Because I still have others that haven’t rotted yet! There’s no reason to save seeds from fruits that rotted after 11 months when I can get better shelf life than that. That’s my reasoning, anyway.
Besides, it just sort of seems like a good rule of thumb: if something rots before I got around to eating it, that means the shelf life was too short to suit the whims of my habits as an eater.
I know it’s probably a patchy way to select for shelf tolerance, saving seeds from fruits that I ate at 6 months and not from fruits that rotted after 11 months, but I adjust for that by preferentially planting seeds from the oldest fruits that tasted good. If I have seeds from a fruit that was delicious that I ate at 6 months, and I eat a fruit that’s just as tasty at 11 months, I’ll plant far more seeds from the one I know lasted 11 months.
That makes sense. I think that’s a good idea when I have a full landrace in which every fruit is different. This year, I had a bunch of plants from an F1 cross, and all the plants and fruits were very similar. I figured that made it the ideal time to select for shelf life above all else, since everything else exhibited only subtle differences, including flavor.
I did save and plant seeds from my tatume squash (which had a shelf life of only three months) and my neighbor’s purebred spaghetti squashes (which had a shelf life of only six months), because they had different delicious flavors, and I wanted those represented.
Pollination starting on another plant. This one appears to be one of mine, striped, bush form, but I think some pumpkin genes got in there because it looks more round.
I picked mine when they were about a foot to two feet long. In the extreme heat of mid-July last year, that meant about two weeks. If it’s already starting to turn, that implies it may be ready to ripen off the vine now! That’s something I didn’t see with mine – they were entirely dark green when I harvested them. Maybe my picking them early taught the plant that it should ripen them into winter squash more quickly?
This one is ripening small and early, which makes sense since it’s in an entirely new environment. I have three plants already producing female flowers, six more that may start producing in the next few weeks.
When I last grew these I waited until they were striped green and orange, then harvested them to encourage production. The pumpetti produced less and produced late.
I still haven’t seen any bees around the flowers, which is concerning. I’ve had several blossoms fall off without being pollinated. I hope I don’t have to hand pollinate all summer.
About 90 days for me here, but I planted them early (April) so part of that time they were struggling with the cold. Too much cold, heat, wrong soil, too much and too little water. In Utah I planted the beginning of May and got fruit at about the same time.
I’ve wondered if it’s better to just wait until the soil has warmed up before putting in the seeds, just to avoid that initial struggle in spring when the weather is erratic. I suppose eventually you will get seeds that don’t mind the cold at all and can take advantage of spring rain. I started late this year, so it’s great to see your plants already producing.
It’s possible, but my purebred spaghetti squashes in 2021 didn’t ripen quickly either. Neither did their purebred spaghetti squash offspring in 2022. They stayed green on the plant for months. The Black Beauty zucchinis that I grew in 2021 behaved likewise.
This is very interesting. It could be an example of an epigenetic change!
Oh! Maybe it crossed with the tatume squash I grew last year! That was orange-rinded, and it had an extremely hard rind. (So hard that it was extremely difficult to cut, in fact.) It was round and ribbed, just like a Halloween pumpkin (but tasting much better).
If it’s a spaghetti zucchini x tatume cross, that could be very interesting! Tatume was the best tasting summer squash I grew last year. Their flavor as winter squash flavor was meh, but they were awesome as summer squash. And when I picked several immature before frost, they continued to ripen, and when I ate them partially ripened a few weeks later, they had mature seeds and had the best taste of all.
Of course, it could still be a spaghetti zucchini F2. Some of the spaghetti zucchini F1s had thicker rinds than others, and some had orange rinds.
As far as seed to fruit goes, hmmm . . .
According to my records, last year I planted the seeds on June 1st and harvested the first fruit on July 18th. So seven weeks, ish? I harvested the first fruit when it had been on the plant for only one week, and I ate it as a foot-and-a-half-long summer squash.
I wouldn’t think epigenetic, since we both got remarkably similar results in the f2. Even to the squashes being ripe or close to it after two weeks. That’s a huge coincidence and suggests actual genetic recombination.
It does look like the tatume shape, but without the ridges. Just solid dark green.
“It is hardy and productive, and usually almost immune to the squash borer insect (Melitta curcurbitae, a clear-wing moth), which makes it a reliable garden vegetable in infested areas. Its long vines produce a fabulous show of big yellow flowers that draw bees into the garden.”
I wonder if the short maturity is a trait of the spaghetti squash that has been obscured by inbreeding depression?
“Vining, with active tendrils” – yep, that sounds like a tatume squash! It looks like has the big thorns on its stems, too.
The spaghetti squash was vining, with small leaves and few to no tendrils. If you see that, it could easily be a spaghetti squash growth habit segregating out.
The Black Beauty zucchini and the spaghetti zucchini F1s were, of course, bush growth habit. (Bush habit is dominant and controlled by only one gene, so that’s what I’d expect from the F1 generation.)
I haven’t seen what my spaghetti zucchini F2s look like yet, by the way. I was super late getting my seeds in the ground – it took me a long time to get the swales ready, because there was a huge pile of trash I had to get cleared out, and that took a month. (Left behind by the people who owned the house before us.) I planted them about a week and a half ago, and they’re just starting to pop up and show their cotyledons.
I may not even be able to tell which are which, since I just put all the seeds for varieties I want to try in a big container, shook 'em up, and planted whatever came to hand! (Grin.)
I figure if I have no idea which are which, it’ll give me a chance to form my own opinions about which are the best, without my preconceptions of “But I expected that to be awesome!” getting in the way.
I think you’ll recognize anything that came from me. I don’t think anyone else included pie pumpkins (at least not deliberately), and the stripes are pretty distinctive on the zucchetti.
I hadn’t intended to get bees, but I may have to. Unless I pollinate them, they’re not getting pollinated. I have only seen one pollinator bee so far this season.
It’s really tempting to breed for hermaphroditic flowers, but not even sure if it’s possible with pepos.
