I’ve had mixed results of the traditional bush type zucchini you find in the store in the US…actually the ONLY kind you can buy in stores near me. The plants are huge, very prickly, and seem to attract more bugs.
While watching Korean dramas I looked up the kind they eat. A climbing plant with tendrils…just what a backyard residential grower needs.
It’s much easier to grow, takes up so much less flat space (using a trellis), and for me cooks better. The flesh is soft but it’s more dense so it holds up better cooking and in soups. It doesn’t go soggy.
Several similar types. I’m growing King Ka Ae hybrid.
We are trained in a way to think that whatever our grocery carries is all there is. Carrots, for instance. My grocery literally only sells one kind. Being gardeners we are at least aware that most of what we see is a small subset of what humans grow and that is a very small subset of what nature has evolved.
I grew some different colored carrots one year and posted a photo on FB at harvest. So many people asked what they were.
I think you’ll enjoy this variety. It’s not too late to grow them depending on where you are.
The squash looks like they would cook and taste well and it would be nice to grow them up on a trellis. My biggest issue with squash is the borer that attacks the vine. Do you have any information about it being resistant to squash vine borers? It looks like a variety I would like to grow.
I haven’t had any issues in the past few years growing them. Mine are on a trellis in a raised bed. I don’t know if that makes them a bit less accessible to the borers? Probably not.
These are C. moschata plants (same species as butternut, tromboncino, etc.) so they are generally not bothered by squash vine borers, which is what interested me when I tried them 3 or 4 years ago since the SVB pressure here is terrible. I grew two varieties, a long one like the one @Shibumi is growing and a rounder one that is a shape more like a large avocado, and is actually sometimes called avocado squash. I found the round ones a bit better flavored, but it may have been the varieties I grew.
While they are c. moschata, the vines are much smaller than most in that family and are fairly well mannered so work well on a trellis. They were easy to grow and productive, but I didn’t really find them to be a true replacement for zucchini - the flavor isn’t quite right to me (it is milder) and the fact that they stay firmer also misses the mark in something like a ratatouille. I also really like zucchini quartered and grilled, but these are drier in texture and don’t work as well for that use either. They were good in soups, curries, etc. and I would grow them again if I had more space.
Over the years I’ve found I feel the same way about the other supposed replacements for zucchini, like tromboncino, bottle gourds, tatume, etc., so others might be quite happy with them instead of zucchini. For me, the best of the “replacements” for flavor was tatume, which was another relatively small vine with SVB resistance, but tatume is a round fruited plant, so not everyone likes that when using it instead of zucchini.
We’re growing two kinds of korean moschata summer squash. We’ve been enjoying how prolific and productive they are. Im surprised by reports of tame growth, though. Ours are starting to look like pumpkins- vining everywhere and making crazy amounts of fruits.
I get what youre saying @zendog about them not being a good stand in for zucchini. Our go to in that dept is lebanese squash. If you havent tried it,I recommend it highly. To our palates, it is like zucchini but superior in almost every respect, again at least for us. Were growing one from Baker Creek this year, but have grown Fedco’s offerings too:
@hobilus I agree with you on the Lebanese squash. I’m growing Alexandria Lebanese from Fedco this year and it has been great. It hasn’t had the same issue I’ve had with yellow mosaic virus that has hit a couple other types of summer squash, but I’m not sure if that is location in the garden or just luck so far. That virus has become as much of a problem for me as SVB.
When I said the Korean zucchini moschata vines were well mannered, perhaps I was going too far. They aren’t tiny, but they are definitely not as likely to take over the garden as tromboncino, many of the butternuts, etc. I was able to keep 4 plants on a 12 foot long trellis that was 7 feet tall, but it did take some judicious pruning and the avocado squash type grew more vigorously than the long ones. The Tatume I mentioned are definitely smaller vines. I’m really not sure what species they are, but they definitely had no issues with SVB.
For me, I basically. have to plant some zuchini/summer squash and then start the next round about a week or so before the first ones start fruiting, which gives me new plants coming into production not long after the virus or SVB take out the first plants. It is a pain, but for my uses I like to have zuchini types around so I have to just deal with the issues we have here.
@Shibumi I’m glad they’re working for you and I hope others try them. Part of why I mentioned the other replacements is because many people might be happy with tromboncino for instance and might find these an even better alternative. They are definitely worth growing and I’d grow them as well as zucchini if I had the room, but since I have very limited space I keep struggling to grow zucchini since the replacements haven’t worked as well in the dishes we make.
I only know what I know, and even that I’m not sure of.
The only way I learn about other varieties of fruit (because vegetable isn’t a botanical term) is from talking about them in places like this and watching YouTube and dramas with other cultures ingredients.
Yes and it is great to try new things and see how they work for you. Ten years ago I don’t think I’d ever heard of bitter melon and now I grow them every year.
if you guys like the Korean zucchini, try Korean radish or Mu. they get big for a radish and the greens are good also. i made a hot and a mild kimchi with mine. they have less bite that most radish. i also enjoy them fresh. got seed off Esty. sorry i hijacked the tread.
I assume you mean daikon radish. I SO wish I loved it since it is SO prolific, but I sorta tolerate them for the most part. We did some as a fall planting in the high tunnnel though and they were excellent come winter.
