Long-Necked Summer Squash Moschata Project

Adaptation Projects
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I’m pretty enamored with immature long-necked moschatas as a replacement for c. Pepo. For the last five years I’ve grown zucchino rampicante and I find them superior to standard summer squash in the following ways:

  1. They are very resistant/borderline immune to squash vine borers
  2. They are much more tolerant of squash bug feeding.
  3. I still have disease issues with them, but they usually survive it, unlike pepos.
  4. The long necks are firm and seedless and are excellent for cooking after freezing or freeze drying, while seedier pepos usually disintegrate.
  5. They can be insanely productive.

I’ve seen a few different c. Moschata varieties out there that are marketed as being good for summer eating and I’m interested in landracing them. Would anyone else in the US be interested in doing this project together?

I envision we could purchase any promising seeds, divide them up, grow them out, collect the seeds from all participants, then redistribute them for year 2, much in the same way the European growers have done for some of their projects. There would be a nominal cost to be part of the project to help purchase and mail seeds. If there is enough interest to do a project, we can hash out the details.

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I love this topic and work on a similar project. Did you see Zuchetta landrace: Very long-necked unripe moschata (tromboncino-type)

EDIT: Correct link

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That link is circular and brings you back to this post, but I did see the post about the Europe project! It’s what inspired me to try to start something here. It’s a shame that sharing seeds between here and the EU is nearly impossible or I’d happily join up with what the rest of you are doing.

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I grew some lunga di napoli squash this year and it also made for fantastic summer squash and was fairly prolific. It has the same benefit of a long seed-free section but also gets much thicker on the neck while still being in the “summer squash” stage. They can also be picked at typical zucchini size and used as a direct replacement. They also have the advantage of turning into an absolutely gigantic winter squash if you leave them on the plant. The one disadvantage is probably that they are also huge plants. They spread far and wide, keeping up pace with the watermelons they were growing next to.

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