Bottle Gourd - New Guinea Bean, Squash Cucuzza seeds

NEW GUINEA BEAN (BOTTLE GOURD) - 5 Seeds****Selection from the standard packet (5 seeds), 25g, 100g

Other names: Italian edible gourd, gourd squash cucuzza, Indian squash, bottle gourd, calabash gourd, doodhi, lowki

This is a New Guinea Bean (Lagenaria siceraria), An interesting vegetable, which ironically is neither from New Guinea - it's actually from Africa - and it's not even a bean! It's actually a climbing edible gourd or squash - a member of the cucurbit family. Its common name comes from a taste similar to green beans.

If you let them grow as big as they want to, they'll get to a meter plus long and five kilograms. However, if you want to eat them as a vegetable, you harvest them anywhere from around 60-100cm long.

Their flesh, if you eat it raw, tastes like a cross between zucchini and cucumber - nicer than raw zucchini. They can be cooked for all sorts of things.

The white flowers are large and scented. Sow next to a trellis, after all danger of frost has passed, with a minimum soil temperature of 22oC, 2.5 cm deep, 30 cm apart. Early plants can be sown in seedling pots for later transplanting. Prepare well-drained soil with compost and well-rotted manure. Pick the green fruit when young, 15-60 cm long. Prepare it in a similar way to squash.

A propagation note will be supplied with the seed packet for your convenience.