Greetings, all! This is the place to let us know how your squash landraces are doing this year. Feel free to post photos and describe what is working (or not) for you this growing season. If you have questions about growing squash, please post them here. If you can answer a question, we would appreciate your help.
Have a recipe to share? Or something you learned from last year’s grow-out? Please post so that we can all learn from your experiences. Thank you for participating in this community!
I received a question from Easter who asked me to post the following question about the kinds of squash being grown in Mexico. Unfortunately, no photos of squash or seeds to share. But if anyone here is familiar with the types grown in Mexico, and maybe has photos, perhaps we can help Easter figure it out:
I have a squash question that nobody can answer for me.
What is it? is my question. I spent some time in Mexico and had many winter squashes that had hard shells, like a gourd. When I say gourd, I mean an inner wood that needs a machete to cut through it! The seeds don’t look like gourd seeds, though. They look like squash seeds. There was not a specific shape or color or region. These types of squashes are all over and common. I had some that were bland, like a spaghetti squash flavor, and others that were richer and creamier than a kobacha. I didn’t see the flowers, but some people said that they were yellow. So, my question is: what is this type of squash that has"bones"?
We’re still 3 weeks from our estimated last frost date here in zone 5b Southwestern Ontario, Canada but it’s been a super early and mild spring.
This year I decided to start an extra-early batch of squashes and melons. I started them under lights indoors 1-2 weeks ago (I start all my plants indoors, but a usual planting schedule wouldnt have me starting squashes until 1-2 weeks from now.)
I was planning on planting my early batch out when we still have some possible light frosts ahead. These will go in spots where I have hoops set up for frost blankets. This early planting with select for plants that can go on to produce through exposure to cool soil and low temps.
My selection pressure may turn out to be quite mild, as the long term forecast doesnt have anything near frost conditions in the next couple weeks.
Im happy to report great germination on the GTS maxima mix! In addition to the GTS mix, this year in my main garden, for squash I am growing my favourite Gete-Okosomin, wild Mountain’s Desert Spirit landrace, a “sweet fall” maxima, Lodi and Honeynut (maxima x moschata) , and 1-2 pepo summer squashes. Im hoping to get some 15-20ish plants producing in my maxima swarm.
As my indoor rack is now mostly empty - (everything has moved to protected microclimate outdoors for hardening off), I will likely start the rest of my squash planting a bit earlier.
No photos. I did a quick walk of the garden after work to see how it held up after the big rain day. Every single moschata and cushaw is covered in squash bug seeds already. With the early warm weather we have had, it seems, the squash bugs in particular increasing early into large numbers. In comparison I have seen no cucumber beetles yet nor any signs of squash vine borers so far. I foresee an extra tough season ahead for squash bug pressure.
Peter, I’m so sorry to hear about the squash bugs. What is your next step? Will you plant out more seeds in anticipation of heavy losses? Many of the seeds in the GTS moschata mix this year are from squash bug-resistant plants. It’ll be interesting to see if they can withstand the onslaught.
@LeeAngold Thank you for sharing the photo of your seedlings. And thanks for letting us know about the maxima mix. I hope that your seedlings won’t experience any late-season frosts, but it seems you are prepared in case it happens. Keep those photos coming. We love to see them!
@DebbieA squash bug resistance is for larger sizes for the plants, not seedlings. So the choices are to break out some insecticides which I don’t want to. Or to let them go and take a second chance at a later time in the season or the late season and see if I can make it within a natural lull period in their population to let a second planting gain more size before coming under pressure.
I wanted to say earlier that I would be tempted to pull out all the seedlings covered in eggs. But then you would never know if there’s a super baby plant out there that can handle those squash bugs.
I’ve read that one can sow trap plants, e.g. zucchinis around the perimeter of the main squash area, earlier than the main crop to let them establish and attract all the squash bugs, leaving the later plants alone. Any experience with that? I wonder if one would end up with even more squash bugs!
Breeding squash bugs on trap crops wouldn’t help a lot as they will overwinter in the neighborhood area and come back the very next season in greater numbers. They usually emerge in late May to June to seek out Cucurbits to feed upon and lay their eggs on in sufficient numbers to have a large impact on the curcurbits but I had the adults emerged and in numbers at least as early as mid April so they are decimating the seedlings. I could make a logical argument as this is not a normal seasonal pest pattern to do a single application to knock them back to give the plants a few weeks to grow a bit larger to have strength built up to resist the squash bugs feeding. The eggs already laid will hatch in five to ten days so it wont be a long respite. This season could be focused to just increase the seed stock for the next season in order to keep the genetics mixing and available for future selection pressures in more normalized growing seasons as it would be a shame to lose the years of work built up so far in the seed genetics due to an anomaly in this particular season.
No pictures this time but I planted about 20+ pepos from the GTS mix. I had a 100% germination and they are looking great! Can’t wait to update in a few weeks when I see first fruits. Weather has been hot and humid, it’s like Summer has arrived early this year.
