Naked-seeded pumpkin project

[jbosmith]

One thing to add to this - pepitas are also excellent in pesto, replacing the pine nuts, etc. Kale/pepita pesto is a favorite. It makes a great pizza sauce!

 

[flowerbug]

i've already eaten a pint jar of roasted seeds from these and i really like them, the problem is finding room someplace to grow them. maybe i can talk Mom into letting me plant them throughout the whole front flower gardens to let them roam all over the flower beds and pathways... hmm... never hurts to ask...

one of the squash i harvested from these vines was a white seeded type with hulls. i just buried it as worm food. i don't really need yet another squash project...

i still have two or three squash yet of this type to open up and to check out the seeds and to probably roast them too since i do like them so much that way.

 

[Zeedman]

One of my remaining pumpkins was getting soft, so I opened all of them last week. The good news: of the 8 pumpkins that grew, all were naked-seeded... so the odds of stabilizing a good cultivar are promising. Some of the skins were so thin that they slipped off during cleaning. The bad news: because of the squash bug attack, most of the seeds did not fully mature. 2/8 had seeds so under-developed as to be unusable. 2 pumpkins had seeds which were nearly mature (including the target of the selection), and 4 had a mix of good & bad seed.

2021 seed harvest. The seeds with the target characteristics are in the top tray.

What had been planned as a breeding selection turned into just a trial, because foul weather prevented me from covering the vines in time... which also resulted in the squash bug infestation. I expected this project to last several years, and have enough seed for the duration; but this was a year of lost time. The plants were not covered because we were in a planting frenzy, trying to get 90+ different things in before the rains returned. But in the future, we will (hopefully) install the cover immediately after transplant (for the kabocha squash as well).

@flowerbug , glad to hear that you got so much good seed. It sounds like you got one hulled off-type; but I am elated that the percentage of hull-less seeds was so high. It bodes well for the future of this project.

I still have plenty of seed for anyone who would like to participate next year, so this project will be ongoing.

 

[BeanWonderin]

Well, I ended up with a pretty good harvest after all. Once I noticed that the deer had found my patch we put up some electric fence and took care of that issue. I was able to hand pollinate several times but eventually the bees took over and they beat me 2 to 1.

I pulled all my pumpkins a week ago so they could cure a bit out of the rainy weather. Most were starting to get some orange on them, so I think they should be pretty mature. I haven't opened them up yet.

Here are the bees' bunch -

And the ones I hand pollinated -

There is a lot of variation in size and shape and we haven't opened any up yet to see how the seeds look. More to come.

 

[Zeedman]

Well, I ended up with a pretty good harvest after all. Once I noticed that the deer had found my patch we put up some electric fence and took care of that issue. I was able to hand pollinate several times but eventually the bees took over and they beat me 2 to 1.

I pulled all my pumpkins a week ago so they could cure a bit out of the rainy weather. Most were starting to get some orange on them, so I think they should be pretty mature. I haven't opened them up yet.

Here are the bees' bunch -
View attachment 44466

And the ones I hand pollinated -
View attachment 44467

There is a lot of variation in size and shape and we haven't opened any up yet to see how the seeds look. More to come.

Wow! That is a really nice crop, I wish mine had done that well. The small pumpkins that are solid orange are probably the type I am selecting for.

 

[flowerbug]

the last three squash harvested from the green seeded plantings were opened up yesterday and two of the three had white seeds with hulls (probably from the same vine that gave me the other white seeded squash i found before). on the off-chance that the flesh of the squash was like an acorn squash i cooked up half of one and ate some of it, but generally, nope, not something worth cooking and trying to eat unless you're starving. butter and spices at least gave it some flavor but the texture was coarse and stringy more than i'd want to contend with.

the challenge with these now will be finding space to continue growing them.

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman do i need to store these seeds sealed up well so they don't dry out any more? they're pretty dry by now.

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman do i need to store these seeds sealed up well so they don't dry out any more? they're pretty dry by now.

Treat them just as you would any other seed, no special care needed. I had some from 10 years ago stored in a plastic bag, and just used the last of them. They shouldn't spoil unless exposed to heat or moisture.

 

[flowerbug]

Treat them just as you would any other seed, no special care needed. I had some from 10 years ago stored in a plastic bag, and just used the last of them. They shouldn't spoil unless exposed to heat or moisture.

ok, thanks! i'm going to go all Johnny Appleseed with these and see how many people will take some seeds from them since i have plenty to give away.

 

[Jack Holloway]

@Zeedman Good read. Are you continue the project this year? If so, I have done hand pollinating of squash in the past and would like to help.