In pool, one ball decides the game: the black eight. Sink it too early and you lose. Pot it at the right moment and you win. The 8 ball has to be the last one pocketed. The vegetable garden works the same way. Pick ‘Eight Ball’ at the right moment and you’ve won: a glossy, almost black-green sphere with proper courgette flavour.
A Modern Success Story from Colorado
Unlike its Tuscan cousin, ‘Tonda chiara di Toscana’, ‘Eight Ball’ has no centuries-old, murky origin. Its history is recent and well documented. It was developed in the 1990s by Hollar Seeds in Colorado. Breeder Larry Hollar worked with round squash germplasm collected internationally. He spent four years gathering round squash seeds from around the world and making deliberate crosses. The result was a dark-green, uniformly spherical hybrid.
In 1999 it won an All-America Selections award. AAS describes it as the first dark green, round zucchini. Hollar didn’t invent the round courgette, though; the Florentines had that covered long before. There’s no evidence the Tuscan variety was one of Eight Ball’s parents. Instead, Hollar brought a deliberately bred, modern version to market, focused on uniformity, compact growth and productivity.
F1 — What Does It Mean?
“F1” stands for the first filial generation, from the Latin filius, son. An F1 hybrid comes from crossing two carefully inbred parent lines. The offspring are very uniform and often more vigorous than either parent. The catch: seed saved from your own harvest scatters into mixed traits in the next generation (F2). For true-to-type plants, you buy fresh seed each year.
The Game Goes On: Breeding Against Mildew
The story didn’t end with the 1999 award. Hollar extended the series with more “balls”. In 2016, researchers published a new generation: ‘One BallPlus’, ‘Six Ball’, ‘Eight BallPlus’ and ‘Cue BallPlus’. The breeding goals were:
- resistance to powdery mildew
- more uniform fruit
- smaller blossom scars
- easier harvesting
- in some cases, resistance to key courgette viruses
These are growing and harvest improvements, not a promise of better flavour. But the work shows. In a two-year University of Kentucky trial, Eight Ball and Mexicana had significantly lower powdery mildew severity than every other cultivar tested in the second year.
How the Eight Got Its Name
The name is a perfect shot. The fruits are perfectly round and so dark they look almost black, just like the 8 on the pool table. And the ideal time to pick is when the fruit is about the size of a billiard ball.
The whole family is in on the game:
- ‘Eight Ball’ — dark green, the “black eight”
- ‘Cue Ball’ — pale green like the white ball. Its round shape and pale colour recall the cue ball, which inspired the name
- ‘One Ball’ — bright yellow, like the yellow 1-ball in pool
You can even buy mixed packets, with One Ball, Cue Ball and Eight Ball in a single packet. That puts a whole pool table in your vegetable bed.
Why I Think It’s the Best
I’ve grown ‘Tonda chiara di Toscana’ and ‘Eight Ball’ side by side, and my vote goes to the Eight:
- Real courgette flavour. It tastes like a courgette should, stronger than the delicate Tuscan. It reminds me of the long ‘Black Forest’ type. Fedco notes that it brings the sweetness and squash flavour round courgettes used to lack.
- Early and generous. AAS lists about 35 days from sowing to harvest.
- Compact and easy to see. The open bush habit keeps fruits visible, so the monster courgette hiding under a leaf is rare.
- Tougher against mildew than many varieties, though not immune.
To be fair, taste impressions depend heavily on harvest size, growing conditions and cooking. There’s no controlled side-by-side tasting. The yellow varieties, by the way, are milder, almost mallow-like.
How to Grow It
Sowing: In Austria, start seeds indoors in April or May, 1–2 cm deep in peat or seedling pots. Handle roots gently when transplanting. Plant out only after the last frost, usually after the mid-May “Ice Saints”. Direct sowing works too: about 2.5 cm deep once frost has passed.
Spacing: About 60–90 cm, depending on conditions.
Watering: Water at the base, never over the leaves. Wet foliage is a common cause of disease.
Pollination: Courgettes carry separate male and female flowers, so no bees means no fruit. That’s why I add good neighbours:
- nasturtiums and borage for bees
- French marigolds and flowering dill for hoverflies and beneficial insects
- bush beans to make good use of space
Harvesting: Pick at 6–8 cm across, while the skin is still tender. Harvest regularly and new fruits keep coming.
In the Kitchen: The Perfect Ball
‘Eight Ball’ is an all-rounder:
- Stuffed: Slice off a lid, hollow it out, fill it with rice, herbs, cheese or sausage meat, and bake. The scooped-out flesh goes, chopped, into the filling.
- Raw: thinly sliced in salads or as crudo
- Grilled or pan-fried: in thick slices
- Preserved: pickled or frozen, a handy store for winter
It also provides vitamins A and C, magnesium, folate, choline and fibre.
My Verdict
‘Eight Ball’ is a modern classic: purpose-bred, award-winning and steadily improved. Above all, it tastes like courgette. If you want history and delicacy, choose the Tuscan. If you want flavour, yield and an easy plant, rack up the black eight and sink it.
Sources: Squash Eight Ball F1 — All-America Selections · Eight Ball Squash — Specialty Produce · Eight Ball Zucchini — Fedco Seeds · Pool Ball Zucchini Mix — J.W. Jung Seed · Susceptibility of Zucchini Cultivars to Powdery Mildew — University of Kentucky
