My winter squash did well this year, but Black Beauty Zucchini was disappointing.
It's seed catalog time and I want to try another variety next year. I'm open to zukes of any color, shape or size as long as they taste good, but my wife prefers those you can pick young to minimize the number of seeds.
I'm looking at Ambassador, Aristocrat, Golden, Gold Rush, EightBall right now...any other suggestions?

It really depends on what you like and how many you want. (taste and production). I like the round types, prefer Cue Ball (light green) but SunDay is good and the most prolific round yellow I have grown. Black Ball slightly more productive than Eight Ball. Lucky 8 is an excellent striped round zuke. For the long types I have good results with the middle eastern types ( great flavor and good production) Profit, Alexandria, Barq, Magda, Clarimore, Basima, etc. I am not partial to the dark gree types, but the best producer that I tried is Senator. I am like the grey zukes, the old Grey zucchini being very good. Greybeard is prettier but the Grey is one Op that is competitive

Thanks Dillard ! As always, you are a fount of information! Some of those look so interesting that I may have to squeeze in room for more than one zuke next year.

We all appreciate the great help with vegetables that Dillard shares!
Thanks!

CarolineScott said:We all appreciate the great help with vegetables that Dillard shares!
Thanks!

CarolineScott said:We all appreciate the great help with vegetables that Dillard shares!
Thanks!

:

Rita, You have grown some zukes that I have not tried yet. You might want to chip in on their taste and productivity. I only get to trial about two a year as I concentrate on crooknecks and scallops. Some do well others fail in one category or the other. Adora for example, beautiful and tastes ok, but poor production.
Prolific was even less productive than Black Beauty for me. One of my favorites is Grey Griller, sort of a combination of a round and cylindrical zuke. I love the appearance of the striped zuke but have not had good production from the few varieties that I have tried.

I just order seeds of two yellow summer squashes ( Early Summer Crookneck and Summerpac Hybrid). But as far as zucchini, I went for one I have had before called Poquito. It looks like a mini watermelon. And then I got Bossa Nova which is a Caserta type. Love Casertas!!

As far as production, I really don't know. I plant a lot of plants and I am always picking squash so I always have squashes. I don't pay that much attention to which is more productive or not as I always have squashes to pick. Plenty for me to gicve away and eat.

So Seeds of Change has free shipping today and tomorrow (code SHIP4FREE) so I ordered a zucchini.

Never had this one before and I hope it's a good one! I got HURAKAN .

Should be. It is a Grey zucchini type released in 2004. I prefer the type as they are less watery than the the dark green types. Hard to find seeds. Keep us posted.

farmerdill said:Should be. It is a Grey zucchini type released in 2004. I prefer the type as they are less watery than the the dark green types. Hard to find seeds. Keep us posted.

Great!! I am looking forward to trying it. I like to have my favorites back each year but I also like to try something new.

I was looking for a zucchini thread and I found one! I have a problem. I've tossed out sooo many zucchini bc they keep getting blossom end rot. I've added calcium to the soil and it's still happening. Now my cucumbers are getting it. I've never had this problem before. Any suggestions?

I think it is a result of incomplete fertilization. Do you have lots of bees around?

Yes I do see bees out there often. I'm starting to see a lot of ladybugs too.

Bees usually do a very good job of pollinating but you always can take a Q Top and pollinate the squashes yourself.

I'll try it

Jackiecg said:I'll try it

Excellent. It really is easy. Simply get the pollen from the male flowers and swish the pollen around the female flowers.

Easy to tell apart. No baby fruit on the stem of the male flowers and the stem of the female flower has a tiny ready to grow fruit.

I tend to have a problem with the BER on zucchini, too; it seems to be the earlier fruits more than the later ones, so lack of pollination could explain that. It also seems to be somewhat related to variety, as far as I've been able to tell. Really annoying to reach for a zucchini to pick and grab a rotten end...

I never thought that could be the problem. Thank you. You're probably right.

Weedwhacker said:I tend to have a problem with the BER on zucchini, too; it seems to be the earlier fruits more than the later ones, so lack of pollination could explain that. It also seems to be somewhat related to variety, as far as I've been able to tell. Really annoying to reach for a zucchini to pick and grab a rotten end...

It is annoying! You think there is going to be a good fruit ready to pick and the end turns out to be rotten. Yuck!!