SQUASH (Maxima and Moschata) 2026 european focus crop

[Adrian]

Hi malte rod,

The optimal density for a squash is between 1 to 1,5m² for one plant.
If you have irrigation system and a good fertilisation 0,5m² by plant is possible but the fruits are more small and some fruits pollinisated can avorted if the weather is too hot and dry.
With two plant for 1m² you can get in theory 1 fruit by plant with irrigation system.
Why a so high density?
If calculate the density
For the maxima field:4000 seeds /550 m² = 7,27 plant at m²
1/7,27=0,138m² for one plant

For the moschata field: 3000 seeds/400 m²=7,5 plants at m²
1/7,5=0,133m² for one plant
I understand that a high density is important for a efficient selection but i found the density very high

Exemple:For a density at 2 plants to m²
0,5m² = 1100 plants for 550m²
0,5m²= 800 plants for 400m²

[malterod]

Adrian, it looks like your calculation presume that all seeds will not only germinate and grow into a plant, but also get to fruiting stage. That’s pretty far from what I’m doing.

[Adrian]

@malterod

Adrian, it looks like your calculation presume that all seeds will not only germinate and grow into a plant, but also get to fruiting stage. That’s pretty far from what I’m doing.

I’m Just curious,
When you sow F2 seeds the difference between two plants can be great.
One plant can run on 6m and giving 10 big fruits and his neighbor issue of the same fruit will be able to give one small fruit and run on 50cm with all the care possible.

[malterod]

I agree with you. I’m not following what the relationship is to my growing or what you’re getting at. There’s some concern about me having sown too many seeds on too little space. As I wrote above, I intend to have heavy losses because of lacking irrigation and if not, I’ll cull a lot of plants.

[Adrian]

Sorry i was a little worried.In 2022 i was grow at 2 plants at m² and i was struggle with the irrigation and fertilisation.
My density is at 1 plant by m² in the most fertiles partys of the garden and 2 plants for 3m² at the locations of the soil is not optimal.

Good luck for your project .
It seem interested to have a better water and nutrients gestion for grow in more high density.

For reduce water comsumption i ave cover one of my square of jute bag and the plants was more strongs.

[malterod]

Ultimately, I dont think I will have a higher planting density than yours. If I lose or cull a lot of plants, it might just end up very much like you propose.

[Laura]

I sowed my seeds in the middle of April, like last year, but ultimately, the timing was very unlucky. It was warm and nice then, but the end of April and beginning of May brought very wet and cool weather with snow, so germination was very much delayed. And when they germinated around the 15 of May, we had a week of very wet weather, so all (yes I mean all) except two seedlings were eaten by snails. Some could not even germinate properly. As soon as the seed shell opened, the snails crawled inside and ate the cotyledons and the root! So, I sowed again around the 20th of May, when it was very hot and dry. They germinated nicely and then it got rainy again!

I sowed the following seed:

• seeds from @Hugo s compost squashes
• seeds from Jesse and Thomas I still had from the serendipity seed swap
• Seds I got from an Italian gardener
• Seeds i saved from a Kabocha type fruit
• Seeds i saved from my Banana squashes that showed signs of being the result of a cross (changes in fruit form compared to the year before)
• Seed from a unique fruit

So, about half of my seeds is seed from other people, half is from me. The good thing is, I have still enough seeds for a third sowing if it should be nessesary, the bad thing is, I only sowed a row of about 10 Meters. But I sowed very dense, with a seed every 2 cm, so I can still do some selections for the strongest plants…

[Adrian]

[[quote=“Laura, post:67, topic:4386, full:true”]
I sowed my seeds in the middle of April, like last year, but ultimately, the timing was very unlucky. It was warm and nice then, but the end of April and beginning of May brought very wet and cool weather with snow, so germination was very much delayed. And when they germinated around the 15 of May, we had a week of very wet wheater, so all (yes I mean all) except two seedlings were eaten by snails. Some could not even germinate properly. As soon as the seed shell opened, the snails crawled inside and ate the cotyledons and the root! So, I sowed again around the 20th of May, when it was very hot and dry. They germinated nicely and then it got rainy again!

[/quote]

Hi Laura the may month was very stranger this year.Too rain and cold are bad for the roots of the youngs plants.
Some of my plants was caught a nitrogen deficiency with the rain and the cold.
The slugs can ravage a garden in one night.

[malterod]

Mass sowing of moschata and maxima germinating last week. We have wet weather these days and lots of slug activity in the beds where we have used lots of mulch - for the best selections from last year. Crossing my fingers that the slugs dont take them all.

This is from the drought tolerance mass selection. None to very few slags there. The crows pick up some of them to see if there is food underneath the plant. I am happy that we sowed 10 times as many plants as we need.

Four seeds in a hole
One for the slugs
One for the crow
One to rot
And one to grow

[malterod]

Did one weeding of the the moschata today. 2 persons covered 500 m2 or so in 40 min, only weeding roughly around plants. I will let the squash grow on their own from here.

Will do the same with the mass selection of maxima.

Last years selections that we seeded in a bed of heavy mulch have ironically all been eaten by slags. Resowed them today. Very late, but I think we should get fruit and crossing still.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

I could recommend weeding hoe if you are looking to do quick and dirty weeding to give plants week or 2 of peace from the weeds. I just bought one and it’s a great tool, especially when the surface is dry. English name gives little varied results so I put link to what we have here. Maybe you already have it. Ofcourse you can also get one similar pushable with wheel.

