Trialing the Zorzi Carosello Spuredda Leccese

Of all the varieties I grew in my greenhouse this summer, the Zorzi Carosello Spuredda Leccese was my favorite. It started out very healthy and strong and was quick to set fruit and produce abundantly. I harvested the first small fruit on May 9th, just to try it out.

May 14th

Plant sprouting March 19th, 2019

April 1st, 2019

All true leaves showing. Some problem in the left plants

Additional compost/ammendments helped the plants recover - April 11th.

Although many other carosello cucumbers turn out to be completely different then the picture, this one held pretty close to what the picture displayed. However, the picture has a photograph of three cucumbers that look the same – which is very different from what I experienced. Though fruit shape was generally cylindrical, fruit color varied dramatically from one cucumber to another – even on the same plant. Although I can select cucumber varieties by growing out like cucumbers on one plant, the genetics of color become much more difficult to reproduce when the plant produces cucumbers that each look a little different. Though I was hand pollinating the plant by selfing (pollinating the female flower from male flowers on the same plant) I was unable to get much consistency in color until my second planting.

April 27th, 2019

April 29th

April 30th

May 1st

May 2nd

May 4th

 

May 6th, with flash

Without flash

May 8th

May 9th

May 9th

May 13th

Removing fuzz to check color underneath

May 21st

By the time of the second crop, the Zorzi carosello had a fruit color that looked more like a mix of Scopattizo and dark Leccese. A little pretty, but not exactly what I was looking for. Texture was decent, as was water content. The seed of this variety is not narrow like the native dark Leccese. It was however darker in color like the Scopattizo Barese, so the parent plants that the seed originated from may be more closely related to this variety.

July 20th, 2019

September 18th, 2019

So - will this carosello be making my future seed lineup? 

Don't plan on it any time soon.

SeedSelect Scopattizo or Spuredda Trial

Of all the carosello that I grew out this summer, I had some of the most hopes for this one. For one, look at the label. The cucumbers are all of similar size and length. Each fruit exhibits an outer skin that is light colored with dark green broken stripes.

Based on the package, who would guess that the seed inside would grow anything other than what the picture on the package advertises? However, from the outset I was under the assumption that the variety name is often more characteristic of the variety than the picture. Perhaps one of the plants would produce something like this and others would produce something else or perchance it was a mix of seeds that would produce different carosello. The only way to find out is to grow them.

Plants sprouting, March 21, 2019

March 26th

April 1st

April 3rd

April 10th

Apirl 11th

The plants of this variety grew quickly and did quite well. There were no major problems other than the “user error” of overwatering parts of the plants and not providing more of the microbial life nutrients in the soil mix that the plants needed. I’ll be working on fixing some of that this winter.

April 29th, developing female flower

April 30th, flower turning yellow

April 30th

May 1st

May 4th

May 21st - This is a poor picture at night - medium light/dark color

Overall, the plants ended up producing “Scopattizo” carosello fruit. These are carosello that are between light and dark in color. Tasty, but not exactly what the advertisers were trying to convey by the picture on the seed packet. It would not have been the first time that I have purchased packets of seed in the hopes that what grows would look somewhat like the advertised product. A case of false advertising? At least in my book, that would be a definite “Yes!”

May 26th: My second planting ended up producing much of the same results.