Overachieving zucchini: 10 Neat Things
Zucchini may be one of the most familiar sights in a summer garden, but behind that humble green skin lies a world of surprises. From Italian gourmet blossoms to edible leaves, sprint-speed growth to Canadian giants that could double as yardsticks, there’s a lot more to this plant than side-dish potential. Here are 10 Neat Things about zucchini that are practical and downright fascinating.
1. The plant that just won’t quit.
One zucchini plant can pump out so much produce you’ll be “generously gifting” them to neighbours… and maybe their neighbours, too. A typical healthy plant will produce 5 to 10 pounds. In prime conditions, you can get over 20 fruits per plant.
2. What is it really?
Zucchini pretends to be a vegetable, but botanically, it’s a fruit. And although its forebears are from the Americas, zucchini itself is the product of Italian breeding in the early 1900s. So, it’s a New World plant perfected in the Old World.
3. The perfect size
Those giant zucchinis you see on the garden bench? Great for novelty photos, less great for eating. Smaller, 6-to-8-inch fruit is sweeter and more tender. If you miss harvesting one, don’t fret, though. You can grate the really big ones for cooking.
4. Flowers fit for a feast
The plant’s sunny yellow blossoms an Italian gourmet delight; stuffed with cheese, battered and fried, they taste like summer itself.Zucchini blossoms are best picked in the early morning, when they’re wide open and at their perkiest. Take mostly male flowers (the ones without a tiny zucchini behind the blossom) so you don’t cut into your harvest. Leave at least two-thirds for the bees, give each a gentle shake to evict any visitors, and enjoy them stuffed, fried, or baked the same day.
5. It’s not snow, it’s a fungus.
By late summer, zucchini leaves often get dusted with what looks like flour. This is powdery mildew, a fungus that thrives in warm days and cool, humid nights. It won’t usually kill your plants, but it can slow them down. Good air circulation, watering at the base, and removing affected leaves early can keep it in check. By and large, don’t worry about it too much. Your harvest will taste the same.
6. Bees matter.
With separate male and female flowers, zucchini needs pollinators. If a female isn’t fully pollinated, the tiny fruit at the back of the female flower will start to grow a bit, then stall. Within a few days it will turn yellow, shrivel, and rot at the end. This is sometimes mistaken for blossom end rot, but it’s actually incomplete pollination. (Though zucchini can also suffer from blossom end rot.)
7. Canadian summer sprinter.
Plant after the last frost and zucchini can race from seed to harvest in just 50 days. A pollinated flower can develop an 8-inch fruit in 4 to 8 days, depending on how hot it is. If you take a long weekend away, you could come back to some very very big zucchinis!
8. In many cuisines, the leaves are dinner.
Around the world, cooks harvest young zucchini leaves and vine tips for the table. Italians simmer tender talli in soups, Filipinos add talbos ng kalabasa to coconut milk stews, and Caribbean cooks season them like callaloo. The key is picking them before the spines harden.
9. They can cross with pumpkins but not cucumbers.
Zucchini will only crosspollinate with other members of Cucurbita pepo, which includes some pumpkins and summer squashes. If you save seeds from mixed plantings, you might get some wild, warty hybrids next year.
10. An Ontario giant.
The current Guinness record for the longest zucchini belongs to Giovanni Batista Scozzafava, who grew an 8 ft 3.3 in courgette in Niagara Falls on 28 August 2014. But Ontario’s gardening scene didn’t stop there; Henry D’Angela of Thorold nurtured a slightly longer – but very skinny – one at 8 ft 4.79 inches in 2023 and is awaiting Guinness approval.
If you have an eagle eye or a long memory, you may recall another TNT about zucchini from 2021. Have a look! Drop us a line telling us which you prefer.