Tarha heilurihara | Karkkainen.com verkkokauppa

[ThomasPicard]

It’s the exact type of tool I’ve been using this year. Very efficient in sandy soil.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Yes, sandy soil is ideal. Over here it*s not been the best time to use it after rainy period, but still it can be used if need be. I’m thinking of ordering modified version from my brother who is a welder. Normal version doesn’t allow getting spaces between plants that are smaller than width of the blade. So having one open from one side would be nice.

Curious to see how it works in the long run. Does it start to supress also perennial weeds, even with the tilling. Although I also do some manual pulling in an effort to get most off, but I don’t have the time to do it always and using this tool is handy in giving time by effectively resetting the weeds. But do they run out of energy from the roots eventually.

Have you tried the bigger one with wheel? With the size of your space that could be helpful in making larger areas.

[ThomasPicard]

I haven’t tried but you are absolutely right and I didn’t think about it. I could borrow one from friends market gardeners

[ThomasPicard]

Here’s how my rows look like on the 26th of June:

Weeding is limited to the plant surrounding, and expands accordingly along the life of the plant.

It’s been an extremely severe drought so far with less than 100mm over the past four months, and not 50 in the last 2. So even if sowing was anticipated to end of April to get plants the biggest possible at Solstice, they look super small! Could be 4-5 times bigger easily by now.

Anyway, that makes my late selection on vigour very interesting as I can particularly look for “holobionths”… a way to express plants that thrive under the 40 degrees we’ve experienced over the past ten days, and the 30deg+ of the past month… When I say thrive I should actually and technically say keep their turgor under midday bright sunshine, i.e. keep photosynthesizing, + show a deep dark green, or negatively do not abandon their leaves, do not collapse ! Simply!

So I’m looking for specific traits in my rows, in this semi-desertic sandy soil :

One typical counter example, which will be culled shortly :

One of the best example in this row :

Flowering time for moschata is approaching, peak should be in 10-15 days from now (70-75 days post sowing), and I want to help a bit the “elite plants” that will stay by bringing them some water regularly… My sprinklers are down so I’m gonna switch to hand watering with watering cans and give them a liter or 2 per week. That took me only 2 hours to do that for the first time yesterday… In total it’s 1.1 kilometers of rows! Should be about 550 plants or so at final density, so post final culling.

Later, at second fruit stage, I’ll think about doing some selfings and sib-matings, according to phenotypes. The good thing about this 1 row - 1 fruit system is that I can both keep the open-population and do some more intentional projects, it makes it easier to work on, like those 4 plants of last year I’d like to work on specifically, as they caught attention of friends market gardeners : high yielding, long storing, excellent taste, individual weight compatible with sales, etc :

These guys don’t want “crazy landraces” right now, so it could be a (temporary?) midterm for next years : using those “not-varieties” which underwent one or 2 selfing or sib-mating so they get accustomed to some diversity on their rows, and their clients to some diversity on their stands… The expected “+” is plants thriving under constraints, and the best taste they can get! Should be enough to inspire the next steps. Then the other fruits - i.e. 99% - being kept open-pollinated, diversity is kept in a still evolving population, a “proto-landrace”…

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

I’m not much behind even thought I sowed only in mid may. Start was quite dry for them also with basically no normal spring moisture after only 80mm of rain this year before june, less than half the average. Luckily we have had 70mm of rain in june with mild temperatures and they are really starting to get going. Moschatas probably only week or little over behind yours. Maybe first female flowers before mid july if they have fast female trait. Maybe not that later even without on those that have black plastic. They are maybe 3-5 days ahead. Maximas also probably start to make female flowers mid july. Previously I have had mid july females on hotter years and with the black plastic so maybe there is some improvement. This year hasn’t been cold by any means, but there has been consistant warm days without the very extremes either way.

Picture now few days old. Really good growth after that. Maximas on the left bed and moschatas on the other 2 beds.

[malterod]

We had a heat wave this weekend with two record breaking days - the hottest it has ever been in my country. I’m definitely not ready for this part of climate change and suffer trying to sleep well.

On the field, I was curious to see how the squash was doing, particularly the mass selection that is getting no irrigation this season. There is some drought stress here and there and we culled some of those where they were competing for space with better adapted plants.

I’m happy to see pretty big differences in growth too. Here’s the largest one - immense compared to the smaller ones next by.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Here also squash are starting to grow and are well in time. Wrote more in my 2026 thread.

[Laura]

I had a very difficult squash year until now, I’ve sowed three times, it snowed 3 weeks after sowing, it rained a lot and then it was very dry. So a lot of my squash seeds got eaten by snails as soon as they opened. I propably sowed around 500 seeds and have now around 10 plants. So, no year for mass selection or really anything other than squash for eating.

But my most interesting take-away is right now that my Banana-squashes seem to be amonst the happiest and healthiest plants. The row of banana squashes is much less patchy than some other ones. So, atleast it seems that positive vegetative traits (like being disgusting to snails?) aligns well with the squashes I like the most for eating.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Had first moschatas open females some days ago and now there are more, but still now sign of male flowers. I would greatly appriciate if anyone with fast male flowering on vigorous plants would save the seeds separately. I have nowI think 5 plants with extra early female flowering from which I should bve able to get some seeds once the male flowers wake up.