Everything is still wet from our storms that just ended last night and I'm being a bit chatty here rather than hit any outside chores. Besides. I'm planning to start my squash seeds in the next week for planting out May and I'm digging out my notes and packets, making choices. For Summer Squash, the favorites that I'm planning and have all grown a few seasons are:

• Zephyr F1, Cucurbita pepo, bush style – Productive for me, handles my climate and the yellow means it won't get lost in the leaves and is easy to harvest. Mild with a very thin skin. Also, pretty and that counts a tad when sharing the harvest.


• Sunburst Scallop hybrid Cucurbita pepo, bush style, AAS winner – another yellow . This one is good small and raw in salads or just quartered with salad dressing, crunchy and a tad nutty. Larger cooked in every way you can make summer squash is fine. The larger ones in this shot were slotted for zucchini bread.


• Cocozelle heirloom, bush style – I don't like the all green / dark green as they can get lost in the growth and with as hot as the sun is here, the fruit would burn if I trim the leaves and grow it up as some folks do. The stripes are a nice effect and makes them a bit easier to spot. This shape fits in the shoot for the food processor to shred or slice without any cutting first, a boon when zuke season is upon us. I also enjoy its mild flavor.


• Tromboncino heirloom (moschata, some like for resistance to SVB), vining large plant. This is fun and productive (perhaps too productive). The very small ones should only be harvested right before cooking as they'll get wrinkly and look old within a day. I let these all grow bigger – even large they have a good flavor and remain moist – not chewy or tough. I prefer this one for that mock apple pie filling. Great for breakfast with a bit of yogurt. It's also great if you like to share your summer harvest and have friends and neighbors who enjoy something a bit different.




I don't separate zucchini recipes from other summer squash recipes. They're all the same for me.

For those of you growing Summer Squash, what are your favorites and why?

.ps some of these are older shots I discovered when browsing my pics.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE yellow summer squash but can't grow them for anything out here due to the SVBs being out of control on them. But I can grow zucchini and if I can get my garden tilled like I want I will be growing them and hopefully shredding some to freeze for winter use and what we don't eat I can easily give away at work or to friends.

@pepper23 - Have you tried the Tromboncino? Because it's a moschata I've heard it's more resistant to SVB, but I don't have them so I'm not an expert. It is a big vining plant so it would be hard to cover if that were necessary. It's sold by all different names - I'd done a Zoom for our Master Gardeners on Seed and Law and this is one of the slides. I've seen more names but only so much fit on one slide and was still readable. It seems that everyone who offers it want to call it something different.

Great that you've got a Zucchini that you can manage to get fruits from. My biggest challenges are critters, available water and heat when we get those and horrid weather years.

I haven't grown them but have thought about it. I don't really have a good spot for them though. I've seen them grown at a nearby botanical garden and they are cool looking.

Zucchini is pretty easy for everyone around here. Always end up with way more than you can eat, save or give away. I plan on a couple plants hopefully this year.

I grow "Golden Zucchini," an OP variety, every year; I wish more of the seed companies carried this one, I've had better luck with it than with any of several hybrid yellow zucchini that I've tried (I prefer the yellow types largely because they're so much easier to find while still small!)

I've grown tromboncino in the past and also used it for "mock apple pie filling" - the round slices that you get from the neck are perfect for imitation apple slices!

@Weedwhacker - that is a great color yellow. I keep meaning to do a cattle panel arch but haven't yet - love yours. Who knows, maybe this year I'll get to it.

I'm trying Tromboncino for the first time. I do plan on letting some of them go all the way to winter squash too so it's both.

I've got three seeds left from a pool ball hybrid mix - yellow, light green, and dark green round varieties. Last year I planted three and got one of each. This year I'm going for one plant since I will have the Tromboncino. I'm hoping it's not the harder to see dark green.

Good luck with your pool ball - fun one but I can imagine those small dark green ones would be difficult to see @PattyPan . I think you'll like the Tromboncino - it's a fun one.

