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Sep 4, 2008 8:15 pm US/Central
NYC Woman Grows 6-Foot Zucchini In Backyard
Apollonia Castiglione Reveals Secret To Massive Vegetable
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A Queens, N.Y. woman has grown a 6-foot-long zucchini in her backyard. (File)
CBS
It would take a lot of effort to squish this squash.
A Queens woman managed to grow a gigantic zucchini in her backyard.
CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City got to the root of the story to find out how she did it.
Jack, you can take your beanstalk and go home. Meet Apollonia and her 6-foot zucchini.
"I had another big one one year but it was a totally different zucchini," gardener Apollonia Castiglione said.
Castiglione didn't need any magic to grow her giant zucchini -- just some seeds from her friends.
"I've never seen anything so long. I was just amazed," she said.
Castiglione has been gardening for 26 years, but this is the first time she's seen anything like this in her vegetable patch.
"If you're any kind of gardener ... you come across something that long ... you know it's not normal," gardener Emery DeVito said.
Castiglione said the speed that the zucchini was growing really took her by surprise. The variety she grew is called an Italian long zucchini ... or "caccutse."
"I named it, 'Coo-coo-08,' she said.
Zucchinis normally can grow to be between two and four feet long. They grow best in climates like ours -- with warm days and cooler nights.
"I used to come every day," Castiglione said. "I was like, 'Oh my God!'"
While Castiglione's vegetable is great to look at, this super-sized zucchini is not something you want to put on your plate. When zucchinis get longer than four feet they're no longer good to eat.
" No you cannot eat this, and it's, like, old," Castiglione said.
So how did she do it? Some sort of secret formula fertilizer? Maybe an ultra powerful plant food?
No. Castiglione said when it came to taking care of this zucchini she just kept it simple.
"I just put compost ... and lots of my time," she said.
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