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Performance of Summer Squash Cultivars, Plateau Experiment Station, 2002 A. Brent Smith and Charles A. Mullins Interpretative Summary All cultivars performed well. ‘Cashflow’ had a high marketable yield, heavy fruit. ‘Fortune’ and ‘EXT 4620767’ out-yielded ‘Cougar’, ‘Sunray’, and ‘Suwanee’ of the yellow fruited cultivars. The straight neck cultivars generally had higher yields, and higher marketable fruit weight than the crookneck cultivars. Introduction 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 2002 to evaluate performance of 18 summer squash cultivars. Materials and Methods 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 10. Plots were direct seeded on May 10. Plots were replanted on May 24 after a series of late frosts killed the newly emerged plants. Plot size was one row, 10 ft long and contained 10 plants with 5 hills (2 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 and chlorothalonil (Bravo) at 1.5 lb ai/A was applied for insect control and disease control on a 10 day schedule after blooming began. Plots were irrigated with 1 inch of water on June 17, June 24, and July 3. Twelve harvests were made between July 8 and August 12. Yields were recorded by number and weight of marketable, oversize, and cull fruit. Results and Discussion Production levels for most all cultivars remained constant for the duration of the harvest. Weight and numbers of all varieties were lower than expected. This is probably due to the extremely dry conditions. ‘Hurricane’ were among the most productive cultivars, and ‘Cashflow' was among the least productive zucchini type cultivars in marketable yield (Table 1). No significant difference was found between the cultivars for production of oversized fruit in the zucchini type varieties. ‘Conqueror III’ was among several cultivars that produced more marketable fruit than other yellow fruited cultivars. Marketable fruit of ‘Golden Delight’ was among several cultivars that had greater weight. No difference was found in the amount of cull fruit produced for any of the cultivars. ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Lynx’ were among zucchini cultivars with long fruit, with large diameter (Table 2). ‘Butterstick’ and ‘Conqueror III’ were the yellow fruited varieties with larger fruit. ‘Golden Delight’ and ‘Sebring’ had the highest rating for appearance and color of all the varieties tested. All varieties tested well for smoothness except ‘Calazaba’. Table 1. Yield of summer squash cultivars evaluated at The University of Tennessee Plateau Experiment Station at Crossville, 2002.
z Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level of probability, Duncan’s multiple range tests.Table 2: Attributes of summer squash cultivars evaluated at The University of Tennessee Plateau Experiment Station at Crossville, 2002.
z Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level of probability, Duncan’s multiple range tests.x Ratings on a scale of 1 to 10; 10= smooth skin, good appearance, good color. |
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