Description
A rare treat: we have some already-started zucca plants to sell! (Please do not buy more than two plants–orders for more will be immediately cancelled and refunded.)
What’s a zucca? They are legendary, very large (60-100lb) gourd that is fairly easy to grow, but requires heavy feeding and consistent watering–it also needs a long growing season, so please don’t purchase this if you don’t live in the Okanagan, Similkameen or Boundary Country. It also needs a lot of space–historically, they were planted with 25 foot spacing when grown commercially.
Also, natural pollination can be difficult with this night-blooming plant, but a little manual help can go a long way, just take a feather and a glass of wine outside when they bloom in the evening and help nature along.
Between the First and Second World Wars, this incredible gourd was grown in the South Okanagan and Similkameen as a significant cash crop. However, agricultural fashion shifted and these big beauties disappeared–so much so, that by the 1980’s there may have only been a single person still growing them: Mr. Glenn Swenson of Sandwich, Illinois. Fortunately, Sharon Rempel, the Grist Mill’s founding Head Gardener, tracked him and his seeds own and planted them out here, sharing them with a few of our neighbours. We still grow them every year on site and are pleased to now be able to share plants with you, in case you’d like to try your hand at growing something that’s been described as “a cross between a vegetable marrow and a hippopotamus”.
(Despite their being commonly called a “zucca melon”, they are in fact bottle gourds… Come visit us if you’d like learn more about this great melon conspiracy.)