In a decade of growing ficifolia right next to the other squash species, I haven’t found an inter-species hybrid.
2 Likes
And when HasBean brought up the question of whether we should isolate them from the other species in the same genus, I asked Bob, and he thought that would be unnecessary.
1 Like
@Joseph_Lofthouse Glad to hear that inter-species hybrids are so rare. I won’t have to find another space for the other squash. Thanks!
1 Like
I’m starting to wonder if all of my seeds were black when they were first gathered, and the ones that were brown or white were that way because they were so old that the black part rubbed off. I wonder this because I saw some of the black rubbing off after presoaking them.
If I get some to germinate and make me fruits with fresh seeds, I guess I’ll see! 
1 Like
A few days ago a friend showed me her chilacoyota seeds and they were pure white, and fresh looking (like last year). I was skeptical they were even chilacoyota (although shape was same as my black seeds) until I saw your post. I’m going to get a few of those white seeds and plant them!
Don’t forget Dr White’ teachings on soil bacteria helping seeds germinate. Also soil bacteria controls mold, so you if you do pre-sprout them on a paper towel just sprinkle some native soil in there…
Good luck, my fingers are crossed for yours!
2 Likes
On the moldy seed topic, i have a theory that the washing actually hurts. I did a lot of stratifying this spring. I had a bag of apple seeds that got moldy. I caught it when it was just one seed and washed with a vinegar. It got way moldier and pretty much all other seeds got moldy pretty quickly. I washed a couple more times and then just planted them, i think i got five seedlings out of maybe 40 seeds. Then i had a different type of perennial, where i had about 100 seeds. When one got moldy i moved a lot of the seeds to different bags and left a few in the bag with the moldy seed. The mold didnt spread at all. Germination is ongoing but is ok so far. I plan on doing that in the future for the same variety and same species to get a more controlled experiment, since there are so many factors involved in mine. But my theory is that the seed that gets moldy is already dead. Seeds keep themselves from getting moldy when they are in the ground and waiting to germinate. Im glad you have a control group, ill be interested to hear what your results are.
1 Like
Good point! Maybe pre-sprouting with water is a bad idea! Maybe I should only do it with some moist native soil. That does seem to work well to get seeds to germinate.
Yeah, I’m glad I have a control group, too! I’ll be sure to report my results! I sure hope I didn’t kill them – and of course I hope they weren’t already dead when they were sent to me. Here’s hoping!
I planted today, in pots in the greenhouse. My standard seed starting mix: Coconut coir with a hint of time-release fertilizer. The seed definitely looks old.
For comparison, I scaled the photos the same.
PI-438572
PI-532341
2 Likes
What is the thing called that you use as a background? I’ve actually been wondering that for years at this point.
1 Like
I call it “the grid”. Here’s the most current version,
Grid-color-blank.pdf (1.8 MB)
2 Likes
Congratulations!
I have germination!
Today I saw one pair of cotyledons of the seeds that weren’t cleaned in alcohol, and two pairs of cotyledons of the seeds that were, so I decided to take them outside.
All three sets of cotyledons were barely poking up through the soil and hadn’t separated from each other yet, so I figured I could I could scoop the baby plants out with a spoon, stick them directly in the ground, and then cover them lightly with mulch. No need to harden them off that way.
Once I did that, I carefully stirred through the soil with the spoon to see if the others had germinated. As it turned out . . . a lot of them had!
Four of the nine not-soaked-in-diluted-alcohol seeds had germinated, and I found two more that hadn’t yet, but which I put into the soil outside just in case they do.
Nine out of the eleven soaked-in-alcohol seeds had germinated, and all looked great.
I couldn’t find the others at all, so they may have been dead and already rotted away – or they may still be in there waiting to germinate. I’ll put something else in the native soil to germinate inside, and if I see squash cotyledons poke up in a few days, I’ll know it was the latter!
I’m so incredibly relieved. I was starting to think I would have to tell GRIN I got no germination and apologize because it was probably my fault for trying to germinate them in water. Instead, it looks like I may very well have twelve plants, which is a very good germination rate for 20 seeds from 1979.
It wasn’t a perfect test, by the way, because there were two other variables I didn’t control for. I clipped off more of the outer edge of the seed coating with the soaked-in-alcohol batch, and I planted them into a container with a whole bunch of radish seeds I was germinating for microgreens. So the higher germination rate with them may have been a) because of the alcohol, b) because of the greater scarification, or c) because of the radish polyculture. Maybe a bit of all three.
The only thing I can say with confidence is that clearly none of those three hurt the germination rate, so that’s very useful to know. I suspect that carefully nail clipping off most of the edge of the seed coating helped the most with getting the cotyledons to emerge, and it was easy to do without hurting the cotyledons inside, so scarification of older cucurbit seeds seems likely to increase germination a great deal.
Which makes sense, since that was a recommendation I read online for germinating old seeds.
1 Like
Yesterday, I put the nine germinated seeds in pots of soil. I think one of the eleven remainders might be about to sprout. The other ten look sad and thin. But I’ll give them more time.
The first of the germinated seeds I planted under mulch outside has appeared above the mulch! Healthy cotyledons that look happy. Excellent. It appears my sneaky plan of sticking them under the mulch, so that I didn’t have to bother hardening them off and it would be easy to keep them moist, has been working. I’m glad!
I’m wondering if I should make that my plan going forward for all transplants now. I dislike hardening off; if I want to do something right now, I want to do it right now, not make it a long drawn-out process that takes several more days. It seems to me that since deep mulch is good for my hot dry climate anyway, I could just cover every seedling with a few autumn leaves, which will gradually fall off as the plant grows taller, effectively starting it in full shade that transitions to full sun over the course of a week. I’ll have to keep testing it to see whether it works well enough and consistently enough for me to recommend the idea to other gardeners who are equally eager to put things outside on a whim whenever they feel like it.
I hope all twelve of my germinated seeds will appear above the mulch soon, and be healthy!
2 Likes
My seeds are germinating! After 10 days, 13 out of 20 have come up. One looks like it has been nibbled. I’ve made some caps using screen material that I hope will keep any marauders out.
2 Likes
That’s wonderful! I’m glad there’s been that much germination for you!
Caps using screen material seems really smart.
I decided to use screen material because I know I can’t be counted on to cover/uncover plants each day. They would either get eaten overnight or roast under a solid cover during the day!
1 Like
Yes, definitely! I choose my “do this every day” commitments very carefully. I’ve found I can have a maximum of three to five, and if I have five, most of them need to be small things (like giving my daughter her Nemechek Protocol supplements). My life is much simpler when I build as many systems that can work on autopilot as possible.
By the way, in case you’re curious about the Nemechek Protocol:
The author of the book is a) a doctor, b) who is highly respected in the medical community, c) who isn’t selling anything. All three of those are very important for me to have any interest in what he has to say! 
I read it because another parent told me his nine-year-old daughter was now up to grade level after two years on the Nemechek Protocol, even though she had been diagnosed with low-functioning autism before then. My seven-year-old daughter is severely developmentally delayed, perhaps low-functioning autistic. I read the book, it all fit with everything I know about nutrition and gut health, and so I started following its recommendations. Within a day, I saw a difference in her eyes. Within a month, I saw a difference in her behavior. A year later, she’s starting to speak. The progress is slow, but it’s a lot faster than it was before I started her on this.
Anyway, that’s one of the few things I do every day. If I’m going to commit to doing something daily, it has to be really important to me!
3 Likes