30 CUCUZZI seeds; Serpente di Sicilia; Serpent of Sicily summer squash; cucuzza

30 CUCUZZI seeds Note the three pics circulated around the web came from my garden!!! Zucchetta Serpente di Sicilia; Serpent of Sicily Squash seeds; a.k.a. Cucuzza Zucchetta, Cucuzzi, Cucuzze, Gagootza, long opo squash, italian squash, long melon, peh poh, yugao …etc. • Cucurbita Lagenaria Vulgaris; just 70-75 days to maturity • Giant fruit, can grow to 3 to 4 feet long • Taste best when young about 12-18″ long, and use it as summer squash • Vigorous grower with long vines easily run 25-ft, so give it at least 100 sq-ft area per vine o roam • Could let the vine climb trellis, terrace, arbor, arch, chain-link fence…etc. Fruits will be straighter or curl less. • Pinch the growing tips off the vines and saute theses “Sicilian greens” in olive oil; or make soup; very tasty! • Lots of recipes online fr cooking this Cucuzzi Italian squash. Staple food in Southern Italy. • Edible novelty; a conversation starter with passersby, neighbors, gardening enthusiasts…etc Some tips for growing & harvesting cucuzzi’s: – Cucuzzi seeds have hard shells which can be difficult to germinate. Please google or watch youtube to get some tips. Some folks use sandpaper to thin the shells so the water can enter inside the seeds more easily. Other common techniques may involve soaking seeds overnight; use heating pad and grow light…etc. – Plant outdoors in spring only after soil is thoroughly and consistently warm with soil temperature 70° to 95˚ 85° for optimum germination. – do not transplant too early. Here in Chicago zone 5B, transplant over Memorial Day weekend is much safer than Mother’s Day weekend, as seedlings could be stunned or shocked when overnight low temp dip below 45F. Harvest could be as early as late July and last until autumn frost. – do not plant on the same spot every year; try rotate around your garden, as cucuzzi’s really depleting the nutrients on once fertile soil. So if you must plant on the same spot the following year, do replenish the soil with lots of organic compost matters. – the squash can be harvested anytime within three weeks of flowering. So long the skin is light green, soft and “hairy”, the flesh still tender inside, even the seeds are edible. Once the skin is turning whitish and hardened, it can only be used like a winter squash, and seeds are no longer edible, except saving them for next spring. – as the vine can literally grow 4-8″ per day by mid summer, we first pinch off the tip when the vine is about 5 to 8-ft long, to promote bushy growth. Once female fruits are found on a vine segment, pinch off the end of the “branch”, so nutrients will be concentrated on feeding the fruits rather than growing the “branch”. However, if you have a shade tree near the garden edge that is not very dense-leaved (such as crab apple, locust or redbud), let cucuzzi vine climb up the tree and watch the baseball bat sized fruits hanging off the tree. Of course, if the vine travels 20+’ from the root, the fruit size will be smaller, as it is a long way to send the nutrients to the far end.