Cocozella Di Napoli Squash

My lemon squash had succumb to pests so I was hopeful that these would fare better. Unfortunately I didn't get one fruit as I had a barrage of all sorts of pests in my garden going after these - vine borers, squash bugs & pickle worms. Disappointing as the plants themselves looked great and I was hopeful to taste the zucchini.

I grew this zucchini for the first time this season and it has been great. We grew a couple of plants in straw bales as a test and they grew and produced quite well. We grew a few others in raised beds. The plants were quite prolific, as you expect from zucchini. I will be growing this variety again next season.

I've grown this variety for a couple of seasons. One reason I wanted to try it is because I have problems with the dreaded squash vine borer. I've tried all sorts of strategies to control this beautiful and evil moth and Cocozella di Napoli is part of the most successful strategy so far. The stems are very thick walled and hollow in the center, which allows the plants to endure some damage by vine borers. What I do is I mix up a small batch of Bt and inject the stems periodically with the mixture, killing the larvae. More will show up (because my area is lousy with SVB), but the stems can handle it with a little help from Bt every now and then. Also, the squash are really tasty. Much less watery than typical zucchini. The only drawback to this variety is if you pick a little too late, they can be too dry and pithy. Anyway...highly recommended!

I never liked zucchini much as a summer squash but this variety has an exotic name, so I ordered the seeds, hoping for the best. What a find. Even when fairly large, the fruits are solid and meaty with a fine taste, not like regular zucchini, which is watery and bland. Also, not too many seeds. No problems in growing, even though we are having one heck of a drought high temperatures month after month. No insect damage whatsoever. Didn't have to fertilize. However, the zucchini I am growing (it's still producing as of today, Aug. 10/18) doesn't look quite like in the photo. There's no yellow stripes - more like light green instead. I wonder what is the difference between this variety and Striata d'Italia. Also, this is one summer squash that tastes great raw. Thank you, Baker Creek Seed Co.

This was my first year growing this squash. It seems that with summer squash it is a question of when the pests win as opposed to if. Long after my yellow squash had given up the ghost to squash bugs and the like this Cocozelle was growing green, hardy and producing squash. This will be my "go to" zucchini seed. How refreshing after spending years watching the bugs ravage my summer squash.