Vining Summer Squashes

[imp]

Though I am most fond of many of the bush types, the only vining summer squash I have found so far is Lemon, and would like to find more of them. It's easier to fight the darned squash bugs if the squash vines are trellised, plus it saves space, too.

Anyone knowing of any varieties that vine or sources, please do post.

[Shule]

Yes. A few include Tatume, Zucchino Rampicante, and I believe Zucchetta Trombocino. Some of the scallop squashes might be vining types.

Although they're not squash, I also recommend Kikinda Competition Strain edible gourds.

[Shule]

There's also Cucurbita ficifolia, although I prefer it as a winter squash. It tastes great as a summer squash, but the juice or something sticks to your teeth.

[imp]

Thanks, shule, but the one you mention is primarily grown for it's seeds I think. I'm trying to locate a summer squash type; seem to recall both yellow crooknecks and zucchini's having running vines in the 1960's.

[Shule]

C. ficifolia does have great seeds, but they still have hulls. They're just black. The fruits have a lot of uses. As a winter squash they keep a super long time. They can be used as a replacement for shark fins in shark fin soup. The flesh of mature fruits is like rice noodles. People do use it as a summer squash, though (when young it's much like zucchini, but much more tasty in a tropical sort of way with a nice texture; the sticky stuff is the only issue there, but if you cook it, I imagine that goes away).

Zucchino Rampicante is a zucchini (granted, it's a C. moschata zucchini, the color of a Butternut squash; not as early as C. pepo zucchini).

That would be great to find vining C. pepo zucchini. I've had an F1 cross with Dark Star zucchini that was semi-vining, but they weren't as desirable as the parent (not as productive, but they tasted pretty great and sweet; they were shorter and fatter, though, and people thought they were cute). I'm not sure what the father plant was.

[BettyC-5]

I grew these once, would do better in longer growing season.
Tromboncino- Mo, 70 days, The light green-to-tan fruit can grow up to 3 feet long and may be harvested anytime, from just a few inches through its full size. Enjoy Tromboncino's rich flavor steamed, grilled, or sliced raw in your favorite salad. A vining variety that is best trellised for straighter fruit.

[Nan6b]

~ It seems to me that, until about 10 years ago, all zucchini were vining, and the bush ones are only lately around. In 2016, I grew a vining zucc.

[Shule]

~ It seems to me that, until about 10 years ago, all zucchini were vining, and the bush ones are only lately around. In 2016, I grew a vining zucc.

We grew zucchini when I was a kid, and all the ones I can remember were bush types. We probably grew Black Beauty and striped kinds. Black Beauty was a 1957 AAS winner. It's quite possible that they sold the vining types longer in your area than mine, though! I'd love to see a vining standard green zucchini. Huge zucchini remind me of Komodo dragons. I can just imagine them lying all over the garden on a vine.

[Shule]

Ooh! If you're not partial to them actually being squash, you should try the Metki Dark Green Serpent melon. It's an Armenian cucumber, but they look a lot like zucchini, and grow fast, early, and prolific like them, too. They have a vining habit. Well, I started mine early and transplanted them out (I'm not sure if they'd be early direct-seeded).

[Nan6b]

A quick search shows Sandhillpreservation.com has the following vining squashes.

Mandan- 47 days- Small, round, flattened Native American type. Small vines are heavy producers of these cream colored with green or yellow striped fruits. Average quality, but great insect tolerance. Very variable in fruit type.This one came to us with multiple variants and we are still selecting for the proper color pattern to occur in all fruits. Pkt. $2.00 Certified Organic Seed
Table Dainty- 65 days- Vining, blocky green/yellow striped. About 6 inches long. Very productive. Developed in 1909. Pkt. $2.50 Certified Organic Seed
Tatume- 65 days - Vining, heat tolerant and high insect tolerant. Round, pumpkin shaped summer squash. Fruits are a pale grey green. Pkt. $2.00
Trailing Green Marrow- 70 days- Late for a summer squash, but excellent for a season finisher and continues for the remainder of the season. Very vigorous vines produce numerous fruits that are striped and remain edible when they become quite large. Pkt. $2.00 Certified Organic Seed

[pepperhead212]

@imp I found something a few years ago that I use in place of summer squash - bottle gourds. I simply can't grow non-moschata squash here, due to SVBs - I'm lucky to get one or two squash, before the plants are gone. I tried some of the vining varieties, as well as chayote, but gave up on it, and I didn't like that Italian vining zucchini - a moschata species, but the fruits got sappy.

The bottle gourds are a different genus ( Lageneria siceraria) and are not susceptible to SVB. The fruits are sort of like a summer squash - not a whole lot of flavor, and full of water (1 lb reduces to 1 oz, dehydrated), but they don't get mushy, even after 15 minutes cooking! And not seedy, until quite large. The plants are very productive, and very viney! It seems like at the base of every leaf, there's a sucker! One drawback: it flowers at night. Early in the season t
(They start flowering in 45-50 days) I had to hand pollinate them, but later on, night-time insects came around. And when I grew only the long variety, a bunch of female flowers came out, and there were no males to pollinate them! Opposite of winter squash I grow. When both were grown, I guess it was the small one that had male flowers early, I just didn't notice.

