I can't help you with a variety since I have no notion about your conditions but I would just mention that I grow yellow ones so that I don't miss any when picking and end up with enormous marrows.

What a good idea! I always seem to end up with a few monster sized ones because I miss them. Thanks!

I grow an heirloom version of round zucchini, Tondo Scuro Di Piacenza (Baker Creek Seeds) and they are very productive - not as crazy as regular zucchini but I did have more than I knew what to do with. They seemed to grow more compactly than regular zukes, and had less PM issues for me, too.

Trying out Zucchino Rampicante (Tromboncino) this year, but I haven't grown it before so I can't give recommendations, yet ;)

Thanks Humsi. I noticed that my local nursery has Rampicante as well. I was a little put off because their notes say that it needs "strong support" - I don't have a trellis or anything like that.

Concur zuchinni comes in many shapes and colors, so it becomes a matter of experimenting to find one that suits your taste. I personnally prefer the light green middle eastern types. But they are all good. sometimes. The round types are as productive as the traditional cylindrical types under my conditions.

I also grow some of the dark green varieties both round and cylindrical but you seem to be more familiar with those.

Yes, I have read Rampicante is not named that for nothing! I have mine growing on some cattle panel so hopefully it's enough support. You know, in this area any squash should grow well, but one caveat is that I often succession plant my squash because they will inevitably come down with fatal powdery mildew well before the season is over. The only ones I usually don't replant once or twice a season is the "normal" zukes, usually I'm sick of them well before they die on me ;)

Golden Egg is pretty good, though seeds are kinda expensive.

I like Italian striped varieties like Cocozelle. They're pretty, tasty and productive but not at the frightening fast pace like Dark Green zucchini.

Black Beauty was the only one I've grown, and I'm new to gardening, so I have limited experience. A local grocery store carried the seeds, so I bought them to try out. Loved the taste, so easy to grow, but at the end of the season, I did get powdery mildew that I didn't bother to treat since it was at the end of the season. I did let one zuke go to yellow and I saved seeds. Just planted one with one of the seeds I saved and it germinated last week. Am also planting Dunja this year, one of them just germinated, hope they grow and taste good.

I tried various ways of fighting powdery mildew (milk, Serenade, potasium bicarbonate) and each really didn't arrest the mildew. The winning moved was to remove the mildew leaves, they are always the older and closer to where the plant stem comes out of the ground. The newer leaves have resistance for 10-14 days and then you remove again. In the meantime, the zuchinni continue to come.

I plan to try two varieties from Territorial Seed this year bred in Powdery Mildew resistance. We'll see how much that helps.

Thanks everyone!

I've also largely just cut off the mildewed leaves with no particularly bad effect on the rest of the plant. Usually by the time the mildew comes, the plant is extremely large anyway, and at least where I am, mildew is just a May/June thing. By the time July & August roll around, it's extremely hot and dry, which pretty much takes care of it.

I stumbled on something else that helped (only I don't fully understand what it was..) In a 30 foot (down hill) row, the plants highest on the hill, had the most mildew and those at the bottom were bigger and healthier, not getting the mildew for weeks despite close spacing of all plants in this row.

I've heard that Powdery Mildew actually prefers dry conditions, or at least dry roots. This makes sense based on my experience. The theory being that all the water ran down hill and the roots of those plants had quite a bit more water in the soil.

Anybody else have opinion or experience around this?