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.
I planted what I had handy last weekend, but am not done planting squash! I had a packet of Pepo squash from Native Seed Search and planted it where I rototilled in quite a bit of potentially overwintered seed for Carol Deppe’s Goldini- likely crossed with Mandan orginally from Sand Hill Preservation Center. Then over in the Moschata patch I planted the packet from GTS, a packet from Native Seed Search, the packet I saved from what I hope is a mostly Moschata tetsukabuto cross descendant, and an packet of moschata from a squash from 2022 that I extracted the seed from late in 2023. Depending on rainfall I may need to water it well to initiate germination though. I could probably dig out quite a bit more Moschata seed though if this germinates well it will be adequate. I have some more pepo seed to plant as well.
William, would you mind describing what your moschata tetsukabuto cross descendant looked like? How many generations from the original cross is it? Were the seeds in the moschata x tetsukabuto F1 fruit as numerous and full as in a typical moschata squash? I bought a packet of tetsukabuto seed this year and would like to have an idea of what to expect. Thanks.
Last year I just got one Tetsukabuto F1 descendant squash that I think was an F2 mother so the seed I just planted from it should be F3. It looked very maxima like but had a moschata type stem and a slight butternut shape. I also grew Joseph’s Tetsukabuto descendants years ago. I’m not sure if I have any pure seed left from them. I think they either contributed some genes to my maxima grex or didn’t at this point. I haven’t done a good job of growing out my maxima and moschata seed in a couple years as the tomato work has intensified but the phenomenon of using Tetsukabuto as a Maxima / Moschata bridge is a very interesting exploration. I would expect ok germination in the F2 but not great as long as there are Maxima and or Moschata parents available. Then in the F3 and subsequent years I think they may tend to cross more with whichever parent species they mostly are at that point and fertility improves as they become a bit more diluted or stabilized. Though also maybe they just kind of get so diluted in my garden that you can’t tell anymore after a few years.
I’m confused about how to make use of Tetsukabuto. To maintain these hybrids, is it necessary to grow mainly seeds from fruits that have characteristics of both species? If there was a strong selection pressure, e.g., lots of squash vine borers, and only hybrids and maximas in the population, would you expect to maintain the maxima/moschata cross without having to screen for fruits with characteristics from both, or would the progeny eventually lose all obvious moschata characteristics? But maybe the progeny would have retained some subtle moschata genetics to resist vine borers despite looking like maximas. Have you ever seen a corky maxima stem with a moschata base?
Apologies if my questions are way off base. Just trying to understand what effort is required to make the best use of this hybrid.
I think I like Tetsukabuto F1 because it is a connection to a process that has likely been going on in indigenous gardens since time immemorial. Essentially genes leak between the Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita moschata, and Cucurbita agrosperma species. Its probably unlikely that we would create something truly new, but the potential is there, and the journey is fun. So I say: don’t worry about the best way to make use of the cross, and have fun with the journey. Sure look for the new maxima with the moschata shape- but also just remember that its not about the end result, but rather about the journey.
Beautiful collection of squash, Nicole! Will this be the first year that you grow the different types in one patch? Will you plant in rows or broadcast sow the seeds?
Thank you! Because of our zone, we have to plant a lot of things ahead. So I’ve started many inside and will be putting them outside soon. I will direct seed some too. I direct seeded some GTS and Experimental Farm Network seeds last year and they did very well. We will probably have about 100 plants in one big patch all mixed up. I’m aiming to have them spaced 3 feet apart in general. Also I’m planning to plant about 100 seeds around our acreage and possibly 100 more around a friend’s acreage, especially seeds I collected last year. I’m going for hardy squash. Not sure who’s going to eat it all! I can share with family and friends. If there’s a food shortage, we’re set for unlimited squash soup
Sadly, my first thing to report is that my earliest seedlings all died because we got a surprise SNOW in early MAY (usually our last mild frost is in mid-April!!). I’m going to have to resow. Anything that managed to survive that dusting of snow on May 7th will definitely be watched with great interest, however.
This year, I’m growing the pepo squash Winter Mix, along with seeds of winter squash pepos I feel like adding, and the moschata mix, along with any extra moschatas I feel like adding. I may grow ficifolias, if I have room. I may also add some improved bottle gourds, if I have room. I probably don’t have room for maximas this year, and I don’t mind, because pepos do way better for me anyway.
Speaking of which, is anyone else here planning to grow edible gourds (Lagenaria siceraria)? I grew a few plants in 2022, and I LOVED the leaves. So soft and fuzzy and pleasant to touch. Edible, too! And so are the immature fruit. (They’re often eaten like summer squash.)
