Location Background: We are based on the Mendocino Coast in Northern Ca, where in the summer it rarely gets above 60 degrees and we receive lots of coastal fog. Temperatures year round are mild but cold, and farmers/gardeners struggle to grow warm weather crops. Greenhouses are needed for crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and other crops like melons typically aren’t even considered.
Another crop we are working on adapting to our cooler coastal climate are hulless pumpkins (cucurbita pepo). We chose hulless pumpkins because it can be difficult to grow crops with high levels of fat in our climate. We are excited about growing calorically dense staple crops to help create more access to nutritionally dense foods. In addition to selecting for cold-hardiness, we are also selecting for a no-till, low input system (no greenhouse, heat mats, or inputs beyond a small amount of compost). We are hoping over time to end up with a hulless pumpkin with not only tasty seeds but also tasty flesh. For this adaptation project we are working with many different varieties of hulless pumpkins; we actually are just growing out almost every type we could find online that was more resilient to the cold. This will allow us to maximize diversity and to select and stabilize from there. This mix even includes some hybrids that are bred for tasty flesh and tasty seeds. Here are the varieties: Naked Bear F1 (Territorial Seeds ), Styrian (Siskiyou Seeds), Lady Godiva (Baker Creek), Kakai (Baker Creek), Pie Pita F1 (High Mowing Seeds), Emerald Naked Seeded Pumpkin (Experimental Farm Network). Lastly, there are hulless pumpkin seeds we just received that have been grown and saved on the coast that we just flatted today 6/14/24.
We seeded the hulless pumpkins at the same time as the melons (on May 7th 2024). We seeded enough for about 200 square feet, in flats but outside. Almost none came up-- germination was even worse than it was for the melons. As of 6/13/24 we only have 1 pie pita and 1 emerald naked seed that have emerged. Luckily we had seeded a second round on May 30th, from which we received much better germination, which is looking pretty consistent. One pattern that I have noticed with the germination of the recent batch is that is consistent with the hardiest varieties from the first batch-- emerald naked and pie pita seem to have quicker and more consistent germination than the other varieties (those were the only 2 that even came up from the first batch). We learned a similar lesson as we did with the melons-- that 5/7/24 was too early to start the seeds in our climate.
This photo is from the first batch seeded on May 7th-- the only two that germinated
These phots are from the second seeding on 5/30/24 where we’ve had much better germination.
On Wednesday, June 26th we planted the majority of the squash into the bed- about 150 square feet. The varieties were all interspersed in effort to ensure crossing between them. There was one final variety, the one grown & saved on the coast that we started a bit later and planted out on July 19th for the remainder of the bed (about 50 square feet). The below photo is of the first planting, but taken 3 weeks later. The squash is looking good and healthy, some are just about to start flowering.
It’s been about 6 weeks since the last photo posted and the squash are thriving! They have a lot of leaf growth, and growing and spreading everywhere. Some pumpkins are beginning to form as you can see from the photo. taken on 8/30/24.
9/5/24 The below photo was taken. At this time there were many squash this size and all of them looked the same.
9/23/24- You can see our squash patch between the quinoa and amaranth. Still full but some yellowing as the plants are beginning to die back.
10/15/24- Another photo of the squash patch. Some more photos of the fruits to come… some of which (especially the smaller ones) are starting to turn orange, and some of which are massive and just starting to turn.
11/6/24 Photos below of the pumpkin patch finishing up and mostly died back as you can see. The green remaining is mostly weeds.
11/10/24 We harvested all the pumpkins that were ready, leaving only one or two plants to see if they would mature any further. Most pumpkins were orange and green with the green striping, though a few were a more muted and slightly speckled yellowish green, and some were small and fully orange (the hybrids). Time for processing and taste testing… results to come soon!
12/15/2024 We finally got around to processing the pumpkins. We carved them Jack-o-lantern style and saved seeds from all types since the seeds seemed to taste pretty good from all the various varieties. Some did not last in storage for the month, so those we discarded since we would like the pumpkins to have good storage quality, and we didn’t save seed from pumpkins that weren’t fully mature, which was just a few. One hulled pumpkin slipped into the mix somehow, and we did not save seed from that one either, of course. Next year, once the crosses express, we will start selecting for taste of flesh. We ended up with 6 lbs 5.6 oz of good seed from 200 square feet of pumpkins. This is a total of 15,912 calories; 1,352 g fat; 728g protein; 441 mg of iron, 1248 mg of calcium, 23816 mg of potassium! If split evenly throughout the year for one person this quantity/ sq feet of pumpkins yields 1/2 cup of seeds per week. Imagine what could be possible if the flesh was delicious too! We will work on it…
