Need info - Hybrid Squash, King Ka Ae F1 possibly known as Korean Pumpkin

[Zootal]

I have some seeds I picked up at a local oriental food store for "Hybrid Squash, King Ka Ae F1". The seeds are from the Asia Seed Co, Seol, Korea. I bought them and am currently growing them. I choose them just to try something different. If you go to

select the seventh entry under "Shopping Category", you see a page with different squaash types. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, you see [1] [2], indicating two pages. Select the [2]. Scroll to bottom. The lower left picture shows three zuchinni-type green squash. The site and seed packet are all in Korean and I've not had much luck translating. I asked at the store, but the young man there didn't know anything about them except that he thought they were known as "Korean Pumpkin".

So, they are a vining squash plant, prolific. I picked the fruit at about eight inches, they look just as pictured on the web site and see packet. They taste like pumpkin or winter squash - not at all like a summer squash.

Anyone know anything about these? How they are grown, how they are eaten? Harvested small, big, etc.?

I can take pics of the plants in my garden and post them if anyone wants to see them.

[Pat Kiewicz]

The picture on the web page almost exactly like the squash that I've seen used in the Korean television show Dae Jang Geum**. These were sliced in coins (or half-moons) and added to stir-fried, steamed and stewed dishes. One time I saw it as a dried vegetable, which was soaked to reconstitute and then used in a stewed dish.

Google translate gives the name of the squash you are talking about as "stud squash" -- certainly sounds like an awkward translation. Is that some reference to, hmm, virility?

This is obviously not a zuchinni type sqash as it grows on running vines, but from the picture given it looks to be a variety selected to be used when still tender and young. (In fact, the previous page has a picture of what is obviously a typical Western zuchinni/ summer squash.)

I think you might want to look for Korean recipes that require "ho-bak" or "ae ho-bak" (baby squash) and see what you might like to try.

If you were to take pictures, I'd like to see the blossoms and the stem end of the fruit. Are the leaves and flowers the same size as you'd expect in, say a pumpkin or are they smaller?

**Dae Jang Geum was shown in the US under the title "Jewel in the Palace." It is a historical drama based on a real person, set in Korea in the early 16th century. Lots of cooking, traditional medicine, some small amount of gardening, plenty of political intrigue and one of the most marvelous villianesses ever. The story is colorful and melodramatic, but the acting restrained. (It is perhaps my favorite television show EVER. I originally saw it on the defunct AZN cable network, but I got the whole series on DVD for my birthday this year and it is just as good as I remembered.) In Korean, with English subtitles.

Cribbing from Wikipedia: Dae Jang Geum... is a 2003 TV series produced by South Korean TV channel MBC(Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation).

Loosely based on the historical figure depicted in the Annals of Joseon Dynasty, the show focuses on Jang-geum (played by Lee Young Ae), the first female royal physician of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. The main themes are her perseverance and the portrayal of traditional Korean culture, including Korean royal court cuisine and traditional medicine.

[Zootal]

Thanks for the info! We've had hot weather lately, and the plants haven't done as well as my other squash has. They did real well until the temp hit about 85+. A week ago we had almost a week of 100 degree weather, and the plants did not like it at all. They wilt easily under the sun, much more so then other squash.

There weren't any blossoms open today, but here is a pic that shows the leaves and a bud that will probably be open tomorrow. The flowers look like other squash flowers - I'll be sure to get a pic of this one tomorrow when it is open.

are long vining plants and have grown out into the grass and the neighbors field. The leaves are mottled, this pic shows the older leaves with faint white blotches, and newer yellowish leaves grew when the weather was hot.:

inch fruit - note the damage to the leaf. Some of my cucumbers developed the same type of leaf damage after the last bout of 100+ heat we had, where other varieties seemed to like the heat just fine: morning my wife discovered a long vine that went through our tomatillos and came out the other end and started to climb the fence - I had no idea it was there. You can see the tomatillo fruits in this pic, as well as the vine snaking its way through. This fruit is ~10 inches long or so - that is my wife's hand holding it. I haven't decided if I want pick it or let it grow and see what it does. The fruits taste like pumpkin, not zuchinni, and I'm thinking it might make good pies (we make squash pies out of all kinds of winter squash - nummy!)

[Pat Kiewicz]

From the pictures so far, this sure looks like a Cucurbita squash, and with the longish stems on the young fruit, possibly C. moschata. (It's definitely not C. maxima.)

Very interesting. Would love to try it.

[Zootal]

'm letting a couple of them grow big to see what they do. Should be interesting :)

[Pat Kiewicz]

seem to be a match for the front...

The line italic text, "Beta bulgaris" a common typo for Beta vulgaris and the genus 'Beta' is most definitely beets. The planting/harvesting times in the chart seem be more appropriate for beets than any sort of squash as well.

(There's a pasted on correction of some sort in the information table at the bottom of the packet, too.)

BTW, for some reason my newsreader mashes together any URLs you post as one line right after another. Weird. I end up having to do some cutting and pasting to sort them out.

[King Ka Ae F1 Hybrid Squash (h]

replying to Zootal , King Ka Ae wrote

I am looking for some information also. Attached is a photo of the packet, the information is in Korean / Hangul. Maybe someone will be kind enough to translate and post the information.

[IMG]

[Ray]

replying to King Ka Ae F1 Hybrid Squash (h, Ray wrote: My daughter got the exact package of seeds for me last year in Chicago, and I thought they were delicious and seemed more resistant to squash bug than the usual varieties I have grown. She no longer lives in Chicago, and I have had no luck finding these seeds this year. I picked them about 6" long and used just as I would "regular" zucchini, except they are drier when grated and I hesitated making zucchini bread with them.

[songbird]

try Tromboncino.

songbird