Climbing Zucchini,Tromboncino, Trombocino, Zucchetta Rampicante, Italian Trombone Squash 'Tromba d'Albenga'

Love this plant. The only vining plant to survive the squash bug invasions. Very prolific even in the humid hot south. This is the 2nd...Read More year, having saved seeds from one of last year's crop. Two fruits gave plenty of seeds for this year's planting with plenty left over to share with friends.

I am growing this variety of Squash every year. In my garden is the only variety that is not attack by the Squash Vine Borer.
I do...Read More plant it in the Spring and I enjoy the tender green fruits, while in the fall I wait for the fruit to turn yellow and have hard skin. I dice the squashes in one inch size cubes and I blanch them for 2 minutes - ice bath - dry and then freeze them.
They are the sweetest squash I ever tasted.

The 1st time I grew this plant from seed 20 years ago, it was very prolific & I gave away as many as we ate. I tried it again last year,...Read More planed from seed after last frost and only got 3 fruits none with ripe seeds so this year, I started them mid April and kept them in the greenhouse and I am hardening them off outside, now that they have an extra month head start.

I came across the trombone zucchini as seedlings in the gardening section of Bunnings, a large hardware chain here in Australia and, havi...Read Moreng never seen these before, was intrigued by the label description and purchased a punnet of 6 seedlings. It was a while before we got some female flowers, it was the same with our pumpkins so it may have been the season. Then the first fruit that formed turned yellow and soft when around 200mm long, I was pretty disappointed by this stage...then they took off! They produced by the dozen! They formed fascinating shapes and by far the best variety of zucchini I've ever tasted, unlike the normal types we had no difficulty in giving these away. We discovered one we had missed and it had grown to a massive 1220mm long and learnt they they can be used like a butternut pumpkin (squash) when ripe. I've allowed a few to grow to this stage I'm not sure when these beauties can be harvested so will wait until the vines wither. Lots of friends have put their orders in for some seeds! LOL. Very recommended.

In 2012 I planted one tromboncino plant from a start in my front yard garden with good southern exposure in Portland, Oregon. I was blown...Read More away by how productive it was. I got many (maybe 10?) large squash that worked well as summer squash during the season and later as butternut squash. I am still eating off of those I stored in my root cellar now in February.

The leaves were huge and did a great job of suppressing weed germination. It did get powdery mildew on the leaves late in the season which is typical for squash here. Didn't seem to affect the produce and I could just prune the worst affected leaves.

This is going to be my primary squash this year.

Planted in late spring during a very hot Houston summer, this plant has not been able to keep any fruit even after hand pollination. Vin...Read Moree growth has been decent; but there's been nothing else to show.

As a few other's have noted, this squash is NOT "borer resistant". It appears to grow so prolifically that is able to endure the vine sections that get all ate up.

Maybe it will produce as the fall cools thing off; but my experience is that it's certainly not the "low maintenance - produces all summer" that others have claimed

I keep planting too many of these vines, when only a few will still take over and produce far more than we need. We always grow them bec...Read Moreause they are productive, do not get destroyed by SVBs or other squash bugs, and we use them as shredded veggie filler in all kinds of dishes. We shred it and freeze it, and use it in dishes all winter with good results. However, perhaps I am missing something or am doing something wrong, but I find them to be rather hard and tasteless compared to a regular zucchinni.

My Tromboncino seeds germinated well. They are growing like crazy and have even spread over into my blueberry bushes! My only complaint i...Read Mores that I mainly have male blooms. I have five plants growing and so far I have only gotten two squash! So far there are no squash beetles-a plus since these did my yellow squash in last year. Just a touch of powdery mildew-another problem that I had last year. After reading about the male blooms I am going to try a few things. I am going to snip off some of the male blooms and up my fertilizing. It has been extremely hot and dry here in Alabama so I will make sure the plants stay well watered. I know it is normal to have more male blooms than females but these plants have been growing since April and it time to produce more fruit! I'll let you know how it goes. This is my first post here on Dave's forum-looks like great garden site!

I think the problem has just been the intense heat we have been having here in Bama. Now that the temps have backed off the triple digits I am seeing more fruit on this plant. One vine now has about six squash developing! Riddle me this- I have fruit appearing and the bloom has not opened yet! How can that be?