I plant zucchini and vegetable marrow every year - not with the same results from year to year. Besides them, I have grown lots of pattypan - nice pickled when very young, a pain to peel when grown - yellow crookneck, and spaghetti squash. Don't care for the latter. Really, the only one I like to eat is vegetable marrow - the white, tender kind - with sour creme and dill. They're impossible to buy in stores or even farmers markets.

I've never tried the Marrow although I see Pinetree has a light "green" that looks close in color to the white at TrueLeaf. Also not a fan of the yellow crookneck or spaghetti squash. Never had to peel the Sunburst scallop although I recall part of the reason for not caring for the white/light green was that their skin is tougher. When I'm in the mood to play with my food, I use a Spiralizer (just an inexpensive plastic one from Amazon) and prefer those noodles to the spaghetti squash. It has 3 shapes of noodles it can do.


Not just for tomato sauces, Teriyaki zucchini noodles is one of the ways to get different flavors from all that summer squash. https://www.eatwell101.com/ter...

I agree about the spaghetti squash - to me it's just stringy squash!
I do like the idea of the teriyaki zucchini noodles, though!

I can't do spaghetti squash either. Just isn't right in place of the noodles. Nowhere near as good. I tried a couple times but just couldn't do it. Zucchini I might be able to do since the flavor is different but not spaghetti squash.

Zucchini, cut into long strings on a mandolin, is actually not too bad with spaghetti sauce and cheese. Have to be careful not to overcook it. It's handy for when the OG has to be extra careful of carbohydrates. Another way I like zucchini is shredded, mixed in pancake batter and fried.

But vegetable marrow is special from my childhood. Grated, cooked in milk with a light roux and dill, add a splash of vinegar and a dollop of sour cream; serve with crisp, fresh fried potato rings.

Maggie, your comments are great! I wish more of our plantfiles entries had this kind of personal reviews.
I usually do a crookneck/straightneck yellow. I cook that with onions in a skillet.
I have less success with zucchini because the SVB seems to prefer zucchini here. (They do love those yellow squash as well) Zucchini I use differently/ not the skillet with onions recipe.
I've never grown patty pan. Just such a weird shape to me, I don't know how to slice or cut it.
And still don't know what marrow is. I mean, isn't it just a mature zucchini? Maybe not all zucchini make a good marrow.

I just read this- good to consider if one saves seed and grow a variety of C pepes--
"Members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae, which includes zucchini, marrows, pumpkins and cucumbers, can contain toxins called cucurbitacins. These are chemically classified as steroids; they defend the plants from predators, and have a bitter taste to humans. Cultivated cucurbitaceae are bred for low levels of the toxin and are safe to eat. However, ornamental pumpkins can have high levels of cucurbitacins, and such ornamental plants can cross-fertilise edible cucurbitaceae – any such cross-fertilised seeds used by the gardener for growing food in the following season can therefore potentially produce bitter and toxic fruit. Also, dry weather conditions or irregular watering can stress the plant and favour the production of the toxin, which is not destroyed by cooking.[17][18]"(wikipedia)

Thanks @sallyg. I didn't know that about the toxin. But I do know that squash needs distances of 800 feet to ½ mile between varieties to not cross. I never trade for squash seeds. There's always someone who doesn't understand plants crossing and thinks they can plant or share seeds from a Farmers' Market plant and still get the same fruit. The folks who do Farmers' Markets here grow a few varieties without distance - they have small farms.

Oh, Googled cucurbitacins as I do love my squash. Wasn't sure there was some level that would be too much. It looks like mostly some folks get indigestion if they overindulge. But most of the articles that come up are geared towards its being studied for its anti-cancer properties. Not a doctor here, just happy I'm not going to be too worried about indulging in cucurbitacins.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

Whine, I would LOVE to try the tromboncino...never been able to get it started here... maybe by next Spring the garden will have been adjusted to give me a chance to do so. I just got 2 16' utility panels and boy! are there plans to get in shape this year.

Wikipedia had more, I just wouldn't go eating weird bitter C pepo if you can avoid it.

It sounds like the squash/pumpkins that are toxic would be easily identified by the bitter taste?

Sandy