Best Heirloom Zucchini for Zone 9 Vegetable Gardens

Striata D’Italia

Days to harvest (from transplant): 50

Striata D’Italia – Italian Heirloom Zucchini

Growth Habit and Appearance: The Striata D’Italia has large-lobed, deep green leaves 18-24 inches long. The plant is rangy and open, and despite the cool and cloudy spring weather, outgrew its 4 foot raised bed and sprawled out into the path on both sides by late May. As the plant grows, the older leaves die back leaving the vines exposed which isn’t attractive, but it doesn’t harm the plant’s productivity at all.

Production: As an Italian zucchini, Striata’s fruit is ribbed and deep green with pronounced light green stripes. It was the earliest to fruit, 14 days ahead of the Black zucchini and almost three weeks before the Cocozelle. By far the heaviest producer, it produced several bushel baskets worth of 6-8 inch fruit over its 90+ day growing season, pausing only in mid-August when the temperatures soared, but quickly returning to flower when cooler weather prevailed in September.

Gardener’s Notes: Despite the long, damp spring it had no problems with mildew or pests. The rangy nature of the vines also required me to move them out of the way and keep from overwhelming nearby veggies on a regular basis. Also, the more open plant let some of the fruit get sunburned, so they benefitted from being shaded during the hottest parts of the summer. The texture and flavor kept well, staying firm and tasty even five days after being picked.

My Rating:

• Growth: – 7/10
• Flavor: – 8/10
• Yield: – 10/10

Seed Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds (Superseeds.com)

Cocozelle

Days to harvest: 69

Cocozelle — Italian Heirloom Zucchini

Growth Habit and Appearance: Cocozelle is an Italian variety with deep scalloped leaved speckled with white along the leaf veins. The plant remained fairly bushy, though, once the weather warmed in June, it seemed to double in size every few days. Nonetheless, it never outgrew its raised bed and took the longest of the varieties to come to harvest.

Production: The Cocozelle wasn’t as productive as its Italian cousin, the Striata, but still churned out a respectable 2-4 fruit per week from the first of July well into October. Additionally, unlike the Striata D’Italia, the Cocozelle didn’t pause on flowering during the last two weeks of August when the days were well into the 90’s.

Gardener’s Notes: The fruit of the Cocozelle is an attractive ribbed, dark green fruit speckled with light green stripes. The skin gets thick rather quickly though, so I found that younger, smaller fruit (under 6 inches long) were better for eating fresh than the older, larger fruit. When cooked, however, Cocozelle keeps its firmness and offers the best balance of crunch and texture.

My Rating:

• Growth: – 8/10
• Flavor: – 9/10
• Yield: – 8/10

Seed Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds (Superseeds.com)

Black Beauty

Days to harvest: 64

Black Beauty — American Heirloom Zucchini

Growth Habit and Appearance: Black Beauty zucchini is an American variety with large, heart-shaped leaves more akin to pumpkins and summer squash than to the Italian zucchinis. The plants are bushy and well-contained, far more compact than either Striata and Cocozelle. While young the plant was a deep green, but as it got older, it began to develop white speckles on the leaves.

Production: It was 64 days before we harvested the first fruit from the Black Beauty zucchini, two weeks longer than the seed packets indicated. The fruit is a dark green, almost black, with light green speckles. Unlike the Italian varieties, it’s smooth and lacks the taper they both have. It was the least productive of the three we tried, but still produced 2-3 fruit per week into September. The zucchini has a very thin skin which is easy to nick, and the texture is softer and more cucumber/melon-like than either of Italian varieties.

Gardener’s Notes: Black Beauty is really bushy, remaining nice and compact as it gets older, which is both a blessing and curse. It’s easy to grow in a smaller area, but the bushy shape and dark green fruit make it hard to spot new zucchinis without searching under the leaves of the plant. One nice thing about Black Beauty is that both the plant and the fruit lack the spines the Italian varieties have, so it’s easier to harvest with bare hands and not get poked.

My Rating:

• Growth: – 10/10
• Flavor: – 8/10
• Yield: – 8/10

Seed Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds (Superseeds.com)

My Zucchini Picks

The three varieties of zucchinis we tested this year — Cocozelle, Striata D’Italia and Black Beauty

Striata D’Italia Zucchini

• Best crop production – One plant will produce bushels of fresh zucchini over the growing season – more than enough for a family of five (and their neighbors and their neighbor’s neighbors). Also, the early maturity and long production season makes it a great choice for those who love lots of zucchini.
• Earliest to maturity / Longest production – At only 50 days to harvest and a productivity over 90+ days, it’s easily the best for both short growing seasons and long ones.
• Best disease & pest resistance – Early on, when it was cloudy and damp for months, we thought mildew or bugs would get it, but they didn’t. Some of the early leaves died back, but the plant kept on growing like a champ and produced fruit well before the others.

Cocozelle Zucchini

• Best in hot weather/climate – The bushy habit seems to offer more protection to the fruit and flowers than that of its Italian counterpart, the Striata. Even in near triple-digit heat, as long as it has sufficient water, it’ll continue to kick out fruit.
• Best appearance – The combination of the compact habit and lobed leaves with white accents makes it one of the more interesting (dare I say attractive) vegetables in the garden. Even if it didn’t produce food, it would still be a really nice plant to look at.
• Best combination of flavor & texture – With a combination of medium (but not overwhelming) squash flavor and firm, but not woody texture, Cocozelle does well both cooked and fresh. It’s got enough flavor to stand on its own, but not so much that it will detract from other flavors and seasonings. Better yet, it keeps its texture even when cooked so it doesn’t turn into a mushy, wet vegetable when it’s hot.

Black Beauty Zucchini

• Best for small or compact spaces – The tight, bushy nature of the black zucchini means it does well in small spaces and containers (just feed it well). Even as the plant gets older, it’ll stay more or less upright, so you can stake it and grow vertically rather than letting it sprawl out like other zucchini.
• Best for fresh eating – Black zucchini’s mild, slightly tart flavor not only tastes good fresh, but the smooth skin doesn’t have the prickly spines of other zukes (or squash for that matter). You can pick these and snack on them right in the garden. Better yet, pick them, chill, and snack on them with other cold veggies like carrots and broccoli.
• Best for small production – Anyone who’s ever grown Zucchini knows the dual benefit / curse of zucchini is the sheer number of fruit you can get from a single plant. If you like zucchini, but you’re not so in love with it that you’re willing to eat it all day, everyday in order to not waste it, Black is a good choice. A single plant will produce more than enough for the average family over the growing season.

Conclusion

So there you have it, our Zucchini trials and results. Next year I’ll definitely be planting Cocozelle again because, for me, it’s the right balance between garden space, productivity and flavor.

We’ll also be planting Black Beauty zucchini again, but I think next time we’ll move it out of the main garden and grow it in the keyhole garden instead. The compact growth habit and fresh-eating flavor make it a natural pick for that bed because it’s near the kitchen and convenient for grabbing a fresh snack.

As for Striata D’Italia, we may plant it again one day, but the amount of space it takes and ridiculous productivity outweighs the benefits of the early maturity and long production cycle. We like zucchini, but not so much that we’re going to be eating them every day. Practically speaking, the space it takes up in the garden can be put to better use other vegetables.