There isn't all that much information about growing cucuzza (gagootz, googotz, cacuzza, etc) online in general, and especially in hydroponics. Some useful information is available in Youtube videos, but sometimes you just want the facts without needing to watch three to eight minutes of someone discussing the plant. I'm growing two cucuzza plants on an apartment balcony, hydroponically. In this case it's DWC, which means that the roots are almost continuously immersed in water, except when it evaporates through transpiration.
Quick stats:
1. Cucuzza is an edible gourd, picked before the seeds get tough.
2. The vines will get over 20 feet.
3. Multiple side shoots will be produced at almost every node. These are called tenerumi and can be cooked like spinach.
4. Vines grow over two feet a day in total length. A single leading tip will grow six inches to a foot a day.
5. Leaves die off after about a month, starting with yellow spotting on the leaves and then wilting and browning. Old leaves die first, progressing along the vines.
6. Two months in, the root mass is sucking up over three gallons of water per plant per day.
7. In other words, this plant transpires a lot and is very thirsty.
After two months of growing my garden looks like this, with the cucuzza on the right, or see above. The picture above is a good representation of what needed to be done to manage the plants. They were raised from seed planted in soil, in February. Regular coco rooting blocks didn't work, the seeds needed soil. Seedlings were put in at two sets of true leaves, in 14-gallon totes. There was a bit of transplant shock, but then the plants took off. At two weeks in they were already growing six inches or more each day. At every leaf node a very strong, powerful tendril comes out and wraps around anything available. These need to be cut with scissors when lowering the vines.
Above you can see the pvc pipe plus tubing used in the automatic watering, as well as vinyl tubing to the air stones. You can also see some of the older leaves starting to yellow and die. When I had enough vine length, the vine was passed under the stairs next to this pot and trained over my neighbor's balcony. The same was done a little later for the second vine, except lower down the stairs.
The tenerumi can be eaten, but take care to leave some for extended growth closer to the origin of the stem. I didn't, which means that one of the plants now has fresh growth only at the end of 15 feet of vine. On a balcony like this, with limited space, you need to be very careful with where to train the vines.
The leaves are gigantic. The blossoms open at dusk, and close by morning. There is about a 4:1 ratio of male to female flowers. The males have a long stem and look like this, while the females look like this and have a noticeable unfertilized fruit attached. The females need to be pollinated by hand. I use a q-tip, first fluffing up the end a bit, then jamming it into a male and picking up lots of pollen, then rubbing it all over the stamens of the female. Do this twice for extra germination chances. If the pollen doesn't take, the fruit will stop growing and eventually turn black and fall off. If it does work, the fruit will start to get larger.
This is about 1.5 weeks' growth. The fruit can be harvested at about 2.5 feet. It will continue to get longer and tougher over time, eventually reaching up to six feet in length. The fruit have no problems with weight, as the vine itself takes care of that.
Now for some hydroponic details. I'm using an 8 watt diaphragm pump with three connections into the container. This pump was thrice as expensive as the usual 20w hydrofarm pumps I use, but it runs much cooler and there are way more bubbles. See the comparison here. The roots are thick and suck up a lot of water:
The pH is kept over 6.0. At lower than 5.8, the leaves will start to wilt. However, the cucuzza is remarkably hardy in that the pH can go lower and it will still grow without damage. I let mine get to 5.2 for at least a day without major effects. I use an unbuffered nutrient mix (15-5-15) which can be a bit high in nitrogen later in the season. Having no resources for nutrient numbers I went with 1100 ppm nutrient concentration. The plants remove ~150 ppm of that each day. This means a lot of attention needs to be given to adding nutes on a regular basis. A third of the water total is replaced each week.
I supplement the usual stuff with Bombardier sugar (4-0-0) and small dosages of Katon (0-0-26). Recently I've also started to foliar spray with the Bombardier to help the fruit get just a bit sweeter perhaps. Soon I will replace the usual stuff with a more balanced combination of Bombardier Sugar, Rhyzo, and Katon to focus less on vine growth and more on flower and fruit production.
There have been no insects or diseases yet, though some resources suggest that squash borers or aphids could be a problem later in the season.
In the picture at the beginning, the oldest leaves of one plant are dying off while the main growth is at the far end. The second plant has just produced two fruit at the left, unseen behind the foliage, and another one almost ready for harvest elsewhere on the plant.
This should be enough information for you hydroponic growers and everyone else. Happy eating!
P.S. Above is a gallon of suyo long cucumbers, soon to be sour pickles. This was just 3.5 cucumbers! I keep letting them grow for too long. (First there's a 7:1 male:female ratio with these four plants, then six giant cucumbers show up that I have to pickle to avoid spoilage. Really all over with this variety.)
