
1 week after your last frost· every year
Pick zucchini small and often, every day or two
50 days after your last frost· every year· optional
Did you water your zucchini seedlings today? Keep the top of the soil damp until they are up and growing.
About 1 days after you plant it
How is your zucchini doing? Water deeply at the base and keep the leaves dry.
About 24 days after you plant it
Harvest is close! Pick zucchini small and tender, and check every day or two.
About 40 days after you plant it
Picking time may be here: check your zucchini.
About 50 days after you plant it
The Journey Ahead
Zucchini's Lifecycle
Seedling
Mature Plant
Seed Production
Step 2
Planting & Sprouting
Expect sprouts in 5–7 days
Growing Tips
- 1Give zucchini full sun, at least 6 to 8 hours a day.
- 2Plant it in loose soil with lots of compost mixed in, or in a pot at least 45 cm wide, since it is a big, hungry plant.
- 3Water deeply at the base once or twice a week, and keep the leaves dry to slow powdery mildew (a white dust on the leaves).
- 4Feed with a handful of worm castings or a splash of compost tea when the first flowers open, and again every 3 to 4 weeks.
- 5If small fruits shrivel and rot at the tip, bees are not visiting enough, so use a small paintbrush to move pollen from a male flower into a female flower (the one with a tiny zucchini behind it).
- 6Look under the leaves for squash bugs and their shiny bronze eggs, pick them off by hand, and cover young plants with row cover until the first flowers open.
Seedling Phase
Step 3
Growth & Maturity
~50
Days to Maturity
75 cm
Mature Height
90 cm
Mature Width
Pests to Watch For
Diseases to Watch For
Mature Plant
Step 4
Harvesting
Harvest Window
45 days
When to Pick
Pick when fruits are small and tender
How to Harvest
- 1Pick zucchini when it is 15 to 20 cm long, firm and glossy, usually about a week after the flower opens.
- 2Cut the stem with a sharp knife, leaving 2 to 3 cm on the fruit, instead of twisting it off.
- 3Look over the plants every day or two in summer, since a zucchini can double in size overnight.
- 4Pick any oversized ones you missed, because leaving them on makes the plant stop producing.
- 5The flowers are edible too: pick the male flowers (the ones on a thin stem with no fruit behind them) to stuff or add to salads.
- 6Store zucchini unwashed in the fridge and eat it within a week.
Step 5
Saving Seeds
How to Save Seeds
Zucchini crosses easily with acorn squash, pumpkins, spaghetti squash and other squash of the same kind, so if any of them flower within about 800 m, the seeds can grow into odd mixed squash. To keep it pure, grow only one of these at a time, or tape a female flower shut the evening before it opens, brush it the next morning with pollen from a male zucchini flower, and tape it shut again. Hybrid F1 seeds will not grow true, and many zucchini varieties are hybrids, so look at your packet and save only from one that is not. Leave the chosen fruit on the plant until it is huge and its skin is too hard to dent with a fingernail, then let it sit indoors for 3 more weeks. Scoop out the seeds, rinse off the pulp, and dry them on a plate for 1 to 2 weeks. Store them in a labelled envelope somewhere cool, dark and dry, where they keep about 5 years.
Seed Production
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