I have one zucchini variety registered with OSSI and as soon as this one it stable it will be going on too. This is 'Rascal'. The original parents were 'Golden' and 'Zephyr F1'. Out of that cross I found one seedling that was blue and yellow, rather than green and yellow, which got me all excited as I don't think blue colouration is found in C.pepo, but unfortunately I could never get the blue back in subsequent generations. I really wasn't drunk, it WAS blue and yellow.
I have got the plants themselves stable but the colour is a different matter. Each year I try something new to try and get a higher percentage of bi-coloured fruits and although the percentage is rising, I am not there yet. I am trying a couple of different ways to weed out the genes that are causing the problem (damn, can't think of the right term for those genes right at this moment).
Of course, the taste. It is nothing special, about the same as supermarket zucchini, and not nearly as good as Caesar (the one I have listed with OSSI) but everyone loves the colour and I have had market gardeners at my farm open days tell me I have to let them know when it is released.
Anyway I hope that in the next three years or so it will be ok to list.
An interesting project Rowan, the visual appeal seems to mean so much more than taste these days.
Cool. We experience food through at least four senses, so it makes sense to breed to please all of them.
Yes unfortunately. I do try to select for flavour over some other considerations usually but since this is no worse than people are already used to I have kept it. I will probably work with it to improve the flavour at some point when I have the time and space - too many projects, too little time and help, lol.
Really great appearance to those fruit, Rowan!
That's a really interesting zuke, I like how it has the bicolor without the faded pastel effect that is always there on Zephyr.
Hi Rowan ,
As a fellow Australian , and market gardener please let me know when you are releasing this, I would love to trial it for you. I grow a few hundred zuc plants each season I could do some selection for you.
Thanks Nick. If you email me it will be easier to keep you in mind as I am likely to forget about this forum post. I have some interest from other market gardeners but someone who has the interest to trial it before I publicly release it would be great.
Same goes for me Rowan. Happy to trial it for you in our market garden. We don't grow as many as Nick but can easily manage 30 or so plants at a time.
Still working out the modifying genes so it is a couple of years away but keep in touch :) I will eventually get there.