This is a forum for people to discuss experiences in growing perennial cucurbits.
Here's our story.
We have been searching for that magical perennial cucurbit for the north for some time. The tropics have so many to choose from, especially chayote, which is a very common perennial crop in the tropics and subtropics.
Here is a brief review of the species we have tried:
Cucurbita foetidissima - buffalo gourd. Did not set fruit for us, I think it needed much better drainage. Did make a nice grapefruit-sized tuber. I'll give it another try in a different site this year. Only has edible seeds not edible fruits anyway. Tubers can be processed for starch but are very bitter. Probably worth growing in larger scale sites in its native range only.
Melothria pendula - cucumber berry. Grows excessively well, kind of smothers everything. Native very rare in cultivation. Small cucumbers are edible but can cause digestive problems if you eat too many. Basically too weedy for our small scale, and not that great to eat.
Thlandiantha dubia - red hailstone vine. Runs underground like 12' a year in all directions and smothers things. Beautiful flowers popular with hummingbirds. Shoots an okay edible, produces edible fruits but we only have a (non-fruiting) male. Fruits supposed to be insipid and slimy anyway. We judged this too weedy and not great to eat.
Trichosanthes kirilowii - perennial snake gourd. Our latest hope. Relative of cultivated edible snake gourd, crossing potential. Fruits of this species are sometimes pickled. Mostly a Chinese medicinal plant. Ours have flowered for two years but never set fruit. We have three, all far apart. We will try to move them closer together for 2010.