Cucurbita Landrace (Breeding Squash for the Edible Leaves/Flowers)

Adaptation Projects
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All Squash Species (Cucurbita spp.) Have edible Leaves, Shoots, Flowers, Fruits, & Seeds. So long as they are not bitter all are above ground parts are edible raw or cooked.

Check it out for yourself (Just don’t Eat Squash Micro Greens because of toxin Sprouting seeds they Produce)
Cucurbita maxima PFAF: Cucurbita maxima Winter Squash PFAF Plant Database
Cucurbita moshchata PFAF: Cucurbita moschata Squash, Crookneck squash PFAF Plant Database
Cucurbita pepo PFAF: Cucurbita pepo Pumpkin, Field pumpkin, Ozark melon, Texas gourd PFAF Plant Database
Cucurbita ficifolia PFAF: Cucurbita ficifolia Malabar Gourd, Figleaf gourd PFAF Plant Database

Has anybody tried breeding Squash for the Salad Greens they can Yield? Or for the Tasty Flowers they make? How about the Nice Tender Shoots with Tendrils? I enjoy the taste of the most tender leaves raw but the texture on older leafs can get annoying (Especially Pepo Types, They typically have the most Spikes). Cooking Solved the annoying texture issue.
Seriously tho, Squash Greens have Potential to become a New Vegetable.

I also enjoy Squash Flowers (Especially in the mornings when they 1st open), Imagine if we Bred a Landrace for Bigger Flowers, Filled with more Sweet Nectar and Plants that produce a crap ton of flowers.

ALSO BIG QUESTION, can you taste cucurbitacin in the leaves to find out if you should cull the plant? Think about how this will speed up Landracing Squash! You don’t have to wait until it flowers and risk cross pollination with Bitter Squash, that way no more Sacrificing a Year’s Worth of Seeds, like how Lofthouse did.
Only problem is groundhogs and Deer, they Love Squash Leaves. Maybe they can help you tell which plants are not bitter? But I feel Squashbugs are much better for this instead.
I treat Squashbugs like my friends because they only eat Nasty Bitter Squash, Squash I wouldn’t want anyways right? They can detect cucurbitacin and use it for defense mechanism right? Just some Food for Thought hehe.

Anybody Breeding Squash this way? Who wants to work with me?

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Squash bugs used to take put all my squash indiscriminately. I never noticed any correlation between squash bug attack and bitterness.

But then, I’ve never been in the habit of planting bitter squash.

Many people enjoy squash blossoms. One gentleman was upset and asking why he wasn’t getting any squash-- he lived them so much he was harvesting all his male blossoms!

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Hmm Interesting. I think they prefer bitter squash but will flock to non bitter squash if none are around. I’m not sure.

About Squash Blossoms, if you got no Female Flowers at the moment, you might as well eat all the males until a female flower forms. Then leave a male to Pollinate or… EVEN BETTER Save the pollen of your male blossoms to use for later hybridizations! Just in case if no females appear.

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