Description
The vegetable that thinks it’s a pasta! A big, pumpkin-like plant which scrambles vigorously across a wide area, this summer squash produces pale yellow fruits 20cm long, whose flesh separates out into spaghetti-like strands after cooking.
The real surprise comes when you cook it! Cut in half and bake in the oven (with about an 1″ (2.5 cm) of water in the baking tray) until the flesh is soft. Once soft, ‘comb’ the flesh out of the skin with a fork to produce spaghetti-like strands that can be used exactly as you would conventional pasta spaghetti. Served with a rich tomato sauce and a grating of cheese this is just sheer bliss.
The habit of the plant is to trail just as a pumpkin does, and each plant should produce around six fruits weighing around 3 lbs (1.5 Kg).
SOWING
Sow the pumpkin seeds inside from late April, or directly outside in May, when the last chance of frost has passed in your area. Sow the seeds 2-3 cm deep in fine seed compost, and keep them at a temperature of around 18C. The soil temperature should be around 15C. Sow 2 seeds per station, or in small pots, and keep the strongest seedling. Germination takes 7-14 days, depending on the soil temperature. Protect the seedlings from slugs as they love the young pumpkin seedlings.
Transplant the plants into bigger pots when large enough to handle and keep them inside the greenhouse or propagator; acclimatize the plants before planting outside. Spacing: 150-250 cm between the plants. Prefers sunny location and very rich soil or feeding with fertilizer, in order for the fruit to grow big.
After 3-5 fruits are formed, the growing tips can be pinched out to encourage fruit development, ripening on the vine, and allow to cure outside. This will increase storage potential. Store the fruit at about 10 degrees Celsius. Stores for a long time.
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