Adapting a tropical squash to the North

Adaptation Projects Cucurbits
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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.

ayote, WS
ayote, WS1600×2844 139 KB

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Debbie A
I planted the EFN green ayote seed with other moschata this year, but had an unusually bad year overall. I’m doubtful that any will be green-fleshed. So it’s a pleasure to see yours! How does the taste compare to other moschata? By any chance, do you know what compound makes the flesh green?

William S
It tastes fine. Just tastes like squash to me. Good though. I decided to save half of the small orange one for my wife and I kind of wanted to keep eating it. I don’t know what compound it is. There is a YouTube video from the culinary breeding network and the experts in it didn’t know for sure.

Also if you have a big pile of squash and you are wondering if somewhere in there might just possibly be an guatemalan green ayote. They start out with this really dark green vibrant striping. At that stage I can even tell them apart from other green striped moschatas in my grex like those from the thai cross and autumn’s choice descendents that have lost the banding. They are a darker more vibrant green. When they ripen up fully they do change color again though.

Debbie A
Hmm. I may have a candidate, but I guess I’ll have to cut it open to be sure. It started with green stripes, but has become more orange as it has matured. It could be a Honeynut.

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I opened the last two Ayote last weekend. They were both the orange phase. No green ones for me in 2022! I am very curious to know if they will segregate back.

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I just recently realized that I have made too general assumptions based on latitude. I was looking at topographical map and noticed that many countries that I considered tropical had signifacant highlands, high enough to have comparable temperatures to my summer or even lower. Guetemala is one of those countries. Based on topographic map it seems that even most of the population lives in the highlands so maybe that squash has some origins there too? Capital is at 1500 meters with highest monthly average of just over 20C and some cities 2300 meters up with highest monthly average just over 15C. Atleast I would think some squash are grown quite high up as the temperatures are not too low for that and long season helps with getting ripe fruit even with lower temperatures. In some areas high up even winter would be warm enough, just dry. Summer on the other hand would be wet so that might be where adabtion is needed. Would be interesting to know where exactly that squash has origings and if they are grown even higher up.

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Yeah seems to be working whatever is behind it!

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I cut open all of my Ayotes yesterday (hoophouse grown).

They were very very sweet! Some of the sweetest I’ve eaten this year, and all consistently sweet, regardless of color.
Here is the range of colors I got.

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Darker when cooked

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The soup was too sweet for me, I had to add a lot of chimmichurri and hot sauce.

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Flavor (for me) was more appropriate for my breakfast porridge.

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I’ll be adding seeds to my seed form if you want any.

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I just recently realized that I have made too general assumptions based on latitude. I was looking at topographical map and noticed that many countries that I considered tropical had signifacant highlands, high enough to have comparable temperatures to my summer or even lower.

Oh, that’s really interesting! That’s similar to what I’ve discovered with banana species. I keep finding that species from high in the Himalayan Mountains are often reasonably cold hardy, especially compared with the tropical species people usually eat.

As a general principle, looking for related species, or varieties, of a tropical crop that grows in the mountains of the same area is probably a great idea when wanting to breed for cold hardiness.

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@UnicornEmily Yes, definetely. It’s just sometimes hard to find any information from most crops. Like Ethiopia is mainly highland and okra comes from that area, but couldn’t find any info about okra varieties/landraces that would come from Ethiopia and especially those that would come from more higher up. With millenias to adapt I find it hard to believe that there weren’t any that are little bit more adapted to cold. Something like south american chilies it’s often known what country those come from, but then most countries there have wildly different climates even within region of the country. I have taken gamble even if I didn’t know where exactly they are and knowing that countries like Guetemala could have cooler climates widened my searh from those that I knew before. Still frustrating that there aren’t more information about the area some species/varieties/landraces are from. Feels like there must be completely different world just waiting to be found.

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A couple of months ago I found a pack of Ayote seeds and I hope at least one of the plants produce a squash. The information I found describe it as a Landrace. Last year I planted Zambian landrace okra and most plants didn’t even produce a pod but one towered over all of my plants. My hope is this happens with Ayote squash.

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Yes! Maybe eventually, we’ll have such a big community that we can have fellow plant geeks seeking out local germplasm and swapping seeds internationally to all corners of the globe.

. . . When it’s possible. Which it often isn’t, given the challenges inherent in shipping seeds internationally. And those challenges are often in place for very good reasons, as no one wants another invasive species like kudzu destroying an ecosystem.