Update (6-5-15): I've noticed that females will often be produced on the sideshoots that form at each leaf node on the main stem. Let the sideshoots grow to a certain length, until you see some itty-bitty females, then remove the growing tip to keep energy going to the main stem.
Quick stats:
1. Cucuzza is an edible gourd, picked before the seeds get tough.
2. The vines will get over 20 feet.
3. Multiple side shoots will be produced at almost every node. These are called tenerumi and can be cooked like spinach.
4. Vines grow over two feet a day in total length. A single leading tip will grow six inches to a foot a day.
5. Leaves die off after about a month, starting with yellow spotting on the leaves and then wilting and browning. Old leaves die first, progressing along the vines.
6. Two months in, the root mass is sucking up over three gallons of water per plant per day.
7. In other words, this plant transpires a lot and is very thirsty.
After two months of growing my garden looks like this, with the cucuzza on the right, or see above. The picture above is a good representation of what needed to be done to manage the plants. They were raised from seed planted in soil, in February. Regular coco rooting blocks didn't work, the seeds needed soil. Seedlings were put in at two sets of true leaves, in 14-gallon totes. There was a bit of transplant shock, but then the plants took off. At two weeks in they were already growing six inches or more each day. At every leaf node a very strong, powerful tendril comes out and wraps around anything available. These need to be cut with scissors when lowering the vines.
Above you can see the pvc pipe plus tubing used in the automatic watering, as well as vinyl tubing to the air stones. You can also see some of the older leaves starting to yellow and die. When I had enough vine length, the vine was passed under the stairs next to this pot and trained over my neighbor's balcony. The same was done a little later for the second vine, except lower down the stairs.
The tenerumi can be eaten, but take care to leave some for extended growth closer to the origin of the stem. I didn't, which means that one of the plants now has fresh growth only at the end of 15 feet of vine. On a balcony like this, with limited space, you need to be very careful with where to train the vines.
The leaves are gigantic. The blossoms open at dusk, and close by morning. There is about a 4:1 ratio of male to female flowers. The males have a long stem and look like this, while the females look like this and have a noticeable unfertilized fruit attached. The females need to be pollinated by hand. I use a q-tip, first fluffing up the end a bit, then jamming it into a male and picking up lots of pollen, then rubbing it all over the stamens of the female. Do this twice for extra germination chances. If the pollen doesn't take, the fruit will stop growing and eventually turn black and fall off. If it does work, the fruit will start to get larger.
This is about 1.5 weeks' growth. The fruit can be harvested at about 2.5 feet. It will continue to get longer and tougher over time, eventually reaching up to six feet in length. The fruit have no problems with weight, as the vine itself takes care of that.
Now for some hydroponic details. I'm using an 8 watt diaphragm pump with three connections into the container. This pump was thrice as expensive as the usual 20w hydrofarm pumps I use, but it runs much cooler and there are way more bubbles. See the comparison here. The roots are thick and suck up a lot of water:
At this point I've set up a tube to pump water from a reservoir I have in the corner of the balcony once a day, because otherwise too much the roots are exposed to too much air.
The pH is kept over 6.0. At lower than 5.8, the leaves will start to wilt. However, the cucuzza is remarkably hardy in that the pH can go lower and it will still grow without damage. I let mine get to 5.2 for at least a day without major effects. I use an unbuffered nutrient mix (15-5-15) which can be a bit high in nitrogen later in the season. Having no resources for nutrient numbers I went with 1100 ppm nutrient concentration. The plants remove ~150 ppm of that each day. This means a lot of attention needs to be given to adding nutes on a regular basis. A third of the water total is replaced each week.
I supplement the usual stuff with Bombardier sugar (4-0-0) and small dosages of Katon (0-0-26). Recently I've also started to foliar spray with the Bombardier to help the fruit get just a bit sweeter perhaps. Soon I will replace the usual stuff with a more balanced combination of Bombardier Sugar, Rhyzo, and Katon to focus less on vine growth and more on flower and fruit production.
There have been no insects or diseases yet, though some resources suggest that squash borers or aphids could be a problem later in the season.
In the picture at the beginning, the oldest leaves of one plant are dying off while the main growth is at the far end. The second plant has just produced two fruit at the left, unseen behind the foliage, and another one almost ready for harvest elsewhere on the plant.
This should be enough information for you hydroponic growers and everyone else. Happy eating!
P.S. Above is a gallon of suyo long cucumbers, soon to be sour pickles. This was just 3.5 cucumbers! I keep letting them grow for too long. (First there's a 7:1 male:female ratio with these four plants, then six giant cucumbers show up that I have to pickle to avoid spoilage. Really all over with this variety.)
Update (6-5-15): I've noticed that females will often be produced on the sideshoots that form at each leaf node on the main stem. Let the sideshoots grow to a certain length, until you see some itty-bitty females, then remove the growing tip to keep energy going to the main stem.
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