GardenSummer Squash variety
Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash Summer Squash
✓ In your garden
Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash is a patty pan summer squash, ready in about 45 days. Pick it young and tender for grilling, sautéing, and baking — the plant is prolific, so check it every day at peak. It’s warm-season and needs room; plant after frost in rich soil.
“A tender summer squash — pick it young and often.”
Growing basics — shared by every summer squash
Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash grows like any other summer squash. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Summer Squash page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 24–36 in
- Row spacing
- 36–48 in
- Planting depth
- 0.5–2 in
- Soil pH
- 6–6.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash good for?
- Grilling & sautéingIts best use — pick young. Great
- Baking (breads, muffins)Grate the bigger ones. Great
- Long storageA soft squash — eat within days. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
We don't have enough sourced timing for green lightning patty pan squash to say whether it finishes before your frost. Your local frost dates are the number to plant by.
- Toughen up outside
- late Apr – early May
- Move plants outside
- early May – early May
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash — the things that trip people up
- Pick summer squash young and often — a zucchini goes from perfect to baseball-bat in a couple of days, and picking keeps the plant producing.
- Give it room, rich soil, and steady water. Watch for squash bugs and vine borers, and hand-pollinate the first flowers if small fruit keeps dropping.
Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash summer squash at a glance
| Type | Patty Pan |
|---|---|
| Grows as | Tall vine (indeterminate) |
| Days to ripe | 45 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Green |
| Fruit size | Small |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash
How long does Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash take to grow?
About 45 days to the first pick, then it keeps producing for weeks if you keep harvesting.
Why pick Green Lightning Patty Pan Squash small?
Young summer squash is tender and best-tasting, and constant picking tells the plant to keep making more. Leave them on and they turn seedy and the plant slows down.