Who wants to volunteer to grow a fig-leaf gourd accession for GRIN?

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Hi, guys! I’m in charge of the fig-leaf gourd (Cucurbita ficifolia) grex this year, and Joseph Lofthouse helped me reach out to GRIN to contact them about what they have for the species.

This is a spinoff of this thread. I’m making it its own thread so that it’s easier to find people.

GRIN has a bunch of accessions that have never been grown out, and it would be very helpful to them to have a number of people grow out an accession (in isolation, which should be easy if you grow only one) and return seeds to them.

They do not need to be isolated from any other species. Just their own species.

Bob at GRIN said it would be best to grow at least 6-10 plants. More would be great, but that would be sufficient. He’s not sure how much of a germination rate the accessions will have, since a lot of the seeds are older, so if you end up with fewer plants, just grow what you can.

He suggested that we all start the plants right away (indoors in order to transplant them if it’s too early to plant things outside for you), in order to increase your chances of success in getting mature fruit.

If you’d like to volunteer to grow out an accession this year, please send me a PM with your mailing address, phone number, and e-mail so that Bob at GRIN can mail you the seeds!

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Messaged!

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Thank you! :smiley:

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I received notice today that two accessions got shipped to me.

PI 438572

Cucurbita ficifolia Bouche (Cucurbitaceae) Figleaf gourd.
From Guatemala. Collected by H. F. Sinters and B» I. Clark, USCA, Germplasm Resources Laboratory, and North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, Beltsville, Maryland and Ames, lona. Received December 1979.

W-C 2462. Farm at Km 128, road to Chichicastenango, Solola Dept. 2461m. Seed white. Local name Chilacayote (Tzil-acayotli). Cultivated. Seed.

PI 532341

donor id: 19. origin: Mexico. local name: Chilacayote. collected: November 20, 1985. collector: T.C. Andres and J.J. Wyland. collector id: 19. locality: In front yard garden, Santa Maria Asuncion, 13km NE of Tulancingo de Bravo on hwy. Mex. 130 to Huachinango. latitude: 20 deg. 09 min. N. longitude: 98 deg. 16 min. W. elevation: 2200m. remarks: Fruits green mottled, 23cm long, 22.5cm wide, Carpels 4. Seeds dark brown. Flesh and seeds used to make dulce or confectionery. Home of Carmen Tellez and Mario Ramos. Cultivated. Seed

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My goodness! 1979 and 1985! Bob wasn’t kidding about these being old seeds. Do you have any recommendations for germinating old seeds?

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I also just got notice, the accession im getting shipped is PI 438692. However, i cannot figure out how to use the grin website to get further information on this accession. My searches all turn up with no results found. Any tips?

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I also got notice. I’m receiving this one: PI 451832 GRIN-Global

I found that when I went to Search Accessions GRIN-Global and performed the simple search on my accession number, the engine returned no results. I also couldn’t get them from the advanced search tool. But I dropped “PI 451832” into the list search box, it came right up.

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Hopefully the seeds got stored frozen, and will germinate like fresh seeds.

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Thank you! Mine is also from 1979, Mexico! I can’t wait to get the seeds planted!

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Mine is PI 442180. Thank you for that tip, Christopher! That’s super helpful! I found it on the website here:

https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail?id=1337116

It looks like it was collected in Mexico in 1979. It seems to have the nickname Bouché.

I can’t wait to see what I get!

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A memoir exists about the family that grew these seeds…

http://www.danielconnolly.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Excerpt-prologue-only.pdf

“Mario’s mother [Carmen] made a living selling vegetables and she spoke both Spanish and Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, a language Mario would never learn […] Mario said his mother’s vegetable and fruit sales brought in enough money for the family to survive. They always had food, shoes and clothing, but few opportunities.”

Mario emigrated to the usa in March 2003.

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Wow! That’s really cool!

It’s wonderful that their legacy of seeds is at last being grown. :slight_smile:

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White seeds!!

We hereby have genetic diversity! :smiley:

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Ooh, cool! My accession just arrived, and I have black, white, and brown seeds in the 20 that were sent to me. I hope that implies there will be a lot of genetic diversity in this population.

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Okay, I’ve started trying to germinate my seeds! Here’s what I’ve experienced so far.

The seeds are forty-four years old, and they looked and felt really old when I pulled them out of the packet. I decided to presoak them before direct sowing them outside, in order to give them the best chance at survival.

I presoaked a few for 24 hours, and put all of them on a damp paper towel for 24 hours. When I checked on them 24 hours after putting them in, two of the seeds were covered in mold that was trying to spread to the rest. Uh oh!

The Internet recommended soaking moldy seeds in a solution of 1% hydrogen peroxide and 99% water for a few minutes, in order to kill the mold, and then try to germinate them again. I checked and didn’t have any hydrogen peroxide, so I improvised and hoped it was a good idea.

I made a solution of something like 1% rubbing alcohol and 99% water (I didn’t measure precisely), and soaked the two moldy seeds and another nine in that solution for a few minutes. Then I pulled them out and wiped them off carefully.

The other nine seeds, I just wiped off carefully. I didn’t know if the rubbing alcohol / water solution would help or hurt, so I figured I’d do half and half.

I decided to try scarifying them, because I figured that may increase germination. I took a pair of nail clippers and very carefully clipped along the edge of the round part of each seed, trying to get a long slit for the cotyledons to emerge, without damaging them. With some of them, I also gently tugged the seed coat away from the cotyledons a bit. The seed coats were soft after being soaked for 24 hours, so they nail clipped easily.

Because the seeds probably need babying, I’m going to try germinating them indoors, rather than direct sowing them. I’ll put the nine not-in-contact-with-alcohol in one container, and the eleven soaked-for-a-few-minutes-in-highly-dilute-rubbing-alcohol in another. That will allow me to determine whether the rubbing alcohol helped or hurt.

I hope I’ll get some germination, and I hope they’ll grow into strong plants.

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Do we actually know that the seeds we’re handling were collected in those original samples? My impression of the way GRIN works is that they list the collection, but normally grow the seeds periodically to refresh their stock. I understand that these were neglected, but that doesn’t mean, for example, that they weren’t last grown out in 2005. But you were handling the conversation with them.

I soaked mine for a day and now they’re between damp paper-towels on my kitchen counter. They’ve swelled with the water, but no sprouts yet. I give them periods to superficially dry out and breathe.

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At one point, Bob said, “We can provide some basic info on the origin of the accessions. Unfortunately, since they have never been previously grown by the genebank (or a cooperator) we have no info on them other than what is in the public database. When the seed are sent, we’ll provide all available info in a spreadsheet.”

So . . . I’m pretty sure we all got seeds that are really as old as the accession information says!

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I like your idea of giving them periods to superficially dry out and breathe. That seems like a smart way to prevent mold from forming. I hope that works out well for you (and the seeds)!

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Sorry I’m late to the conversation! I also received my seeds, and thanks to your helpful hints was able to find the reference in the database:

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We’ve been having rainy weather with highs in the 70s, so I put mine directly into the ground. But now I’m thinking ‘bad idea!’ because of potential snail munching. I better come up with some protection for them.

I read this on Wikipedia:

“It [C. ficifolia] has been noted to form interspecific hybrids with Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita moschata, and Cucurbita pepo.[3] Interspecific hybrids have generally been infertile beyond the first generation unless techniques such as embryo cultivation are used.[5]”

So, better keep them away from the other Cucurbitas to avoid cross-pollination and infertile seeds?

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