I loved the squash . It was so tasty and easy the first year to grow. Then the squash borers found my garden and put it on the squash bo...Read Morerer's map. They figured out how to get in the stems. It is not 100% SB resistant. They killed off all the rest of the squash and the trombonicino was the last to go last year. BAD year for squash borers. I am ready with my floating row cover this year. Its WAR!!

This is a fantastic plant. Give it a lot of fence to grow on and you won't be disappointed. Very prolific. Pick them early and they ar...Read Moree summer squash and leave a few get a big as they can and you will get long lasting winter squash. Immune to bugs. I will definitely grow it in 2012.

We tried this squash for the first time this year (2011), using Renee's Seeds. There are many remarkable aspects to this variety. It is...Read More vigorous and will outgrow just about any other squash, and it climbs extremely well with strong tendrils. It is essentially pest-free, and while other squashes are suffering from powdery mildew, this one is seemingly immune. We did have a plant start a bit of mildew and then it went away. Cool weather has not yet slowed it down (7 November, zone 9). Here we are a few weeks from Thanksgiving and the plants are covered with tiny new fruits and flowers. The fruits grow quickly and achieve extreme sizes. I see web reports of 3 or 4 foot long fruits...the longest of ours might be 5 feet. The shapes are extremely variable from short and fat to long and thin, straight to wavy to curled into a circle...it's all there. The cooking flexibility is great too...eat as a summer or winter squash, whatever. The taste of the yellow flesh is nutty and perfect. As stated by others, the seeds are in the bulbous tip, and the long thick neck is pure yellow flesh. What is there not to love about this variety?

Had a great time growing this in the summer of 2010, and even though it was in a container receiving less than optimum sunlight, and in l...Read Moreess than desirable planting medium, the few plants I had did remarkably well, and produced many tasty, green squash. Eventually, I left one to ripen on the vine to the butternut stage, and all production shut down.

These are great as zucchini. Sweet, seedless, and although they don't have much flavor and the texture is slightly different than a real zuke, they're absolutely lovely sauteed with garlic in a bit of butter.

If I can find my seeds, I'll surely be planting more of these this year.

This is a wonderful squash. As others have posted, we too had 100% success with seed germination when started indoors. This is has a sw...Read Moreeet / crisp taste to it. We also found that because the neck has no seeds it is really excellent sliced and sauteed in olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and a touch more olive oil, and served with a crusty French or fresh sourdough bread. Long slices, using a Mandoline, make for a great "noodle" for a squash lasagna, again because the slices are firm throughout - no "holes" from where the seeded section melts away. I also found a good recipe online for those yummy pickled vegetables some Mexican restaurants serve. Again, because the slices or chunks are uniform.

I purchased my Zucchino Rampicante Squash seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds & started them indoors in early spring. The plants strugg...Read Moreled to survive indoors, as the environment was just not the same as outdoors, but they hung on & made the adjustment to being transplanted in late spring. Thankfully I made a large strong trellis ... about 10'-12' tall by 4' wide, as this squash did so well & has grown like crazy!!! The first squash I harvested was approximately a laughingly 3 ft. long ... & I gave it to my Mother, whom put fake eyes on it & took photos, as it looked just like a large snake. We enjoyed that one sliced up in a stir fry. Surprisingly it seems like each squash grows larger/longer & I harvested my 3rd squash today, at 4 ft. 2.5 inches long! I hope to make pickles out of this one. I just love this wonderful fun squash & highly recommend it!!!
[Note: I have regularly used bulk farm fertilizers; NPK, magnesium sulfate, lime, & sulfur, as I felt were needed, which has produced some fairly jungle sized plants ... I actually had to reinforce my trellis, which began to collapse under the weight of the plants].
I will try to post a photo soon.
UPDATE: 11-22-2010:
This amazing squash keeps a long time. I had it sitting outdoors, off the vines, under out gazebo, for a couple weeks at the end of summer, & then stored it indoors in our relatively cool sun-room, which had many fluctuating temperatures, due to SW exposure. I finally began cutting them, 11-21+22-2010 & they are in fantastic condition, especially for having been stored under less than the best conditions. They smelled of sweet cantaloupe melon, although taste of nutty squash. This is the first time I grew these wonderful giants, & I am not sure if that is how they usually smell, or if they crossed with some of my near by melon plants (vine peach, crenshaw, & watermelon). The first one I gave to my Mother, did not have the sweet melon scent, although all the later ones did. This is a superior squash, which is highly recommendable!!!

