When Do Zucchini Plants Start to Vine?

Types

• Zucchini plants develop in either of two habits: vining or bush. Most modern zucchini selections are bush-types that do not create long, trailing stems like other members of the cucumber family. Bush zucchini varieties are particularly useful in small gardens where space is limited, or where gardeners do not wish to worry about accidentally stepping on vines or breaking stems when walking in the vegetable patch. Vining zucchini cultivars exist, but they typically are not large and expansive vines compared to those created by pumpkin or cucumber plants.

Development

• After sowing zucchini seeds in spring, when the threat of frost has passed and the soil is at least 70 degrees F, germination occurs within 10 days. Within 14 days, the stems of the zucchini plants begin to elongate to look like vines, if the cultivar is a vining type. Bush-type zucchini plants will not form vines, even after a month's worth of good growing conditions. All zucchini plants, regardless of cultivar, begin to produce their flowers about 30 to 50 days after sprouting from the ground. Ready-for-harvest zucchini fruits form about seven days after the female flowers are thoroughly pollinated by honeybees.

Zucchini Productivity

• Bush zucchini plants develop their flowers at the base of the plant repeatedly over the growing season, while vining plants produce flowers along the sprawling stems at the bases of leaves. As long as immature fruits are continually picked off -- once they are about 2 to 4 inches in diameter -- the zucchini plant will continue to produce more flowers and more fruit. Letting even one fruit on the plant develop to maturity, with plump size and hard skin with ripe seeds inside, diminishes further flowering and more fruit production.

Weather Considerations

• Vining types of zucchini plants can take longer to develop the expected 3- to 6-foot-long vines when weather conditions aren't conducive for growth. Unusually cool, cloudy or rainy weather can slow plant growth. Once the sunshine returns and warms the soil and air to tropical-like conditions, the growth of zucchini plants again hastens. Plants inflicted with insect or fungal problems may also slow their growth since loss of leaves and sap can stunt growth and limit photosynthesis.