The Long Island Seed Project

diversity of scallop summer squash

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Scallop Summer Squash 

Revised June 25, 2007




Scallop Squash

Patty Pan or Scallop Squash are some of the earliest summer squashes described in the literature from the 1700's in early colonial America.  They were one of the squashes domesticated by the Native Americans and grown by northern tribes.  For a while they fell out of favor, but now they are all the rage when harvested at the 2-3 inch size when they are delicate, tender and beautiful lightly steamed, seasoned and plated with the main course. 



Long Island Seed's blend of Scallop Squash, "Asteroids"

We have kept old fashioned strains of White Custard, Yellow Scallop and Green Tint and made them more diverse by crossing them with some modern hybrids and then working to stabilize each of the solid colors and bicolor kinds that were selected.   Below are the crosses and parents used to produce the seed crop for 2007.  We continue to work on stabilizing our selections to keep the diversity of color yet maintaining a consistant scallop shape.



We were so glad to still have viable seed from a cross we made many years ago using an heirloom Mandan tribal squash and the source of dark green/ light green mottling (below).  This year, a pleasant and unexpected variation (same pattern but in yellow/cream) showed up.  There must be a gene that controls the pattern that we bred in but what is the cause of the expression in the very different colors?  We hope to be able to stabilize the new development.  Note how the blossom end shows the beginning of the dark green/light green combination on the yellow/cream scallop.

Last Modified:  June, 2007