The spaghetti-like flesh makes me think we could try lactoferment it like sauerkraut, with no need to cut it. I’ll try to do that after soaking the flesh in salty water. That as they are earlier, easier to grow and more reliable than ball-head cabbages for me.
As far as growing conditions I confirm they seem to like “mild weather”, as they were sunburnt in august (was the most sensitive cucurbit species with cucumbers in here), and post-september they regrew like crazy, are still growing and flowering. I’ll try to grow it the shade next years, or within a corn or sorghum patch.
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That looks like a very effective plant for changing grass into vegetable garden
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In every case where I see white seeds, they’ve come from immature squash. Including this lovely large one, when cut open, all white seeds.
They were really tasty anyway, more vegetable-y crunchy than you expect.
In my experience the stem eventually grows brown, skin gets hard and many of the seeds turn black a few months after harvest.
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I use it when converting lawn to vegetable garden. Easy, peasy, lazy 
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Sounds great but how do you do that? You mean post tilling or thing like that, as it shadows the ground?
Asking that because I don’t see how I could use a cucurbit like ficifolia, and only that, to achieve lawn to vegetable garden conversion
In winter I pile up a simple compost on the lawn. In early June I move the compost a little, planting the plant. Then during summer I throw any plantmaterial, like summerprunings from trees and bushes, in front of the growing plant. The grass really suffers, and next year I can grow runnerbeans or corn. For more weak plants, like garlic, I wait one season more. Hope it makes sense for you.
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I’ve been meaning to share this text and these images describing C. ficifolia fruit shapes that are not commonly reported.
Origin, Morphological Variation, and Uses of Cucurbita Ficifolia, the Mountain Squash
Thomas C. Andres, 2006, The Cucurbit Network
Morphological diversity is small for a domesticated plant, especially compared to the other domesticated Cucurbita species. The fruit shape is nearly round to somewhat elongate, like a watermelon. There are basically three fruit coloration patterns:
- All white,
- A distinct reticulated green/white pattern, and
- Dark green.
Ten white longitudinal stripes spreading from the floral end are usually present in the latter two (Figure 1). The three fruit colorations occur not only throughout its range but also generally in the same field.
In Costa Rica, large fields are sometimes planted with only all-white fruits. The seeds are most commonly black or dark brown, a color not found in any other species of Cucurbita. But tan seeds, more typical of Cucurbita, also occur throughout its range. The genetics of these differences have not been studied, nor has the plant undergone any modern breeding.
In my survey, other fruit characteristics were found. In Peru and Bolivia, uniform light green fruits were seen, in addition to all-white and all-dark green fruits. A unique fruit shape was found in northern Peru. A few populations had elongated fruits that were bottle-shaped or somewhat pyriform, with a length-to-diameter ratio of close to three (Figure 1). Cardenas (1989) reports seeing “victoria” squashes with “necks like a bottle” in Colombian markets. No other reports in the literature record the occurrence of this fruit shape in C. ficifolia. It is not known how widespread this morphology is in northwest South America and whether it represents a primitive character or derives from an ancestral population.
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