Here's a photo of some long gourds and a short one (Dhol):
DSCF0794 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's a photo of a 14" long gourd sliced in half, showing how the seeds are barely beginning to form. Summer squash get seeds faster at 6"!
DSCF0774 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's a long one, on a vine. Those are tomatoes behind, because the vine went about 12' down the trellis, to where they were!
DSCF0771 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I have used these in place of zucchini in many recipes, as well as in traditional Indian recipes. And they were firm enough to spiralize, and made great veggie noodles!
DSCF0801 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's something I almost forgot about - all those tendrils! Not something often seen in cookbooks, but they are often added to Asian stir-fries and soups, along with those suckers. And these plants have a lot of them!
DSCF0749 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Tormahto]

Tenting aluminum foil over the base of squash plants has worked extremely well, for me, in warding off SVBs.

[GoDawgs]

The spaghetti squash is a pepo and the one that works well for me is 'Small Wonder'. One is just enough for two people. I like the strands with garlic butter and parm. Spaghetti sauce is also an option. Last year (bite my tongue) there was very little SVB action until mid summer. In general, they aren't bothered too much and I wonder why.

Unripe squash on vines:



Later in the season with squash about ready:



This is pretty representative of the size:



I don't know what I was thinking last spring when I planted two of them. We got about 28 of those things and were giving them away! One will be a gracious plenty this year.

[Gthegardener]

As far as vining squashes I've had good luck with 1. honeynut squash (it's like a personal sized butternut squash but tastier) 2. Honey boat delicata (gold and cream striped delicata - also a personal sized squash). I do keep all my squash vines covered with floating row cover until after the 4th of july to save them from vine bores.

[Shule]

…
The bottle gourds are a different genus ( Lageneria siceraria) and are not susceptible to SVB. The fruits are sort of like a summer squash - not a whole lot of flavor, and full of water (1 lb reduces to 1 oz, dehydrated), but they don't get mushy, even after 15 minutes cooking! …

I can vouch for that. You can cook them pretty much as long or as hot as you want, and they still have good texture. My experience is mostly with baking, but I've fried them, too.

[imp]

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

I'm wanting to make an order from Glenn and his lovely wife ( SandHill) so will remember the green marrow, thanks Nan. The information on the gourds sounds interesting as sometimes summer squashes just dissolve in soups and stews, plus the tip about the tips and what looked like the early leaves looked yummy! I like a plant I can get more than 1 sort of use from, more bang for the buck! Any variety suggestions, pepperhead? I know very little about gourds, especially the edible ones.

GoDaws, thank you for those pictures, I had been curious about that one and held off buying that seed afraid they would gget too big. Those look like a suitable size for a 1 to 2 person one! And I do like productive winter squash. So lovely to have in winter when there is not any active garden.

[zendog]

Just to give you even more choices, I'll suggest you check out Korean Summer Squash which are vining. I've been growing Tatume and like them a lot but someone on another forum suggested I give these a try as well. They sell seed for them at Kitizama:
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_summer_squash.html

They are also in the Moschata family, so they should handle the squash borers well, and while they vine they aren't as big/long as some like the tromboncino. I just can't decide between Meot Jaeng I Ae (called the sweetest) that looks more like traditional zukes and the Early Bulam one that gets great reviews and is one of the ones they sometimes call avocado squash. I like avocado and I like squash... so maybe I'll try both!

By the way, I just had some bottle gourd in a stir fry I made last night and it was pretty good as well. How many acres is your garden, lol?

[MrBig46]

@imp I found something a few years ago that I use in place of summer squash - bottle gourds. I simply can't grow non-moschata squash here, due to SVBs - I'm lucky to get one or two squash, before the plants are gone. I tried some of the vining varieties, as well as chayote, but gave up on it, and I didn't like that Italian vining zucchini - a moschata species, but the fruits got sappy.

The bottle gourds are a different genus ( Lageneria siceraria) and are not susceptible to SVB. The fruits are sort of like a summer squash - not a whole lot of flavor, and full of water (1 lb reduces to 1 oz, dehydrated), but they don't get mushy, even after 15 minutes cooking! And not seedy, until quite large. The plants are very productive, and very viney! It seems like at the base of every leaf, there's a sucker! One drawback: it flowers at night. Early in the season t
(They start flowering in 45-50 days) I had to hand pollinate them, but later on, night-time insects came around. And when I grew only the long variety, a bunch of female flowers came out, and there were no males to pollinate them! Opposite of winter squash I grow. When both were grown, I guess it was the small one that had male flowers early, I just didn't notice.

Here's a photo of some long gourds and a short one (Dhol):
DSCF0794 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's a photo of a 14" long gourd sliced in half, showing how the seeds are barely beginning to form. Summer squash get seeds faster at 6"!
DSCF0774 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's a long one, on a vine. Those are tomatoes behind, because the vine went about 12' down the trellis, to where they were!
DSCF0771 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I have used these in place of zucchini in many recipes, as well as in traditional Indian recipes. And they were firm enough to spiralize, and made great veggie noodles!
DSCF0801 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's something I almost forgot about - all those tendrils! Not something often seen in cookbooks, but they are often added to Asian stir-fries and soups, along with those suckers. And these plants have a lot of them!
DSCF0749 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

What a taste Lagenaria iceraria has? Does it taste like zucchini? Isn't it too sweet?
Vlado

[imp]

How many acres? I am urban, right smack dab in the city. A small front and back yard and the devil's strip between the sidewalk and the road/curb. BUT, I have a way to trellis even long vines as I have a 2 story house and a large front porch, plus the house sits up about 3 plus feet off the ground.

[zendog]

Sounds like just enough space to try one of everything in this thread!