Summer Squash Recommendations/ Scallop vs Zucchini

[TheSeedObsesser]

I'm looking into trying some new varieties of summer squash (maybe not this year but next). Any suggestions for good varieties?

I've grown zucchini plenty of times and am considering trying one of the more unusual zucchinis like cocozella. What I'm particularly interested in trying, although a little bit skeptical about, is scallop squash (or pattypan squash). I've read that they stay on the small side, but that could be because of how small they are harvested commercially. I've found zucchini over a foot long and still found them to be good, the zucchini that you see at the store are tiny. I've read that some varieties of scallop squash can be used as a winter squash or ornamental gourd (or both) if you let them reach full maturity. Some scallop squash varieties are also particularly good looking. I might have tried a scallop squash once, and that was a long time ago. So which squash do you prefer, scallops or zucchini? Have you tried using scallops as a winter squash (how large do the mature squashes get)?

 

[baymule]

Scallop squash are delicious. I pick them small, cut them up and sauté in butter with chopped onion. Never tried to keep any through winter. I have let them get big, cut out the top stem and scooped them out. I chopped up the squash, sauted with onion and bell pepper. Them I mixed in crumbles saltine crackers, salt, pepper, grated cheese and stuffed it back in the squash shells and baked. YUMMY!

 

[journey11]

Pic 'n' Pic hybrid yellow summer squash has done very well for me. It has some natural resistance to powdery mildew, so with my humid climate, it holds up and bears heavily through the summer.

Eight Ball zucchini are really neat, and tasty. We also like the white Patty Pan squash. Mildly sweet and good for grilling or stuffing.

 

[canesisters]

I grew teh scalop squash last year - LOVED THEM! I let them get a little bigger than my fist and stuffed them. YUM-O!
Be warned, the plants get huge. This year I'm planting them around in the front yard under the crepe myrtles.

 

[catjac1975]

I really enjoyed the tromboncino squash that I tried last year. They are prolific and easy to grow. They love a fence and did not have any pest damage. They taste differently at all stages of growth. I also grew an italian summer squash That was good.

 

[digitS']

When I first set up a hoop house over two of the garden beds in my backyard, I went a little nutz. This was about 15 years ago, SeedO, you had probably just graduated with your bachelor of science in horticulture.

Anyway, I decided that the pvc hoops may as well stay right there and I could plant vines that would benefit from the warmth in June and grow on the hoops after the plastic film came off. I tried Malabar spinach, it's okay, and bittermelon, luffa, and calabash gourds.

What was I thinking? I grow summer squash each year but I have never really liked to eat it. Be that as it may, SeedO, you might like luffa or another of the edible gourds - taste like zucchini to me. (I should have tried Lima beans . . .)

Steve

 

[Kassaundra]

I really like scallopini squash, mild and tasty. I have never tried turning it into a winter squash though

 

[Carol Dee]

I have not tried them but another member Sweet Miss Daisy grows lots of patty pan squash.

 

[bills]

If you let them grow, patty pan can get very large. And it doesn't take long either..not unlike zuch's.
I had to check their progress every day, to insure I would pick them at the stage where you could eat them whole. If left to grow their seeds get to large, and need to be removed.

I prefer lightly frying them, sliced in wedges, in a little butter, with a light sprinkle of S&P, garlic powder, and a little Parmesan cheese. They only take a few minutes, as they are better with a little firmness left to them.

I still love my zuch's too, so I grow both..

 

[Sam BigDeer]

I used to grow some of them every year, loved them!... Then the seed companies started offering green and yellow scallop squash and soon after dropped the white altogether.. I never tried the 'off-colored' ones; didn't like the looks of them, which was probably another of my ill-conceived decisions..
Seeds for the white ones are readily available now-a-days..
I appreciate the recipe suggestions some have posted in response to SeedObsessor's original post, they sound delicious..
Sam