Jun 24th, 2012

Gold Rush

by Jonah Holland

Photos & text by Albert Brian Vick,  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator

We’ve received several questions about the near-perfect beauty of our Gold Rush squash. In truth, it’s a hybridized zucchini (Cucurbita pepo). The color is wonderfully uniform & consistent, and frankly almost looks unreal. Reasons: 1) It’s a hybrid, designed to be resistant to disease. We allocate portions of our garden to hybrids in order to maximize production for the Community Kitchen. 2) The fertilizer for these hybrids has been limited to tilled under cover crops (green manure) and a combo of fish emulsion & seaweed extract. Plus, we baby our squash. We’ve intensively examined for pests, eliminating threats manually – thanks to our many volunteers.

Gold Rush SquashAdmittedly scary perfect, if harvested at just the right size.

 

Gold Rush SquashThe transformation in progress.

 

Gold Rush SquashA few hundred pounds yield so far, and the promise of several hundred more.
About Jonah Holland

Jonah Holland is Digital Content Manager at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where she has worked for 14 years overseeing social media, the blog, and the website. She is also a mom, yogi, open water swimmer, gardener, and seeker. She's been known to go for a walk in the Garden and come back with hundreds of plant photos, completely inspired to write her next blog post.

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