Hi, all,
Please share your observations, photos, questions and tips for developing your C. maxima landrace. Looking forward to hearing from you!
DebbieA
moschata/maxima seed steward
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I planted a variety of maximas mixed together in two 3 sisters/milpa style beds. A combination of the following seeds:
Lower Salmon River, from a local seed swap
Marine grey kabocha, from uprising seeds, seed saved from my garden
Maxima mash-up, from Wild Dreams Farm (multi-year grex of Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat, Lower Salmon River, Kabocha, and Red Kuri)
Planted two seeds of a single type in 15 different spots, with the intention of culling to the most vigorous plant in each spot and letting them compete and cross with each other from there. A few seeds failed to germinate, so I’ll end up with ~12-14 plants. This will result in a very dense planting (~12-18 in on center in a staggered row, inter planted even more densely with corn and beans), but I wanted to include more than one plant of each variety for increased genetic diversity, at least in these early crosses, and can tolerate likely getting only one fruit per plant this year as a trade off.
This week I did most of the culling except a couple spots where both seedlings were slow to emerge and needed a few more days to evaluate for vigor. Overall, the Lower Salmon River and Maxima Mash up seeds have shown more early vigor, but there has been variation across the board. There has been very little pest or disease pressure, so selection to this point has really just been for early emergence and tolerance of relatively cool nighttime temperatures.
This is only the second time I’ve grown maximas, so I’m looking forward to harvesting a range of varieties this fall and tasting them over the winter.