This was my 3rd summer growing this squash on a trellis. I save the seeds, & have had almost 100% germination rate. I use it green like...Read More zucchini & let it ripen to use like a butternut. The big yellow/orange flowers & leaves look almost tropical. The length of these squash cause jaws to drop. As others have mentioned, I like that all the seeds are in the bottom, so you can just slice it up like a cuke. This squash is so tasty, prolific, & versatile that I don't bother growing any other varieties--besides the fact that it's OP.
Update: 11/05/11 in zone 6a & vines still lush & covered w new squash that I'm harvesting green & using like zucchini; though I still have many ripe to use. Given away some which always brings a smile. I've been saving my own seed now for several years. Major plus: Only variety here that the squash bugs, cuke beetles, & squash vine borers don't destroy & no pesticides required. Grew great in composted horse manure.

Wonderful squash with a nice mild flavor and firm texture! The very best part is that there are no seeds at all in the long neck, only i...Read Moren the very small bulbous part so it is very easy slicing! Very prolific but it does take up a lot of space.

This is my favorite squash. I am in Austin, Texas and grow yellow crook neck, zuchinnis,white patti pan (scalloped) squash. The tr...Read Moreombeta climb, creep and grow like crazy, producing two to three foot long yummy squash. My neighbor, who doesn't even like squash, loves them.
The only disease problem that I have had with them is the evil squash bore. I saved the plants by injecting BT with a syringe at the infection site. It is a fairly tedious but effective technique.

I had three plants in my garden in the spring, but we had a very bad hailstorm (baseball size) and the plants were beaten up all the way ...Read Moreto the ground. Later the plants came back from the roots and have grown across my garden bed at least l2 feet. I have frozen them, shared them with my friends and neighbors and at this date, Oct. 21, we are still picking zucchinis. They are wonderful! ( I started my plants in the greenhouse and transplanted them. The reason I only had three plants was because a little mouse got in the greenhouse and ate the others.)

The seed took a long time to sprout, and by the time they started to grow heat hit. The plant failed to produce.

Grew this last year in Uk no real problems but frst few fruits rotted after reaching 6 inches. Later fruits developed very well reaching...Read More 2 foot even in poor soil an britsh summer. The seeds being concentrated at the swollen end makes preparatioin in kitchen easier than traditional butternut. stored fruit lasted until jan.

My absolute favorite squash! Beautiful twisty fruits. I looked for ages to find seeds (eventually getting them at White Flower Farm) an...Read Mored I grew them three years in a row. I am currently out of seeds and unable to find a new source (as W.F.F apparently doesn't carry them) :((
I loved them when I had them though :))

Very easy to grow squash (Like all cucurbits, it's prone to powdery mildew) with a good harvest and easy to use fruits... not much taste themselves but they soak up flavor wonderfully.

Prolific and good to eat at any stage. Easiest courgette I have ever grown. 2005 some plants climbing and some trailing some trying to do both!

Best grown on a trellis. I grew mine on a chain link fence but it seems to prefer to trail rather than climb.

The light g...Read Morereen-to-tan fruit can grow up to 3 feet long and may be harvested anytime, from just a few inches through its full size.

This squash is very easy to grow..give it sun and a strong support to climb on. Regular squash blossoms appear on slim stalks. As the v...Read Moreeg gets longer, the stem gets shorter and thicker. 36 inches long is not unusual, the longest was about 46". They keep thru the year, really a kick for kids to grow.
I have had a difficult time finding the seeds locally.

I love this squash. My gardens are fairly new and I have had a lot of trouble growing squash but this one grew like crazy! It ran around ...Read Moremy little garden, up a roap trellis to the grape arbor and over it! The only problem I did see was that when we got too much rain the baby zucchinis would rot. I just picked a 35 1/2 inch one(see picture)!
Becky

I have grown this zucchini for a number of years in J'ville, NC, and it is my family's favorite.It needs alot of space to run or train it...Read More on a very strong trellis. It will root at the nodes and put out more runners and go on forever as long as the weather holds. Some problems with worms/ borers late in the season. The flavor is delicious, the combination with the crookneck and some vidalias can't be beat !

What a fun plant/veggie to grow! The vines easily attach themselves to trellis, fence, or tall stakes. The fruit is delicious no matter...Read More when it is picked, either early and small or let them mature.
The neck is all firm flesh, no seeds. The seeds are all in the bulbous end.