Hi, I can clarify my winter squash offer:
LONG STORAGE - reminder
Get in mind that all I offer is STORAGE SQUASHES!… meaning they will not be at their best at harvest, you’ll get the best as they rippen in storage.
More understandings on that: if you aim at long storing cucurbita landraces, mind that they have to be high dry matter, i.e. high in starch content, at harvest: this high starch content will get partially converted into sugars later in storage. That’s the rippening process. And when the starch amount get depleted, then the rottening process begins.
The other way round: a “good” squash at harvest will deplete its starch content rapidly and so will rot shortly.
Overall: what is consider a “good squash” at harvest, as far as taste is concerned, is high in sugars and sufficiently high in dry matter (i.e. starch) to have a good enough texture, but not high enough to handle storing. Starch - if I get Loy right - is created after the simple and easily breakable sugars are created in the fruit. It’s more complex substances, needing more photosynthetic energy.
And that is exactly what makes the “grower paradox”: many many lines over the past decades were bred for yield at harvest, and so to get high yield it was aimed at having fruits filled with simple sugars and water, i.e. low dry matter, low starch content, and so: no long storage ability. Which is a bit strange when that thing is called “winter squash”: consider that this winter ability as been bred out of squash to get… water instead! That’s a full inversion of traditional usages.
That made Brent Loy mostly work with small seed companies willing to get quality products (over yields) to their clients: typically seed companies working for market gardeners in direct relationship with their clients, willing to sell quality first thing, not the long supply chain specialists.
See:
Maximizing Yield and Eating Quality in Winter Squash 11 (1) (1).pdf (20.7 KB)
And in vid: https://youtu.be/AhJ_5VMdlak?t=2700&si=LuBtAm7qPLSIIHB-
(That’s a direct access to the related part in Loy’s conference)
And watch also the last video of this post which greatly summarized that particular problem: how “winter” was bred out of… winter squash!
Example of Tersukabuto with high dry matter at harvest, i.e. starch, 18%, which is partially converted to sugars over time but keeping enough starch to provide still a nice texture:
And please let me know there is any flaw in my above summary: all these things being new to me I may not get it perfectly
Then by long storage I mean: harvested between beginning of september and mid-october, and evaluated in mid-january. They had to be near to intact by then to be evaluated. One third was kept insise at around 17-18degC, 2 thirds were in a barn bay, above freezing temp. I may thrown out 5-10% of what was inside and 20% of what was outside. Overall it confirms that it’s much better storing at room temp, but also that this isn’t that bad outside.
I consider that at room temp about 50-70% of all could have gone into a +2month storage, i.e… 6 month.
VIGOR
Most went into a competition for early vigor as I sow 20 seeds per final plant, meaning thinning out 95% of the young plants: I only kept the most vigorous.
EARLINESS
I’ve made markings on squash at harvest:
- Double cross for “super early” (harvested around the 7th of September, evaluation on peduncle dryness)
- single cross for (relatively) “early” (harvested around the 20th of September, same evaluation)
Those 2 categories were those I brought to Antibes - then the remaining, finally harvested around mid October, including most brown-green fleshed moschata types.
The super-early may interest the Scandinavians for example, or those in the mountains.
I will personnally go mostly with the early to super-early personnally as, even if I understand that in theory later types means higher yields, I want to sow my cover crops as soon as possible in September.
Mind those earliness markings, i.e. harvest dates, are relative to direct sowings the 6th and 7th of June in my place, meaning either by direct sowing earlier or doing transplants you would get even more precocity.
FLAVOR EVALUATION
All evaluations were made raw, which gives no infication of texture but quite a good indication of flavours. Of course it would have been better cooking them on top of that but that would have been too much work with about 400 fruits. Was already a marathon…
The evaluation was simple categories: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Mediocre.
Mediocre meaning blandness or so, edible but not that enjoyable. About 30%.
Good meaning you start enjoying the fruit, flavors. It’s already a decent squash I enjoyed. About 50%
Very good meaning in general that you feel directly more sugar + an additional savory after taste, aromas, which makes it a very very enjoyable squash. You automatically want retaste a bit. About 15%.
Excellent: overwhelming taste, aromas, flavors. About 5%. In that category I found only 1 Maxima and nearly 10 Moschatas out of the same figures.
Overall, and to my surprise, I found moschatas far superior to maximas.
WEIGHT
As I have a really low fertility soil and as intentionnally overdensified things to get more crosses (2 plants per square meter) fruits were relatively small, so these are just indications of relative calibers. So consider potentials being far superior to those weights, about x2 I would say.
Maximas: 2 categories:
- 700grams to 1,5kgs
- +1,5kgs.
Under 700 grams were not evaluated. No seeds from them.
Moschatas: weight wasn’t a main matter as I favored classifying by shapes. Nevertheless :
- +500grams: main wide category, up to 2,8kgs
- -500grams were evaluated separately and in particular most green-brown fleshed types. If not dark fleshed they were not seed-saved.
