Here is a cluster of little "Floridor" summer squash. They are about the size of marbles in this photo, headed toward round "8 ball" size when ripe. This must be about day 40 for this particular plant from seed. Has anybody else tried these and do you like them? There aren't many reports about them on "Plant Files".
I have not tried Floridor. Have grown One Ball (Hollar) which some sites are claiming to be the same cultivar. I am not impressed with One Ball. It is an erratic performer for me. When it performs, it is quite pretty, and yield equivalent to its older sister ( Eight Ball). As the weather gets hot, a large number of the squash will be be dark green, although nowhere near as dark as Eight Ball. The production machine is the light green sister Cue Ball. All the "Balls" are Hollar productions. There is a light green sister to Floridor, named Geode but I have not tried that one either. here is One Ball
Thanks for the info, Farmerdill. It sounds like there are enough "8Ball" sized zuke varieties to get a pretty decent game of pool going!!
This is our second year with Floridor and I like it so far, preferable to "Eight Ball" which is the only other of this type we have grown, for production and appearance. We are just at the very beginning of harvest season up here in the Snow Belt. Can't plant much of anything outdoors until after Memorial Day in a typical year.
You probably don't get really hot weather, but it would be interesting to see if the Floridor greens up like One Ball when the temps get in high 90's. Her is an example of what happens to One Ball. They start a light bright yellow, start to show more and more green with subsequent fruits as the weather warms, Over 95 degrees and and they are mostly green.
It was in the mid 40s this morning (at approximately 7:00 am) which is cooler than usual but some indication that we aren't exactly in the tropics around here.
Very interesting comparison on the One Ball's maturation from yellow to green. Last year we let (by mistake) a couple of Floridors get larger than intended but they were still a lemony yellow even when the size of small cantelopes. I've not noticed much green (even around the stem) on Floridors compared, say, to a Gold Rush standard zuchinni which always has some substantial green around the stem area and sometimes has green striping on the otherwise gold body.
An update on the Floridor progress. Here's the same plant as the original photo, after about two weeks. We've already harvested a couple of the mature squash in the intervening days.
Here's a close-up of a mature Floridor, ready for use.
Very nice! He would look very nice next to my Ronde de Nice, which is just about right for pickin'! Hope he doesn't mind waiting until I get home from my short vacation!
Your squash will be so "Nice" to come home to :)
You're always giving me groaners! It's "Nice" to start the day with a smile!
Bdale60 Very pretty what does Floridor taste like? I have only had crookneck squash. Thanks Deanna
Hi Deanna,
Thanks! I guess Floridor has the standard "zuchinni" taste, and I'm not sure how to describe it beyond that. I"m sure the crookneck is excellent as well. In my opinion there is nothing particularly unique about Floridor's taste. I've seen some summer squash described as "nutty" or some other adjective, and that's not the case with Floridor. Just fresh, tasty, yummy zuchinni straight from the garden: pretty good! The selling points I'd offer for Floridor are that it steams up (or sautes) with a vivid yellow color (very pretty on a plate) and the small size means it makes just enough for one or two people at a time. If you want more than that, just cook more than one squash; the other night we steamed about three or four of them for the family dinner, although our kids are not big "squash eaters".....YET :) But perfect size for one or two people as a wonderful, attractive side dish on a plate.
Lots of great summer squash out there. The varieties listed on PlantFiles here on DG is mind-boggling.
I like the yellow cultivars because they're so easy to spot for picking.
Good point, LT, the yellow is indeed a lot easier to spot among the green leaves. One more point in its favor. The color combination would, I suspect, be especially pleasing to fans of John Deere tractors and/or the Green Bay Packers!!
