I pick my yellow straightnecks at around 6-7 inches for that very reason. I dont want the seeds. There's no way I could figure it out by pollination date.

Leisa

I aim to pick them as soon as they're noticeably pollinated, so 5-6 inches long. The little ones I eat raw or add to salads or boil. The bigger ones get sliced for frying or grilling. I swear they can grow 2 or 3 inches a day, so it's easy to miss that tiny stage.

It depends on the variety you are growing - some squashes are intended to grow just a few large fruits on a plant and are better therefore for storage and baking etc. Others work more like a courgette (zucchini) plant in that you can harvest more and more depending on how often you pick them.
If you have still got the seed packet it may give you a clue - if it talks about lots of fruits per plant it may have been bred to be prolific rather than to have larger fruits. Also if your plant is limiting the size for itself by producing seeds and slowing growth there's a pretty good chance that's the optimum size for that plant.
If it were me I would pick the fruit often this year and then look specially in a good seed catalogue for a larger fruited variety which talks about the size rather than number of fruits for next year, if that's what you're looking for. I liked Barbara Butternut for winter because you can pick it small or big and it stores well, and Tiger F1 is a good plant which can be cut as a small zucchini or a large marrow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thomspon and Morgan - Barbara Butternut listing

Since I was a kid, I thought "baseball bat sized squash" was the norm, and couldn't figure out why stores sold them so small.
Ok, so fast-forward one year since I changed my thinking, and now I am loving my veggie patch, and keeping an eye on squash-size. I, too, am picking them at about 6" long, and realizing that this is the 'right' time to pick them (although I'm still convinced that there's nothing wrong with those bat-ones. People at work wouldn't even take them home to eat them when I had an over-abundance of bats previously- what's up with THAT??? Apparently they are either conditioned to think that they aren't good or are too big and won't taste good (so not the case with squash!)). I think the seeds are just as much a part of the 'eating' as the flesh...it's all good.

Sorry, went a little OT there on you...

I don't know about production effects of picking when small or large- I always had PLENTY of squash even when I let them go so big. It'll be hard to tell this year, since I am picking them smaller, AND I chose a variety called "Early Prolific Straightneck" this time. So can't tell if the picking will cause more, or if the variety will simply define the volume.

Either way, enjoy your squash!

That Barbara Butternut does look and sound very tasty.

The plants in question are Early Prolific Straightneck grown from seed and some "Green Zucchini" plants bought at a nursery. Both varieties are doing the same thing.

I wanted them a bit larger than the ones at the store for grilling. They never got that big and I left them on the plant too long after they stopped growing. I did grill them and the seeds were a bit tough but they still tasted good.

I'll try to pick the next ones earlier or at least right when they stop growing noticeably.

BTW...I love the baseball bat ones stuffed with ground meat and baked.

I have the Early P. Straightneck too, and I think the pack said they are supposed to be small and, well, prolific :) Anyway, I don't think they are supposed to get very big...

If all the buds turn into squash, I will be able to supply the neighborhood... lol!

My one yellow straightneck squash that I have gotten so far was pollinated on July 5 and harvested on July 10 at a little under 6" (although you cannot tell at that angle). So that would be 5 days. Insane how fast these things grow. Pollinated 2 more this morning though. Yay !

{{gwi:85283}}

Thank you. That explains why my straightneck didn't get any bigger. I picked it at about 10".

My zucchini must think it's a straightneck as well....LOL.

I think my plants which I'm sure are stressed in this heat we have been having would appreciate me picking those squash sooner as not to take all the plants energy on one fruit.

Ania

I like them at about 8-10 inches -- a little older than most. I think they taste best when the seeds have started to develop but before they get hard.

I just harvested 2 more zucs at 7-8 inches. They had just stopped growing and were starting to get fat. These particular plants are the ones that suffered some damage on a hot day from my lack of watering, so maybe they are in survival mode trying to reproduce as fast as possible.

Ania

I'm still harvesting zucs here in zone 11, even though the vines are showing signs of severe stress. The weather along the coast has been foggy - the usual "June, July gloom" and then come late July, the sun comes out around noon, at a blistering 80+ degrees. The plants aren't too happy with the sudden change in temps.

Maybe next year, I will try having shade cloth ready to toss on them when the sun comes out from behind the fog bank - they may produce longer.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Perhaps you could start fresh plants mid-season?

I recently planted new hills of summer squash to replace my borer-ridden, mildewed, and heat-stressed plants.

FWIW, and slightly OT: This is my first year using the Early Prolific Straight Necks. While I am already loving the "Early & Prolific" nature of these, as well as the "magazine photo quality" of them, I do notice that they don't have as much flavor as the crooknecks that I've grown in the past. The zucchini variety that I have is Black Beauty, I believe, and again, I sense that the flavor is lacking.
I have another variety in there that's not ready yet...some Hybrid thing that had a mere 6 seeds in the packet, and it's orangey-yellow & white spotted. Am anxious to find out what that tastes like.

So take all this with a few grains of salt...the flavor will be better for it ;)

Found it...the other one I'm growing is Hi Beta Gold Hybrid. If you have comments on it, do tell. Thanks!

Hi Beta Gold is a sphaghetti squash. Grow like a winter squash. They get to 2-3 lbs and store well when ripe If you not familiar with spaghetti squash, you can poke a few holes in the squash and microwave it, or drop it whole into a pot of boiling water until cooked through, or possibly baked whole, (I have not Tried that). split the squash remove the seeds, and using a fork, strip out the flesh. It is stringy like real spaghetti. Substitute for sphaghetti in any recipe.

To bake spaghetti squash, you can split the squash lengthwise, take out the seeds, salt and bake skin side up on a greased cookie sheet. Then you stripe out the flesh with a fork. I then like to sautee it with some tomato sauce, garlic, bell pepper and onions. Then sprinkle with parm cheesse. Better the next day once the flavors infuse.