So then the offer:
MAXIMAS
On this picture 50% were gone already: kept only those intact or so. I didn’t evaluate the others, even if I kept the seeds of the +1,5kgs category for a friend who has a specific project with pigs he feeds with squash all year long, so can give to them whenever they start rottening
Essentially you can compose your mix using 3 descriptors : Taste (Good ; Very Good) x Caliber (0,7 to 1,5kg ; +1,5kg) x Earliness (Super-Early ; Early ; Late)
For example I would personnally either keep one population or create 2:
one pop: all centered on taste x earliness, i.e. not minding the caliber: direct sow the very good in about 2 thirds of my patch and then the good only in the remaining third. All these out the Super-Early and Early.
two pops scenario:
- Small ones x early to super early. Same sorting in the patch: Very good 2 thirds, goog one third.
- Big ones x early to super early. Same sorting in the patch: Very good 2 thirds, goog one third.
Then, whatever the original scenario, in next years I would get rid of the “good” ones to go towards excellence fast, as shown in this graph :
Then it’s up to everybody to choose: for example if I was in Scandinavia and had only 10 square meter available I would choose to take seeds of the “very good” X big ones X super early category to get the most out of it.
MOSCHATAS
You got the same Mediocre / Good / Very Good / Excellent categories.
Then I sorted into shape/look category as I thought that one may want to create modern landraces around those sub-types, and namely the market gardeners who may struggle a lot selling super crazily diverse stuff on their markets, as it’s not usual right now.
So you can compose your mix using 3 descriptors : Taste, Shape/Look, Earliness.
These were the Shape/Look categories for all of more than 500grams:
-
“Pumpkin”, named by default, but by that I mean round type:
-
Long-Necked:
-
Intermediary type (i.e. in between long necked and typical butternut)
-
Striped (I found all these particularly nice looking! Mostly were Green/White at harvest, some Brown/White… most with some kind of neck)
-
“Unclassified” (!)… all the strange or singular ones!
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Brown or Green fleshed, mostly from Tanja, mostly not early, and relatively small. Examples:
So then, if I was to compose a mix for a short season gardener, high in the mountains, with only 10 square meter available, I would take the very good to excellent X the ultra-early category, and all shapes mixed in, as I feel like it’s super enjoyable discovering all kinds of types in a family garden, you don’t need to sell that diversity… You just can enjoy it!.. Of course as long as at the end of the day it doesn’t appear to be… Bland!!! 
Then, for example - and to go in another direction- if I was to create sub-populations for market gardeners along each shape or look in my place, I would go mostly with the Early to Super-Early ones, and then sow the 2 thirds of each patch with the Very Good to Excellent ones and one third with the good, as a way to continue mixing genetics a bit.
For another project: if I wanted only dark-fleshed ones I would take seeds of each of those, no matter the earliness, size and shape… as I only had a few fruits (about 10), all very good to excellent tasting. And most under 500grams.
Another line of thought: if I didn’t mind the stripes and simply wanted something with some kind of neck - be it long or short - I would blend the “long-neck type”, “intermediary type” and “striped type” and then, depending on my cultivation surface would take some of those from the “very good” to “excellent” categories or from the “good” to “excellent” categories.
CAROTENOIDS TO ME… IN THIS YEAR’S EXPERIENCE!
Overall, even if I know that dark orange correlates with high carotenoid contents and that this signifies high nutritional value - or at least for this anti-oxydant -, as in my experience there was no correlation with high flavor quality, I decided to put aside that single criteria. Most pale fleshed squash I ate were not that great tasting, that I can say… but as some deep orange were also bland to me, I did not pay much attention to that criteria, to my surprise. The Yolk Colour Fan made nice pictures…
… But wasn’t of much use!
… And there you can imagine where most of this crazy 2024 squash year went into 
:
… In partneship with a friends’association.
And eventually… I still keep inside for further use:
Namely:
- about 50kg of different “Tetsukabuto (moschXmax)” crosses, as they are all intact. Will taste them by the 1st of April. One share crossed with moschatas, one share crossed with maximas. Will have seeds to share too later in season. Super interesting for everyone willing to create a ultra-long storage squash modern landrace. Keep in mind that Tetsu not only being very long lasting but also really tasteful and eventually super high yielding, which makes it exceptionnal, and that seeming at least partially due its interspecific qualities: it’s male sterile and so not putting too much efforts (i.e. converted photosynthetic energy) into creating loads of viable seeds, that energy seeming to be going into flesh: high starch contrnt and high yield. Then it’s all to the breeder to get something stable out of that in a modern landracing style.
- about 30kg of ficifolia of different strains. Same story: will share the seeds later in season. I will try to do some sauerkraut out of them if no other idea. Supposedly +1year in storage, but not that tasteful I must say. Appreciates cool temperatures, or shade, can be very very high yielding in such conditions. Otherwise it’s the first of all cucurbitas to get sun burnt, as in my place.
See the Tetsukabuto vid in Winter Squash Week for more on Tetsu (taste, yields, etc.)
