Charles A. Mullins and A. Brent Smith

All cultivars performed well. ‘Cashflow’ had a high marketable yield, heavy fruit. ‘Fortune’ and 4620767' out yielded ‘Cougar’, ‘Sunray’, and ‘Suwanee’ of the yellow fruit cultivars. The straight neck cultivars generally had higher yields, and higher marketable fruit weight than the crookneck cultivars.

Summer squash is grown in home gardens and in large commercial acreage in Tennessee. Squash is grown commercially for fresh market and for processing. Squash has been one of the most profitable fresh market vegetable crops in recent years, especially in the fall season. ‘Dixie’ has been one of the major yellow crookneck cultivars for many years, although many new cultivars are available and are recommended for production in Tennessee. Likewise ‘Senator’ has been a major zucchini type cultivar, but many other outstanding cultivars are available. Many of the new cultivars have mildew and/or virus tolerance. An experiment was conducted at the Plateau Experiment Station at Crossville, TN in 2001 to evaluate performance of 22 summer squash cultivars.

The site was prepared for planting by conventional tillage in late April. Fertilizer was broadcast at 300 lb/A of 15-=15-15 before final disking on May 15. Plots were direct seeded on May 15. Plot size was one row, 10 ft long and contained 10 plants with 5 hills (12 plants/hill)( each spaced 2 ft apart in the row. Rows were spaced five feet apart. Experimental plot design was a randomized complete block with four replications. Plots were cultivated for weed control on June 26. Carbaryl (Sevin XLR) at 1 lb ai/A was applied for insect control on June 12.

Nine harvest were made between July 2 and July 23. Yields were recorded by number and weight of marketable, oversize and cull fruit.

Maturity was very concentrated for all cultivars as only eight harvest were made, but yields were in the expected range. Production appeared to have ceased and no more harvests were made after July 23. ‘Cashflow’ was among the most productive cultivars, and ‘Independence II’ was among the least productive zucchini type cultivars in marketable yield (Table 1). The zucchini cultivars produced more oversized squash than the yellow cultivars. ‘Cashflow’ produced one of the highest yields of oversized

zucchini-type fruit while ‘Dividend’ produced a lower yield of oversized fruit. ‘EXT 4620767' produced more oversized fruit than other yellow fruited cultivars, while ‘Patriot II’ produced the lowest amount of oversized fruit. Marketable fruit of ‘Cashflow’ weighed more than marketable fruit of any other cultivar. Marketable fruit of ‘Sunray’ and ‘Senneca Supreme’ weighed less than marketable fruit of the remainder of the yellow fruited cultivars.

Table 1. Yield of summer squash cultivars evaluated at The University of Tennessee Plateau Experiment Station at Crossville, 2001.

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Copyright © 1999 by The University of Tennessee. All rights reserved.

This research represents one season's data and does not constitute recommendations.  After sufficient data is collected over the appropriate number of seasons, final recommendations will be made through research and extension publications.