Hi, all. This is your moschata/maxima squash steward, Debbie. I’d like to gauge interest in interspecies squash hybrids. Which species have you crossed? Have you had success in growing them over several generations? Would you have viable seeds to share? Should we consider offering them to the community, either in our current mixes or separately? Please chime in here.
Thanks in advance for your input!
Yes, I am interested.
I’m only begining with this breeding/landrace in my garden though. I have 8 Tetsukabuto that I grew with Maximas and Moschatas last year. I am going to grow this with Moschatas and Mixtas this year. I also am planting some Lodi with them.
As I don’t currently have extremes in weather and the soil is fairly good (except for gophers and ground squirrels). I plan to grow my beans in groups with different Phaseolus species as well. As I have time I may try hand pollenating too.
I am thinking this might be my niche in that I don’t have extreme pressures.
I will see how this year goes.
I would think keeping the interspecie crosses separate from the intraspecie crosses would be good.
I used to grow a pepo/maxima cross, but I lost the seed line some years ago. It had very nice flesh, but was smaller than I wanted in a maxima lineage. I’m definitely interested in the subject, though, and trialing hybrids.
I’m definitely interested, and I accepted a pepo/moschata interspecies hybrid into the pepo squash Winter Mix this year. (Pepo squash steward here.)
I’d be in favor of offering them separately if we get enough to make their own mix, or including them in the regular mixes if we don’t.
Best case scenario would be getting enough contributions of interspecies hybrids to make their own mix, I think.
I would be interested in an interspecies mix. I haven’t grown any yet, but I’m planning to grow Tetsukabuto this year in both my maxima (if I can keep the borers off) and moschata patches, and attempt some additional crosses if all goes well. That, plus the GTS pepo with the one crossed seed (here’s to hoping it can get me the borer resistance I’m looking for), means I could probably contribute multiple possibilities to a separate interspecies hybrid grex. Heck, with enough of us working with them, we might be able to get past that first couple generations of fertility issues hurdle and have a very widely crossed interspecies hybrid swarm.
Do you remember what the parentage of your cross was?
50/50, then selfed each year. Delicata and something else. Wasn’t much bigger or better keeping than delicata, though, so felt like a dead end. In retrospect, I should have back crossed.
Ah, that makes sense. Delicata really doesn’t have much keeping time, does it? I love Carnival, which isn’t much better for keeping time, but I was considering trying to get it crossed up with a moschata. Unfortunately, with how bad vine borers are in my garden it always felt like a pipe dream unless I was willing to resort to row covers, sprays, etc. to even have a chance. I may just give it a shot this year anyway.
I’m interested as well. If these hybrids are likely to initially be less fertile and productive than either parent, a dedicated mix that folks interested in exploring this space can opt into makes sense to me.
I would be interested in a hybrid mix, the ability to carryover traits between species would be beneficial considering the strengths of some of the varieties.
I would be interested in growing out an interspecific mix and returning seed. At this point I don’t have any such seed to contribute, but I have been interplanting moschata and argyrosperma. Maybe I’ll be lucky and find a natural cross.
I’m all for mixing - for me the fun is in the unexpected rather than production of the same best crops each year. I mix moschata and maxima seeds together and then oversow (and have a lot of failures - which I now believe is a good thing). My conditions are mostly 1/2 to 3/4 sun on a half acre and no amendments or fertilizers other than very little of my chicken/leaf manure compost. So this will be my third year of saving squash seeds. I try to separate my pepos but my yard is small and I’m sure there is pepo overlap between summers and zukes. I do pretty well with maxima and moschata types (just fending for themselves) that vary a bit and they all store to at least this time of year (I don’t harvest until skin is hard to dent with fingernail) and they mostly taste good to really good but not fantastic…yet. I’m on Cape Cod in MA and my hot crop conditions are not ideal (I do grow a lot of them in a hoophouse and greenhousee) so I’m opting for vigorous and productive crops in my seed saving (from the last 6 years or so) and I do better every year (and get more neglectful every year as well). I do partly select for taste but I’m hoping in a few years to have mostly vigorous seeds and move more into the quality and flavor mode. I’m probably not as scientific as many of our members having put aside lots of notetaking and charts and trying to learn by listening to my plants. Sounds ‘new-agy’ but I feel like I learn more if I don’t have any labels and I’m forced to figure out what a seedling or a volunteer is and what it is doing and where it wants to grow. So, yes!, any loose squash hybrids would be a welcome offering.
