I just have to wait and see, im actually leaning towards a type of squash. At least its a grex in the making.
I did get the mochata GTS seed and mixed those with the mixed jar of heirloom seed I have. So it could be anything. Its just hard to be patient and see what grows out..
Thatās disappointing. I had more information available and was really hoping they were. It appears very uniform for such a mix. Thanks for the reply. Happy growing!
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Lucky you! Iāve got to wait until May/June before I can put squash outside. Weāre expecting a couple inches of snow tonight.
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Ill share observations as they flower and set fruit. Hoping it grows here in Arizona.
Yikes, we didnt even get a hard frost this season. Suppose to be 97 degrees high during the day in a week. We get warmer days, buts its still a short grow season since it gets too hot, too fast. As temperatures rise pollen gets too dried out on the flowers and becomes non-viable. Plants have to adapt here in Arizona to a short season, hot and low humidity condition.
I was brainstorming about pollen, if it could be collected and frozen. @VeggieSavage mentioned mixed pollen could aid in hybridization between varieties. Im thinking to just save some pollen, freeze it and try to utilize for another season. Im more focused on positive endophyte colonization of the seed. Endophyte uptake into the plant must come from several locations besides the roots. Pollen particles have marvelous shapes and spaces that look like they could harbor endophyte spores or bacteria. Check them out online. Id like the plant breeding process to be simple as well, no lab or extensive note taking.
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Was reading about pollinatorsā¦
The synergy within the biological grow area is intense as nature built it to have interesting interactions of insects and animals who promote pollination. So much has to come together for plants to grow and produce viable seed. Cucurbita types, like the maxima, moschata, pepo and sativus have larger flowers for larger polinators. But the flower only makes the target for the pollinator, the pollen has to be ready for transfer and timed right for fertilization.
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Thank you for sharing the article. Iām looking forward to reading it. Keep us updated on your trials with pollen. I wonder if one saves pollen from the early male flowers, can it be used to pollinate female flowers later in the season without losing its viability? I guess Iām asking if there is enough time between taking it out of the freezer and getting it to the female flower before it dies from the heat. Lot more work though!
Iām in Utah where itās not as hot as AZ, but even so, we get stretches of triple-digit days and I feel itās getting more difficult to get pollination mid-summer. My best squash vine last year was in a spot that had morning sun, then shade in the hottest part of the afternoon. Short season crops in spring and late summer/fall may be the way to go.
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Ima gonna give it a try. I have no idea what to expect. Its a crude experiment at best. I have a bunch planted, all skin colors and shapes, not sure what will make it. The squash is between the corn. The corn is a container variety heirloom sweet corn, short stalks 3-5 feet and planted with GTS sweet corn. Inside the greenhouse, native sand with wood chips and horse manure applied two years ago. I wont be adding anymore, maybe that little bit will help hold the water. Im still gonna plant pole beans by the corn.
Hold on, Yea I think your right! The cotyledons look much bigger & more Squash-like, I was paying attention to the tru-leaves & completly forgot to look at cotyledons 
.
However, now looking closely these could be Squash Seedlings but also a good chance they are Luffa Seedlings. @Kimzy Did you sow any Luffa?
Yes Pollen can be collected & frozen until later use, itās what I plan on doing with a lot of breeding experiments. If I recall Correctly, Corn, Bannana, & Ginger pollen doesnāt remain viable long-term even when frozen but Squash, Melons or Luffa should be fine.
Of course itās important get all the collection materials needed. I tried saving some squash pollen to pollinate before the deer ate everything. I had a folded paper & place the male stamen parts on them to continue shedding. Once it finished shedding onto the paper, I pour the pollen into a small glass jar, this jar should be put in the freezer (I didnāt cuz I wasnāt serious about it, deer would eat everything eventually 
).
Hereās how I saved Pollen from Pines & Spruces, they shed a lot & itās a delicious (I add it to my Oatmeal)! Hopefully it gives you an idea. I used Parchment paper & it probably will work better than regular white printer paper.
This is Norway Spruce Pollen.
And this is White Pine Pollen.
Likewise! as it should be! K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) principals are the way to go. If I recall correctly, Lofthouse realized he was doing more record keeping than actual gardening.
They are huge & oh my do the bees love them, theyāre so cute & adorable the way they buzz, so happy. Bruh, I could even feel the buzz of the bee when I put my finger under the petal base 
.
I hear gardeners recomend planting flowers with the garden veggies to encourage more cross pollination but I thought this was silly because literally every single plant makes a flower of some kind . Why must my āflowersā be strictly flowers when they couldāve been an edible plant that also makes big attractive flowers too? I like Dual-Purpose plants & thatās like 80% of all veggies. Brassica flowers can attract pollinators to Basil, Carrots, Peppers, Squash, Melons, Fennel, Tomatoes, Nasturtium, ect & Vice Versa. Maybe the focus should be diversity of flowers to attract all sorts of pollinators with a buffet of options?
YES I think so, especially if your going to use the frozen pollen on female flowers the same year. Heck you might not even need to freeze pollen if your gonna pollinate them the next day or the day after. Simply drying the pollen for a day or 2 may still have enough viablity to get the job done. This isnāt Corn, Bannana or Ginger pollen, for some reason they loose viablity fast, maybe it has something to do with Monocot Pollen in general, idk (Need to do more research).
Heat will absolutely affect pollen viablity which is why Pollination is poor or simply fails during the really intense heat of summer, thankfully Squash open their flowers in the morning which not only is smarter but makes it easier for you to harvest them to freeze.
