Congrats on those squash! They sound like they're incredibly happy. I'm growing costa romanesco for the first time this year, and hope I get similar results. As for your question, I've cut back leaves on my squash at times to give more sun to neighboring plants. I haven't noticed any detriment to the plant or fruit because of it. Hope that helps!

"It's just now making it's first babies"

Well that is very good, I am glad to hear that, it sounds like they are well fed (perhaps too well), but as long as they are fruiting... AWESOME

Mine are just starting out, a couple of weeks old, and have fruit busting out the door, maybe you and I should get our plants together for a little "hook-up" ;-)

Your Lushness and my Fruit bearing qualities...

Maybe they can menage a trois with a sweet tomato ;-)

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This thread is getting weird... I love it, wish my squash would grow like that, a little threesome action...

John,
Your squashes are interesting looking.I thought they vined on long vines with secondary tendrils? How did you get them to look like that???

Mine look like Jons, with the fruits in the middle, except about 5X the size!

Your squashes are interesting looking.I thought they vined on long vines with secondary tendrils? How did you get them to look like that???

That all depends on the variety. There are bush-types of many different varieties of squash (like Jon's pics) and vine varieties of of all kinds of squash. You have to know which you are planting. :)

Dave

My biggest Costata Romanesque Zucchini is seven feet wide at the widest point, and three feet high, and its just getting started. I just measured it with a tape measure. I planted it in a mixture of clay soil mixed with rabbit manure, half and half mixture. Then I sprinkled meal worm castings on it for an extra kick. Finally I covered the soil surface with a layer of cedar wood chips to keep bugs away and to keep the Zucchini from touching the manure. I planted four plants and can see I will have more Zucchini then my family and my neighbors can eat.

I'm glad to know my plant is a normal size for a costata romanesque. I was beginning to wonder!
My husband only likes zucchini in bread so I'm going to be dropping of squash at the neighbor's, parents, brother's and doing a lot of freezing for winter bread bakes.
I've been looking at recipes for zucchini brownies, relish, gratin, and 100 other ways to sneak it in. Looks like we'll be eqting it starting tomorrow. I have two fruits with fused blossoms, very freaky looking!

Ok, I have to add my my pics now. I too have had some huge zucchini plants this year. My yellow squash aren't that big, but my zucchini are huge. The variety I planted was Elite Hybrid zucchini.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zucchini Blog Post

I'm a first time zuchinni grower. We have one plant that we bought large and it showed flowers right away. I didn't know about the male and female flowers (DUH!). But now I do. I have two small fruits already, about 2 inches long, just like the ones in John Hughes pictures. It seems my little plant has been having fun on its own! Should I try to fertilize the newer female flowers that I see growing in or do you all just let nature take its course?

I do feel this flowering/fruiting thing is very sexy. I may have to sext pictures of my flowers to someone......

Oh, my. Zucchini sext!
I think tonight I'm going to take my huge girl and boy flowers and enjoy squash blossom soup for the first time in my life! I purchased the costata romanesca seeds specifically because it has great blossoms. I should have read further about the monster plant it makes!

I am growing Costatata Romanesco for the first time this year too. I have never much liked zucchini, but I love this one! Delicious! My plants are enormous, similar to yours, tracy. The seeds were back ordered, so they were planted two weeks later than my yellow crookneck. They were fruiting just three days after the yellows started. The first two or three weeks, my plants looked like jon's: circular and compact. But, now the stems are elongating and they are starting to creep into the path. The fruit are formed on the growing tips of the vines. And you are right, the stems are incredibly thick. (I am just so thrilled that so far, no SVBs. I covered them with row covers until they started blooming.)