Has anyone tried Mentor Pollination to Bridge the Genetic Barrier between Squash Species?
Basically you mix pollen from all the Squash Species into a cup then paint every female flower and see what happens? → Ivan Muchiurn gave me the idea
I’ve tried this on the edge of a forest near the suburbs with an HOA. Successfully Pollinated a Cucurbita maxima with Pollen mixed with a Cucurbita pepo however the fruit eventually got cut off by someone (Deer or human IDK, but it was smooth clean cut). Never got a fruit but it was nice to know that it could form a fruit easily when pollen was mixed.
Also would grafting help bridge the gap? Since it gives both plants time to get used to each others roots sytems?
Your Cherokee Tan Pumpkins are beautiful! I grow Seminole Pumpkins, and love the tan/buff moschata pumpkins! Love them so much that I have a collection of many varieties of them.
I have DM you about wanting to learn more about the Cherokee Tans, and a possible trade.
Here in Eastern Kentucky, those are referred to as field pumpkins. You can find listings online for seeds of Kentucky Field Pumpkin which is presumably the same or similar. I got these from a farmer about a hundred miles away from me.
It is my understanding that the field pumpkin in Kentucky is related to the Dickinson pumpkin and the Cherokee tan pumpkin. I don’t have sources for that because the source is online are not authoritative.
They produced pollen but not fruit last year in my garden. I will probably plant some seeds for them again because last year was a poor year in general for squash here. But I also intend to plant moschata seeds from the Going to Seed mix as well as other sources.