Guatemalan Green Ayote Moschata Squash
So I didn’t used to think I could grow Moschata squash. I had tried once or twice. Then I read about and got Lofthouse Moschata squash from both Joseph and Resilient seeds. Then I tried to add in some more genetics from a few things like Zucchini Rampicante. I really wanted Rancho Marquez squash from Native Seeds Search- tried to add it in- kind of failed. Then I wanted a seed packet of Autumn’s Choice F1 from Territorial and my wife bought me a couple packets because she was at the store in Cottage Grove, and I couldn’t think of much else. It has this really neat, banded trait that I usually only see in Cucurbita agrosperma. Then I did a seed swap with Mike Jennings down in California. He had crossed Lofthouse plus a few others with a Thai squash very similar in appearance to Rancho Marquez.
I shared some of these genetics with Wren Haffner who was doing a massive grex in the Ozarks.
About December of 2020 or January of 2021, the OSSI squash forum blew up a bit with EFN’s new offering. A Guatemalan green ayote squash. So I purchased a packet of it, and I grew half the packet of it last year and got one ripe squash and it was green and made one cross with a non-banded descendent of Autumn’s Choice F1.
So this year I went all in and planted all the saved seeds from the cross and true to type green and the rest of the original packet. So I got four squashes back and the first one I opened today, So I didn’t used to think I could grow Moschata squash. I had tried once or twice. Then I read about and got Lofthouse Moschata squash from both Joseph and Resilient seeds. Then I tried to add in some more genetics from a few things like Zucchini Rampicante. I really wanted Rancho Marquez squash from Native Seeds Search- tried to add it in- kind of failed. Then I wanted a seed packet of Autumn’s Choice F1 from Territorial and my wife bought me a couple packets because she was at the store in Cottage Grove and I couldn’t think of much else. It has this really neat banded trait that I usually only see in Cucurbita agrosperma. Then I did a seed swap with Mike Jennings down in California. He had crossed Lofthouse plus a few others with a Thai squash very similar in appearance to Rancho Marquez.
I shared some of these genetics with Wren Haffner who was doing a massive grex in the Ozarks.
About December of 2020 or January of 2021 the OSSI squash forum blew up a bit with EFN’s new offering. A Guatemalan green ayote squash. So I got it, and I grew it last year and got one ripe squash and it was green and made one cross with a non-banded descendent of Autumn’s Choice F1.
So this year I went all in and planted all the saved seeds from the cross and true to type green and the rest of the original packet. So I got four squashes back and the first one I opened today, and it was orange inside- but that can happen because the original population is variable like that.
I have to wait for the stems to dry more to open more in the hopes of viable seed.
I would love to have a banded green inside squash to show you someday, but it is a way out as I am struggling to keep the banded trait and the green inside trait for now. Maybe a cool F2 or two will show up next year.
I think that the growers at EFN have already made some progress with adapting this to Northern North America- otherwise I would have no squash to show you! My hope is that it will cross into my grex and the cool traits will survive.