Goldini II zucchini

[meizzwang]

There was so much hype behind this zucchini that I had to try it for myself! I don't have much personal experience with it, but will keep this thread updated throughout the grow season.

Carl Deppe (the original breeder) created this strain and selected for quick germination and I can confirm, it's incredibly fast to sprout! What was a bit unexpected is that out of around 10 seeds, maybe 5 or 6 of them had these very yellow leaves, but only on the first adult leaf! At first, I thought it might be virus so I culled several, but after noticing that the yellowing didn't continue with the new growth, it made me think this is some sort of genetic mutation. That said, for those of you who have more experience with these sort of things, feel free to chime in, would love to hear what others know about this.

Here is the "worst offender' with a very yellow leaf. The plant is otherwise very normal looking. Keep in mind, there were close to a hundred other different types of squash grown under identical soil and conditions, none of which produced these yellow leaves, so that suggests it's not likely related to nutrients:



Another seedling with subtle yellowing. It only happened on this leaf so far, no new growth has it and the plants otherwise look very healthy:


The goldini II patch, very healthy and growing strong! There is some diversity in the leaves:


I think precocious is the best word to describe this variety, they're such small plants but already pushing out female flowers:


If you are growing Goldini II or have any other info about it that you'd like to share, feel free to post it here! Would love to see pictures of your plants as well if you have any!

[MissS]

I'm not familiar with this one so I'm glad that you are posting about it. Thank you.

[Acer Rubrum]

We grew it last year and were very happy with it. It's definitely one of the earliest. I vaguely remember a yellow leaf on one of them but it doesn't seem to have been a big deal. Probably my mom removed it.

We have a couple going again this year. I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow.

[Tormahto]

Are there any male flowers, yet?

I hope it delivers on flavor, for you. I've tried a few yellow zucchini, and they were underwhelming, compared to green zucchini (I like the strongest flavored zucchini). To me, it's like comparing wax beans to green beans.

Astia F1, is the earliest zucchini/summer squash that I've ever tried. Typically, it's just under 40 days. But one year, with just about perfect weather, it was 34 days to maturity, from the day of sowing.

[meizzwang]

Speaking of Astia F1, I sowed it a few days earlier than goldini II and goldini II already has female flowers whereas Astia still only has male flowers! Both squash have been grown under identical conditions so the assumption is that the relative earliness is genetics based. That said, Astia F1 is a really great variety with a compact plant that produces just like a regular sized plant, only drawback from my experience is that it produces more female flowers than male flowers, so if you don't have other squash varieties nearby, there can be stretches of no productivity. I ended up using pollen from my winter squash to get it to set fruit consistently and with this method it produced all season long.







Here's my astia f1:


close up of Astia F1 growth point, pic taken 6/6/24:


And Goldini II growth point pic taken 6/6/24 as well. There appears to be male flowers that are timed well, but we'll see what happens over the entire grow season to see if the plant consistently produces male flowers:

[Tormahto]

One tip that I learned, that at first didn't seem to make sense to me, is that if you have a plant with lots of male flowers and much fewer female flowers, clip out more than half of the male flowers. I originally thought the more male flowers, the better the pollination would be.

It was pointed out to me, that if the bees visit only the abundance of male flowers, and miss the few female flowers...

[meizzwang]

some updated pics of Goldini II, they're probably 4-5 days ahead of Astia F1 if I had to guess. I already harvested some female flowers 2 days ago, pictured is the second "batch." The main downside is that with the first female flowers to open, the first male flowers to open are maybe a week or so behind! Effectively, if you have no other squash varieties nearby producing male flowers, "real" production doesn't start until after about a week later from the first female flower opening. In this case, I harvest the female flowers right when they open and eat them on the spot, actually quite delicious, especially since this is the first fresh zucchini from the garden consumed in 2024!

[meizzwang]

some updated photos of goldini II! This variety is absolutely overly productive, maybe 2 plants is enough for a family of 4. About every 2 days there's a harvest like this from 5 plants. I guess most of these are the right size to pick? They're supposed to be bigger than regular zucchini at peak maturity. Notice the green stemmed off type:


This is why: Carol Deppe selected for a ridiculous number of female flowers:





Plants are pretty gigantic too! Hard to tell, but this leaf is close to a meter (3 feet) in width:

[Cranraspberry]

Thank you for sharing, very interesting! How’s the flavor? I’m reading that they reach peak flavor at a larger size - have you found that to be the case?

[AKgardener]

Love it!!

[meizzwang]

Thank you for sharing, very interesting! How’s the flavor? I’m reading that they reach peak flavor at a larger size - have you found that to be the case?

You're welcome!

Regarding flavor, I'm not too sure yet, will keep you updated as I learn more about this squash! So far, if you pick them "regular sized," it seems like the fruit hasn't filled in much at that stage and is less meaty compared to a slightly bigger one which is completely full. In comparison, if you let a regular zucchini get to the same size, it's less dense and maybe more seedy?

[Cranraspberry]

Keep us posted! I’m very curious. So far our favorite for taste and texture has been Rugosa Friulana, but it takes a bit to get going and this year BW got it really early so we were only able to harvest one fruit before the plant came out.

[meizzwang]

Okay, eaten a LOT of goldini II. If you keep up with harvesting, even as the plants get older, they're still PUMPING out too much squash for a family of 4!

What I can say is that as a summer squash (eg. harvested young and tender), I can't tell the difference in terms of taste compared to the regular green zucchini type. However, rumor has it that if you let the fruit grow all the way out to maturity, the winter squash version of the fruit is reportedly better than a regular zucchini grown out all the way. We'll see, and I'll let the mature fruit cure before cooking with it. What I can say is that the fruit, a day or two after pollination, are at least twice the size of regular zucchini a day or two after pollination.

Out of my 4 or so plants, one has a giant leaf phenotype, the plant is just overly exaggerated gigantic, and the fruit from it is slightly bigger than the other plants. Here's an overview pic of the patch with the giant plant in the foreground:


Ok, many of you know Zucchini get pretty darn big if you let them go and reach maturity. Goldini II is different: they get JURASSIC PARK GIGANTIC!!! This fruit below is only approximately 2 weeks after pollination, and my hands are average sized! Never seen a squash size up that quickly, and it still will probably get much bigger if I let it stay on the vine. I'm going to harvest this one in a few days and stuff it, flesh and skin is still somewhat tender. I'll let a big one go all the way to maturity later:


2-3 days after pollination, the fruit are pretty big but still very tender. Despite this plant having a pretty long stem now that it's getting old, it's still pushing out the same excessive amount of fruit:

[Tormahto]

Will seed be available to trade?

[meizzwang]

Will seed be available to trade?

Definitely. I will hand pollinate them with each other and take the steps needed to make sure no foreign pollen gets in there! I expect to have tons of seeds ready probably around early November of this year. Also made an enormous amount of strict, select crosses with most of my winter squash, once the fruit are evaluated I'll decide which ones are worthy of keeping/distributing.

[meizzwang]

Benny holding onto a goldini II! Not full sized, and the skin is still not all the way tough: