My husband is begging to grow hubbard squash this year. I have lots of wonderful flower seeds to trade in return! Here is a link that might be useful: My Trade List

I have some I can share! Message me!

My personal favorite zucchini substitute is tromboncino, since it is resistant to most of the bugs & diseases that can strike zucchini. Just picked a bucket full today. I think you already hit the nail on the head with chayote. It thrives in hot, humid climates where frost is late or non existent. It is also perennial, and will get stronger every year. Quite a space hog, but if you have already grown cucuzzi, you probably have room for it. It will do its best if given a permanent trellis. When I grew it in SoCal, I used a large horizontal trellis suspended 6 feet above the ground, with fencing to train the young vines to the top. The vines spread out & completely covered the trellis, making a nice arbor... and when the squash appeared, they hung down from the trellis & were easy to pick. You need at least two vines for good pollination. After several years, getting 100 squash per vine is not out of the question. You might also want to consider another tropical, perennial squash - Malabar gourd (a.k.a. fig leaf gourd, shark fin melon). Look up "shark fin melon" on this forum, there is a very informative thread (link below). You can eat the immature squash like summer squash, or let them mature. They take up a lot of space, more than even the most rampant winter squashes I've grown... and if allowed to sprawl, probably more than any other vegetable. The vines can be trained to climb, though. Here is a link that might be useful: Shark fin melon This post was edited by zeedman on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 23:11

There two major species of Luffa and Many varieties. some varieties are daylight sensitive and will only fruit on deceasing daylight in late summer-early fall. Most of the time Chinese okra refers to the species angled luffa whereas the smooth luffa is simply called vine okra. Not allways the case however so I have no idea what type or variety you are growing. Evergreen has about the best collection in one place. http://www.evergreenseeds.com/edibleluffa.html