Adaptation

Watermelons. The vine that had the necked melons died in that last rainstorm.





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Peach seedling

Apricot


Cherry

Plum

Almond is pretty weak.

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I love all these pictures!

The pictures of the fruit tree seedlings are really nice, because I’m planting seeds of all those fruits (except for almonds), and it’s awesome to know they are easy to identify when they come up.

And I agree that white squash phenotype is really intriguing. I hope it’s tasty!

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The white one looks like a throwback to my original zucchini, except that it was never white like that, and it’s a vine, and that’s the only fruit, and it’s small.

I saw my first vine borer yesterday and squished it. Several of these plants are rooting at the nodes so I should be giving them precedence in planting. I think I’m going to jump back and call this my first year on this project, since this area requires very different plant types.

Only one bush zucchetti survived, all the rest were vines. The plants also want a split season. They stopped producing during that hot spell and now I’m seeing female blossoms again.

Yeah, I think calling this year one of your landrace would be wise. Your landrace from before is similar to getting one from somebody else: it’s adapted to a different part of the country. It’s still a landrace, and should therefore have lots of diversity and be able to adapt quickly, but it’s not a landrace for your current land!

Were the watermelons with the necks a particular variety or the result of them crossing?

They would be a possible f2 or f3. Possibly more or less. But I know for a fact that the Art Combe watermelon was in the mix and that does have the crookneck trait.

Dang. I had a necked melon this year and decided I want all my melons to be like that. They’re so much easier to handle because you can carry them with one hand.

I got seeds from each one. The seeds for the Art Combe watermelon are available at various stores as well. Even though it appears to be very sensitive to being overwatered, you could probably get that trait into your population if you wanted to.

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Thank you. This is my first year so I am not picky about appearance, but after a couple years some ribbing with a neck is welcome.


First pumpetti of the year. Very thin shell, and starting to go soft after only a month. That may be because it was picked partially green, but I don’t think so. The others picked at the same stage are fine.

There are two more from that vine. If they do the same thing I’ll probably discard these seeds.

Makes sense. Were they tasty?

Haven’t tasted it yet. I was going to do a stuffed pumpetti yesterday for dinner and somehow ended up eating rice instead.

Picked my first canteloupe a few days ago. Like the watermelon, it was splitting. I brought it in and let it finish ripening. Two more in the patch. I think I got something like ten plants, but only two produced. Hopefully the others donated some pollen.


The others are both netted, in a sense.

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It finished ripening off the vine? If so, that’s a nice trait!

I was outside yesterday and smelled something wonderful. I traced it to my melon patch, but whatever it is I can’t find it

I suspect that somewhere in the mass of grass and leaves is a melon that has finished ripening and is begging for something to come and scatter its seeds for next spring.

If it tastes the way it smells, that’s an amazing melon!

Meh. It tasted like a stringy pumpkin, and not stringy in the spaghetti squash way. Just stringy.

Found it–maybe. It doesn’t smell like last night, but it’s fully ripe and I’ll keep the seeds!

I think I found it. Smells like cantaloupe, with a floral citrus undertone. Almost like lemon blossoms with cinnamon. There’s another tang to it that I know I’ve smelled before but I can’t identify it.

Unfortunately it had just the barest hint of that flavor in the flesh. It was all in the skin and the pulp. I’m definitely keeping the seeds for this one.

Fascinating! It’s a shame the aroma didn’t translate into being strongly in the flesh, but that smell sounds delectable. Was the flavor good anyway?