Tromboncinos are growing ferociously and starting to flower. Soon the cardinals will be here to steal them…this is another new plant for me and I’m really excited to see them grow (and surprise the kids with how big they get).
I seeded Jin dong ae x mini paulista that is germinating. Still no king ka ae- edit they came up this afternoon! Cucuzza is growing really well and has the most lovely, soft leaves. I caved and sowed some of the grocery store acorn squash my husband loved last year and the jack-o’-lantern pumpkins that were so easy to carve/kids begged to grow again. I figure with only two squash vine borer magnets, maybe it won’t be exhausting. There are a bunch of volunteers and I’m trying to disappear them before kids see and I have to keep them…thus far I failed for 2 that are what they are now. It’s nice to see everything coming up with the heat wave.
This side of the house is a new addition to the garden this year, it’s a bit of an experiment. There was landscaping fabric and rocks under the soil and the dirt under that was not the best looking, so I do not have high hopes for it this year. I intentionally overplanted because I expect losses, and a few of the plants are already very unhappy with this heat wave we’re having. Temps are going to drop tonight though. If everything manages to survive and starts to get crowded I will remove a few plants, but for now, it’s survival of the luckiest. The mulch that was here will be reapplied once the plants are a little more established. If the plants here do well, I will make it a little more intentional with some trellises and possibly a few beds. This spot gets more sun than the main garden in the backyard. I amended the planting holes with compost and fertilizer.
I’ve got four each of: Maxidiwac summer squash, Desert Spirit winter squash, and Nanticoke winter squash. Melons, which are in the front of the photo, are Moon and Stars watermelon, Rockyford cantelope, and Orange honeydew.
I’m curious if anyone has tried Ayote Green Flesh or Long De Nice and how they did. Ayote seems to have a really long time to harvest, so I may be too late to plant already, but I love the idea of the chocolate like flavor I’ve read about.
I’m thinking of the Long De Nice as a replacement for Tromboncino, since it is also supposed to make a good replacement for zucchini when immature, but it sounds like the mature squash is like a good butternut as well, which seems better than Tromboncino which I’ve found lacking as a winter squash.
it is a bit bland for winter squash. i roast the circular cuts with a little sorghum syrup and butter and it’s ok though. it’s also bland enough to go in soup without sweetening it too much for taste. i put it in all the winter stews for extra chunks.
they don’t taste bad they just aren’t strong winter flavor.
as summer squash i like them better than any zucchini I’ve ever had. those and yellow/white patty pan, and crookneck, are the only summer squash i grow
they make SO MUCH fruit though so by volume they are one of the best i grow. they are prolific at my place and i get enough to give them away and store and process them
Thanks for the explanation. I didn’t realize it was light on flavor. I had planned to leave half to mature, but maybe I’ll primarily harvest as summer squash and just leave a few to get big and fun. I’m concerned about how vigorous they are. I’ve never had a winter squash so big by the end of may. It seems to have grown a foot every time I look at it. I put 2 on a cattle panel, apparently by mistake!
Well, live and learn. Looks like I’ll have 2 panels worth of summer squash, which is totally unnecessary! Only so many times a week we can eat zoodles or roasted squash. Lots of giving away this summer should all the Italian and Korean ones work out.
i slice and blanch and freeze in vacuum bags, i basically make uncooked ratatouille and pack it in bags (the eggplant at the bottom, then the other things in the bag) and all winter I’ll thaw those and bake them. it’s a good way to use up a ton of summer squash or zucchini all at once
Excellent idea. And here my husband gawked when I bought a freezer chest a few years ago large enough to fit a few human bodies…I’ve made it my mission to fill it up! (With produce)
I finally sowed my seeds last week! I have several flats. I’m considering doing a second sowing of the maxima and zucchini types since I expect high casualties from vine borers.
Something interesting I noticed; the Tetsukabuto cotyledons are soft and fuzzy like the moschata species. Maxima cotyledons have hairs but not a dense fuzz. The color is also a deeper green like moschata. (Tetsukabuto is a hybrid between maxima and moschata squash. I am using it to get borer resistant maxima-type squashes).
Top: Maxima (Lower Salmon River)
Middle: Tetsukabuto (my own saved seed but the F1 is identical)
Bottom : Moschata (Sonca Orange Butternut)
Very concerned about these tromboncino vines. They are insane and I don’t have the space for this!! I keep cutting them, but a new 2’ shoot (whatever you call them) seems to appear every other day. The only positive being these are the only peas getting to produce because it seems to be thwarting the $&@(389!: house sparrows when nothing else will
Those Tromboncino vines will swallow your house if you go off for a vacation for a few days. 1 vine would probably cover 4 cattle panels on its own if you let it. I’ll be curious if my Longue de Nice squash vines get as huge. I expect they will.
You might consider using the growing tips for cooked greens. They can be sauteed like spinach, etc. They are good and obviously you’ll have no shortage, but the texture is different than many greens - rougher I guess I’d call it. I prefer them cooked with stronger spices, like in Indian cooking vs. just cooking with olive oil, salt and pepper like I might with kale.
And actually, the greens from the cucuzza are even better for this. Anytime I grow bottle gourds (like cucuzza) I use the greens at least a few times before the actual gourds are coming in. My favorite for this was a recipe that was originally for Malabar spinach which has now turned into a dead link, but it was very similar to this, without the tempering step at the end.
The bottle gourd flowers are definitely different and attractive. You may know this, but they are pollinated by nocturnal insects, not really bees so you can often have pollination issues early in the season before the right insects find the vines. I usually hand pollinate to get at least a couple fruit growing and then just leave the rest to nature.
Thank you so much for all this information. I haven’t tried the tips, but certainly will since there is an endless supply. I had no idea about the nocturnal pollinators- moths? My Cucuzza only has male flowers still, but I will hand pollinate when I see female.
I’m going to rip out the slightly smaller tromboncino vine. Clearly unnecessary and will only cause me undo stress hacking at it.
are you sure there are only male flowers? I ask because i was surprised to see what I -think- are perfect flowers on my snake gourd. which i think is the same squash?
