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sndk

highest producing strains?

sndk
10 years ago

this year i bought some hybrid zuke seeds and while the plants were maturing continued reading about high production as i wanted to get a ton of fruit.

the year has been ok, i planted 15 plants but production still wasnt where i wanted it to be when i came across a comment that you could just grow any vining winter squash variety and harvest the immature fruit to be used like zucchini.

after lots of reading i made an order for some sweet meat, long pie, cheese, blue guatemalan, waltham butternut, and blue hubbard.

i plan to do a growout next year to find the variety that does best, but was wondering if i missed one that might be better known as a huge producer.

i do like winter squash too so then i started looking to see which ones i could leave fruit on to mature and have something with good eating qualities when ripe.

i am looking for a strain that produces the most poundage per acre in zone 4, the long pie had a comment that it was like a huge zucchini until it turned into a pumpkin with really great storage and flavor qualities so based on reading im the most excited about that, but am i missing anything?

i plan to do a growout, and based on that only do 1 variety after, so highest yield per acre potential and ability to eat young fruit as summer squash while the rest are left alone to produce winter squash. does such an animal exist?

oh i am happier if it produces many smaller fruit vs a few enormous ones.
thank you!

Comments (4)

  • farmerdill
    10 years ago

    There are few squash that will out yield zucchini per acre. They run between 15,000 - 28000 lbs/acre in commercial plantings. Winter squash can under certain conditions give a higher poundage per acre, but that is for mature fruits. Zukes are harvested at 0.5 - 1 lb fruits. While any winter squash can be eaten small, they typically do not set a large numer of fruits.Flavor is another thing to considered. Butternuts and acorns are the only ones used as summer squash with any consistency.

    Now if you just want a dual purpose squash with the highest yield per plant, that would probably be the Trombocino. Actually a butternut type, but mostly used as a summer squash. Rampant vines so plants per acre is low.

  • sndk
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    So if I grow vining types, is it usually 1 good size winter squash per seed? or is it per vine? I.e. as the 1 seed grows and splits into multiple vines could i expect fruit from each vine getting smaller as the vines branch out and form new vines?

    I was just thinking if that is the case, and 1 vine type takes about 100sq ft, perhaps it would be better to grow many bush types that take closer to 6sq ft, but if the vine drops a new fruit at every vining growth that might outyield the bush right?

    Sorry just in the research phase here, it is apparent I have never grown vine squash before, thank you for any and all knowledge.

  • farmerdill
    10 years ago

    Ving squash are quite variable. The larger ones may set set 2-6 fruits per plant while small ones can set over a dozen. All commercial summer squash are bush types Crooknecks, Straightnecks and zucchini) there are several dual purpose vining types like the Trombocinos, marrows, and some Asian types.Bush types yield less per plant, but you can cram a lot more plants into an acre. Another zucchini substitute you may wish to experiment with is a variant of the bottle gourd usually sold as Cucuzza

  • greenelephant
    10 years ago

    How much zuchinni do you want to grow?

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