Do you have any ethnic markets around you....How far is Berkley Market (Alameda county) from OC...

A bit far! About half-way up the state.

However, should be able to locate ethnic markets in either Orange or LA Counties.

The spiny chayote are pretty common in the San Jose/San Francisco area, you might want to contact the Master Gardeners up there. One of them gave me my starts when I lived in San Jose. I understand why you want the spiny one, it is larger fruited & more vigorous.

Are you kidding me? I live in Kansas City and we have chayote squash all over the place. Even in the suburban mainstream grocery stores. I can think of 4 or 5 stores within a couple of miles of me that have them so I can't believe they're that hard to find in Orange County. I'm sure someone in the Los Angeles area has them at the grocery store.

Hey teauteau; What Anthony is looking for is the one that is covered in green thorns (covering the actual fruit). "Marina Farms on Centinella Ave. near Jefferson blvd in Culver City (L.A.) carries them in the late summer early fall.

Hey Zebraman, I'm hip. We have both kinds in the store. I have only eaten the smooth ones. Haven't tried the spiny ones. Are the spiny ones only available in the Fall? I live by three grocery stores which are mainstream grocery stores but they all have large ethnic sections in Produce and Dry Goods for Asian and Latino cultures. We have both types of chayote, a gillion different dried and fresh peppers, lemon grass, cactus (nopales), banana leaves, corn husks, yuca root, different types of citrus and other fresh vegetables that one did not see in the stores here in KC 5 years ago. I guess I will have to try the spiny chayote too. I was just surprised that the squash were hard to find in Southern California when they're at my fingertips all the time! Thanx!

Hey teauteau; Sorry about that. Most people only know of the smooth. The spiny ones taste better than the smooth. They are hard to find here, the smooth however, are ubiquitis.

Anthony

Do I understand you're in Zone 1?

I thought that was in Alaska or the North Pole!

Thanks for your quick answers, sorry for my slow response.

My true motive is to shade the back of my house and get a tasty treat in the bargain. I have done this for years, but last year I didn't have any spiny Chayote left over. I found the smooth ones, but I didn't have any luck with them. They hardly grew at all. I also like the taste of the spiny ones better. I'll keep looking.

Anthony,
Try Whole Foods in Tustin. Zebraman states the spiny type are only available in the late summer or early fall. I didn't know that as I've only eaten the smooth ones but now that I think of it, the spiny ones are not always available. Anyway, try Whole Foods.

I haven't seen any spiny chayotes lately so Zebraman must know what he is talking about. When I did some research on it, some of the references indicated late summer to fall for spiny but that smooth-skinned was available year-round in the U.S. I saw some smooth-skinned in the store yesterday so maybe it's just the time of year. I'm going to grow some this year. I grew some a few years ago but I didn't water them enough. It gets really hot here and we have about 6 weeks of drought from July to August and I was growing them in a container. They sprouted really well on my granite-top kitchen island and I planted them in a large container in the back yard but went out of town on business for a week and they were wilted when I got back (it had been over 100F every day for several days) and they never did snap out of it. I'll try again this year and see what happens.

I've never seen the spiny ones. I'll watch for them later in the year. But the recent talk of chayote here has me growing a few of the smooth ones. I've never grown anything quite like it. It was kinda freaky to have a big spout and some roots grow out of the fruit while it was just sitting on my countertop.

The farmers must get their seeds someplace. Anybody know where? Feel free to guess.

The Chayote fruit is the seed. It is Day-Length sensitive. You need a frost free Fall and early Winter to produce full grown fruit with viable seed. In Mexico and S.America these plants grow all year and flower both in the spring and fall. You do have to grow the plant all winter to get it to bloom in the spring. It is the 12 hour period of daylight that induces the plant to bloom.
The farmers are getting the fruit from other growers which are plentiful in it's natural habitat.

Follow up- About my Zone. I swear that my seed packets say that I live in zone 1, but the zone finder puts me in zone 10. I'll just have to open a new account. Thanks for pointing that out.

Anthony, You can find the spiny chayotes every weekend at the Cypress College swap meet. Good luck!