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Originally Posted by creeker
OK,thanks for the advice, they sound real interesting. I may have to plant them on the back forty so they have plenty of room. Ron
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If you let them run on the ground, they should be pretty bulletproof where borers are concerned. They root aggressively at every node, so it would be really hard for even the notorious SVB to kill the plants. And as a bonus, you'll get them curling in that interesting french horn shape.
Trellising them gives up some of that resistance (and also may be why mine are so sensitive to not being watered and fed constantly, since all the nutrition and water is coming from one main root system and traveling 20+ feet), but I have to because of limited space, and taking the extra steps to protect the vines from borers isn't too much of a burden with my small number of plants and the fact that we only get 1 generation of borers here.
I don't think they have any special resistance against squash bugs--I've just heard that squash bugs just don't like them as much as other kinds of squash.
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Originally Posted by PhilaGardener
My tromboncino "only" grew to 8 ft, but they were vigorous.
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What a lot of people sell as zuchetta rampicante or tromboncino is probably lots of slightly different varieties from different regions and original seed sources.
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Originally Posted by PhilaGardener
I have seen them trained over a hoop cattle panel trellis so the fruits hang straight down - I think little kids would find that magical (too  )! |
Ha! They get a lot of exclamations when I give them away. People seem to enjoy their weirdness.