15 seeds
Cultivation: easy
Seed saving: beginner
Giant Sicilian Pumpkin (Lagenaria siceraria)
Giant Sicilian Pumpkin (Lagenaria siceraria): this espectacular variety is actually an EDIBLE gourd! The edible cultivars in this species are actually very few, the fruits are mostly destined to the realization of artifacts, as we can see wit other members of our family such as the Pilgrim's Bottle, used to transport liquids, or the Peyote Cerimonial used in rituals or even transformed into rattles. Unlike the others, this Sicilian giant can be consumed as zucchini when still immature, the sprouts are consumed, known as "tenerumi ", for typical Sicilian dish.
The cultivation is extremely simple, it requires little care and also adapts to poor soils it will grow healthy, however, in ideal conditions it will give provide pumpkins that reach up to 50 kg!The average size, however, is still deserving of awes, since you will hardly see mature specimens under 15 kg. We should then
consider to consume zucchini in abundance, otherwise, unless you produce artefacts you will find yourself with a few tens of huge pumpkins per plant, which reach the meter of length and about 30 cm of diameter.
The plant is decisively macrothermal, it needs heat in all its phases, from 25°C to 30°C for a correct development. The complete ripening of the fruits takes about 100 days, but in order to consume the tender zucchinis and shoots less than 60 are enough. The arrival of could should not raise any alarm, the plants will dry, but If the fruits are kept sheltered in a ventilated place they will continue the maturation, to get the seeds just open them when dry. The integument, the skin of the seeds, is kind of leathery which means that they are well preserved and protected, but also that they are a little hostile to germination: surface can be scratched in order to favor it.
At optimum temperature (+22°C) germination takes about a week but in different conditions it can take up to a month.
There is not a certain history abour this cultivar, it has in fact, crossed the Atlantic several times arriving to us from Sicilian contacts. It is also present on some US sites, but there isn't any detailed information about its origin. We are
currently trying to dig in deeper on its history.
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