Kitchen

[Poodlepet2]

Over on Recipes, @elizabethl123 wrote about recipes for a five pound zucchini.

There was a consensus that large overgrown vegetables were bitter or tasteless.

That got me thinking about the Alaskan growing season. For a couple of years, every summer HGTV had specials about the supersized vegetables grown because of 24 hour sunlight.

Are those supersized vegetables bitter and tasteless????

Thanks,

Poodlepet2

[software]

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@Poodlepet2 wrote:

Over on Recipes, @elizabethl123 wrote about recipes for a five pound zucchini.

There was a consensus that large overgrown vegetables were bitter or tasteless.

That got me thinking about the Alaskan growing season. For a couple of years, every summer HGTV had specials about the supersized vegetables grown because of 24 hour sunlight.

Are those supersized vegetables bitter and tasteless????

Thanks,

Poodlepet2

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Not from Alaska but yes, they are best when picked young.

Maybe there is a certain strain specifically for a 24 hour day, but I'm in the southeast and veggies like squash and zucchini can grow like weeds.    Need to be picked almost daily and sometimes we find one hidden that's too big, we toss it.

How many days do you have in a row of 24 hour sunlight generally?

[x Hedge]

@Poodlepet2,

Some plant growth is triggered in spring by number of hours of daylight,  I'm thinking of my perennial Egyptian onions here, a cool season crop.

But the zucchini you mention is a warm season veg, and responds more to highs and lows in day and nite time temperature than to higher number of hours of daylight (whether sunny or not). In other words, you could plant your zucchini seeds under grow lights that are on 24/7-365, but if temps are too cool you aren't going to be happy. 

As far as the plant is concerned, that zucchini is a seed pod and will continue growing to fulfill it's destiny as the seeds ripen. The zucchini itself will become tough, more fiberous, less edible.

Zucchini is already tasteless. It takes on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with.

Over ripe zucchini is animal feed.

Not an Alaskan.

[feline groovy]

@AKgirl2...

[AKgirl2]

I would think the gigantor sized veggies would not be as tasty and tender as the regular size zucchini.  I haven't tried overly sized

veggies, and buy the small ones, which have always been tender and tasty.