I have an open pollinated gift I feel might fit this category? 2022 A White Jarrahadale appeared which I believe was the result from an a cross with a spaghetti squash the year before. I planted some of the saved seeds again and they did indeed produce beautiful white fruit. If you might be interested I can give more detail. I do see variation in the stem, taste, and color. Additionally they are delicious and way tolerant!
Wow, that is way neat!
Do they show a tendency to be faster to fruit? That’s something pepos often have that is highly desirable.
Very beautiful squash, Julia! And they sound delicious. My mouth is watering. I love that it was a serendipitous cross. Do the plants make male flowers with pollen?
Thanks, everyone, for your input so far. Would you grow a mix of hybrids that includes pepo, moschata, maxima and argyrosperma (mixta) genetics? Or would you tend to stick to just a couple of species in your garden? Which species would you prefer to cross?
If you already have delicious interspecies hybrids growing in your garden, would you be willing to share seeds?
I would personally be happy growing a hybrid mix of any and all of these, if it meant getting a consistent squash harvest despite pest pressures.
My main focus is going to be on C. pepo hybrids, really, because I miss bumper crops of summer squash. Crosses with C. moschata to improve the hard stem/borer resistance, in particular. But I’ll also be growing a maxima/moschata cross patch this year with Tetsukabuto to get some hybrids there.
Yes. I would gladly share seeds from any and all hybrids I manage to grow and cross this year.
I’d definitely plant hybrids in the same patch with my other squash, and excitedly see whatever they decide to offer me.
For sure friend. I’m hoping to find a home for some of these girls and her sisters if possible. Even if I keep a handful I still have over twenty fold…World of abundance. Blows me away everytime!
Attatching a few photos of her and her friends from the growing season. She crawled up the porch and I had to redirect her to the bird feeder. I promised my very patient partner I would leave a path this year.
I concur! When I planted in June I thought I’d at least get to see what happened and have Fall decoration. I was pretty bummed by the drought and just kept trying stuff. I didn’t expect them to take off like that. Tough growing season last year for us. Wow did she thrive. I valued the beauty but hadn’t thought too much about the taste till I processed it. Really truly amazing. My notes state that it “smells like pumpkin pie” while I was dehydrating.
I have more notes if anyone is interested. I can post a pic of the actual seed too. Could be used for jarring your own organic baby food. I thought that could be pretty cool. Or baking to share with the community. Stands alone as a dehydrated snack too.
That I’m for sure of. Big piles of pollen on the leaves. I ate some too. Really good! Flowers as big as my hand. Been looking for a picture but I think I deleted it. I take so many and I had to delete some to take more. I will try to look some more and put together all the details if anyone is interested?
Thanks for the post. I think it’s absolutely phenomenal that she and her friends might be able to spread out their roots. I feel there is so much potential. I dont have the space to do her justice. I’m beyond grateful there is a community focused on food security I can learn from and possibly share this gift from the pollinators with.
I absolutely would if I had more space. Versatile and beautiful!
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Lovely garden. The squash plant is a beauty. I would be so happy to welcome her sisters to my yard. I like your idea of making baby food and snacking on the dehydrated nuggets. Is there a seed library in your community? You would probably make a lot of people happy sharing these seeds.
Space is an issue for many of us. It would be great to get hybrids that someone has already had success with.