Awesome! I wish you success! If you get stuck or have questions, donāt hesitate to ask! I want to encourage this kind of fun experimenting as much as possible!
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Yes, yes and yes @VeggieSavage ā¦super fun to plant and eat plants with edible flowers. I grew over 20 varieties for about five years and enjoyed the blooms in many ways. Dehydrated for tea, stir fried, added to quiche and even stuffed and fried in tempura. My favorites include the squash blossoms and they are utilized in many culinary dishes worlwide. āQuail Seedsā just published a newsletter also stating how early spring flower spikes from overwintered brassicas, carrots and others can be harvested and prepared for delicious meals often before regular vegetables are grown. I do harvest blooms of every type in the early morning hours before they close up or wilt with late morning heat.
Back to pollenā¦im just gonna collect from the morning blooms, all of them and keep inside a jar, and inside the fridge. Then pollinate flowers the next week. Ill also keep a mixed jar of pollen over the summer, one jar in the freezer, and one jar in the fridge 
and use it to pollinate the squash during monsoon seasonā¦hoping its not overly hot. I plan to just carry the collection jar, hold it under the bloom and tap gently to let it fall into the jar. Then shake up the jar and pollinate open female flowers the next weekā¦and pollinate the newly opened flowers in the morning.
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Fantastic! What āFlowers plantsā do you enjoy using for teas/foods? or should I ask how many flowers types/species do you eat?
And how many vegetables do eat the flowers of? How do you cook Carrot flowers? Batter them with butter? Or just use like Broccoli stir-fryed?
Also if you harvest the flowers of your brassicas, does that mean you also delay it going to seed thus giving you are wider window of harvest before the plant dies? Iām thinking the same concept applies to all other veggies too, like Carrots, Basil, Caraway, Arugula, Celery, Fennel, Radish, Quinoa, Squash (Altho it sometimes doesnāt really die after going to seed), ect.
You could do that, you could also use a paintbrush to paint the flowers with pollen. You can even paint with your fingers and skip using a paintbrush entirely.
Reguardless, it sounds like a great game plan, early mornings are the way to go. Just be careful about condensation when you immediately open a frozen jar of pollen without letting it reach room temperature first. Otherwise the warmer air outside moves into the open frozen jar and causes condensation (Water Moisture Build up) which could introduce unnecessary moisture leading to unnecessary vectors for rotting.
Altho from personal experience Opening Frozen jars of Pine Pollen for breakfast everyday didnāt bother the pollen that much, I had the same jar form months as I went thru the pollen & no rotting ever Happened.
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Any squash blossom is good chopped and tossed into scrambled eggs, barbaric eating at its best, also stuffed with soft cheese and tempura batered for a light fryā¦just raw in the garden too.
Probly should start another thread to discuss all the other edible flowers ..I dont know how to do that from here. ..lots of edible flowers, mostly eat raw combined in a salad, or dehydrate and blend for tea. Some are spicy like the herb they originate from, basil and fennel, so add those flowers to appropriate cuisine. Lots of ideas on pinterest and hanfulls of cookbooks too dedicated to flower eating. Fresh tea too, fresh flowers just submerged into boiling water yeilds tasty and fresh tea.
As for pollen collection, the squash plants, mostly C. pepo are just starting to open up, seems like male flowers open a week sooner before the female flowers do. So ill be starting to collect pollen in the next couple of days.
Yes, ill be mindfull of condensation when taking pollen out from the freezer ā¦same goes for seeds stored inside the freezer.
And thats another thread to start about long term storage of seeds and carefully handling of them from the freezer. We are all caretakers of seeds and must be handy with storage techniques.
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Do you also eat Squash Greens? They taste delicious especially the most tender shoots & leaf tips. Maxima & Moschata typically have better texture than pepo but very tender pepo is still enjoyable raw.
I can start one if youād like? Iād love to discuss edible flowers too! Just go to topics & click the start new topic button.
Yes Iāve noticed the same thing with many Squash species Iāve grown. However Iāve also noticed some that send female flowers soon which is unusual but the genetics for it exist in the cultivars.
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I have dined on the squash greens prepared at my friends house, she is from Nepal and prepares marvelous dishes filled with spices and flavors. This season we will collaborate and Ill get to learn how to prepare the vine tips. I enjoy curries and hot peppers from different cuisine. Lots of sauce flavors too, for potatoes rice and chickpeas. Moringa pods and flowers, leaves come to mind too.
There is a variety of squash that produces tasty tipsā¦and keeps growing more once you start harvesting them. Most will put off lateral branches after harvesting the running tipā¦but i vaguely remember a variety that can take the weekly harvest pressure. I have to go review a couple chaptersā¦
Awesome! Take notes! Iād love to learn how to cook it too, Iāve been enjoying them raw before the deer & groundhogs ate everything .
Hmmā¦ does your friend form Nepal also do gardening? She may have some interesting Nepal Vegetable varieties or know someone that does. Iāve been Researching Nepal Wild Edibles, the Himalayan region is very RICH in wild edibles & potential for good genetics for landraces.
I think the squash variety you speak of is the Tetra squash no? Squash bred for 4 edible uses that Emily introduced me to, same folks who bred the interspecies honeynut squash.
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Shes an excellent cook, but doesnt garden as much. I share my garden and she cooks, its wonderfully orchestrated for a delightful meal. Yes, i have a few seeds we traded several years ago. I dont remember what they areā¦
The tetra variety of squash sounds like one of them..originates from China or Asia?
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Oh no, Tetra was bred here in the United States!
However there are some Asian Varieties of Squash bred for edible leaves, I saw some seed packets online once.
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Okay, I surely cant remember.