This project is a cucurbita maxima landrace project. The idea behind it was to see what would happen when a bunch of locally adapted and favourite varieties were allowed to cross. The hope was that something equally well adapted and delicious would emerge but that would also be a bit more resilient. Specifically it would be wonderful if some degree of horizontal disease resistance could be fostered. I live and grow on the north shore of Lake Superior where we have about 90 days frost. (I run a small certified organic vegetable and seed production farm.) In my area there are a handful of seed savers who each have their favourite maxima to grow and eat. The population for this landrace is a collection of these varieties plus some landrace maxima seeds from Going to Seed, and a few commercial varieties that were interesting to me.
I was approached this winter by the only other certified organic farm in the area looking for suggestions for a squash that grows well, tastes good, and stores well. It seems like across the board here, that’s the challenge. Even though there are lots of maxima varieties that do relatively well, it seems like none do amazingly - but I think they could! (We typically have heavy dew and rain towards the end of summer which can be really hard on the squash.) I was excited at the idea of working with a combination of local seeds and others to see if something delicious and extra reliable could emerge. I also thought maxima would be a really fun and interesting crop to work with from an awareness/educational perspective. They are so visually diverse that I think they would be a great project to show and share with the community.
Here is some specific info about the seeds for the initial cross of this maxima landrace:
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Urban Turban; from Urban Farm Organics, Thunder Bay Ontario.
Ken and Lucie at UFO got seeds from a friend 30 plus years ago and have been growing out these squash ever since. -
Sundream; Bearhaven, Murrillo Ontario
Wendy grew out Sundream as part of a community grow out project several years ago, fell in love with it, and has been growing it ever since. Sundream was introduced by Don Tipping as a stabilized version of Sunshine (F1). -
Stella Blue; Root Cellar Gardens, South Gillies Ontario
A variety I have been growing out since 2016. In that time fruit have gotten more consistently sized (2lb) and earlier (80ish days). -
Hida Winter; Ayano’s Garden, Thunder Bay Ontario
I picked these up from a local seed saver at a seed swap this spring. -
Burgess Buttercup; Three Forks Seeds, Manitoulin Island. A standard for homesteaders in our area, seed source is the next closest certified organic seed producer to us that we know of.
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Rouge Vif d’Etempe; Three Forks Seeds, Manitoulin Island. Another variety that they grow at Three Forks Seeds and love so thought I’d add it to the mix.
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Going to Seed Maxima Landrace; Going to Seed. I feel really fortunate to be able to grow out some of these diverse seeds.
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Sibley; Fruition Seeds. Large squash shaped really differently than any of the other varieties so thought it would be fun to include them.
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Marina Di Chioggia; Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I have grown this variety before but our season is a bit short for it. I thought I would include it though because it’s beautiful, delicious, and distinctive.
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Red Kuri; High Mowing.
I started seeds of all of these varieties except Burgess Buttercup and Rouge Vif d’Etampe (I didn’t have these seeds in time so started them May 21) indoors at the start of May. I think I will also direct seed some seeds of all varieties to see what happens. It would be great if eventually this population of maxima could mature from seed vs transplant.
Squash and seeds will go in the garden in the next week. They will be grown with drip irrigation and under black plastic. The soil is a super heavy clay, and has been in green manure for the last 3 years. This is a new garden space that was last used for hay production in the 70s. Squash beds have been amended with alfalfa pellets, compost and an organic hen manure product called Fertilo.
Pictured below are the garden, some of the seeds planted, and an action shot of me prepping the squash bed May 27.
Notes from the season:
Squash were planted out June 6. Some were touched by frost not long after but all survived. A few plants were lost to cutworms and wind over the next month. I had lots of transplants on hand so just replanted (although it’s doubtful the later planted squash will have time to mature fruit).
It was a cool and wet June but July has brought some heat and started growing rapidly.
July 10, 2024
July 14, 2024
A wander through the squash-patch July 19 revealed that 50% of plants had baby fruit on them, and all were flowering.
I’m loving getting to see the diversity of growth habit, leaf shape and overall nature of these plants already!
July 30, 2024
Happy squash plants growing…
July 30, 2024
Plants continued to grow prolifically all summer, however beyond the initial fruit set in mid-July didn’t produce much squash. Speaking with other growers in the area this was something that they noticed too: vigorous growth and low yields. One grower suggested that it was too hot for a while this summer…??
August 11, 2024
As they do, the squash ran out of room, climbing up and over and through… It got hard to get into the patch, but as best I could tell there was no sign of disease or pests. Pests aren’t normally an issue but diseases do show up in the field semi-regularly.
August 31, 2024
Not sure the picture does it justice, but we got hit by a micro-burst and hail which, in less than 2 minutes, shredded the squash plants.
Five days later they were calling for freezing temperatures overnight – so the squash were harvested. I had a crew of volunteers from Roots Community Food Centre (a local non-profit that aims to use food as a tool to connect people to one another and build belonging and dignity through meaningful programs, initiatives and advocacy) out to help with the harvest.
Looking forward to doing some community tasting of these squash this fall… and really looking forward to saving and planting out seeds from them and seeing what comes next.