Naked-seeded pumpkin project

[Zeedman]

i cut the squash off the plant today, so of the four patches i have yellowing squash from two patches inside where i can keep the deer from eating it. i checked the third patch to see if i could find any of the naked seeded squash anywhere but i didn't see any, but perhaps i missed some as it's a pretty large patch and there's a lot of big leaves.

... and those are some small pumpkins. (added emphasis mine) While still green, they are pretty hard to locate under the foliage.

I harvested the row of soybeans next to the pumpkins, so was able to get a better look at the patch. The leaf cover is still nearly impenetrable, but I could see a few of the pumpkins. All of the pumpkins I can see are about softball size, and some are starting to change color.

 

[ducks4you]

@Zeedman , your dishtowel covered squash looks like you are covering their nakedness!!!

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman , your dishtowel covered squash looks like you are covering their nakedness!!!

i was thinking they were going to be early Halloween decorations as they looked like ghosts to me.

as to your allusion i have heard in the past that some people have used retired bras to hold up their squash and watermelons. that would be some funny pictures - but no, i'm not going to search the web...

 

[flowerbug]

i found two other squash today from the first patch (hiding off to the side) which are larger and about the same in terms of development so i'm going to try to leave these out there for a while since i have two squash inside already and hope that they all are good.

 

[Zeedman]

Was walking outside the garden fence, and found a young tennis-ball-sized pumpkin. No chance of it ripening this late in the season, so I cut it off to save energy for older pumpkins on the same vine. Then almost threw it away... but it was dark green & the zucchini is done, so I tried cooking it as a summer squash. Delicious!!! For anyone growing these, it might be worthwhile to harvest any newly-formed squash before the freeze. I tried to save some for the photo, but...

Oh, and all those immature seeds? They were hull-less, tender, and good too.

 

[ducks4you]

I researched eating unriped squash and got the advice, eat it quickly bc it will not store, but it IS edible. It's kinda like harvesting immature beans, very tender.
I got the idea from the fad of microgreens.
Yesterday, while visibly searching for what I thought was a small 5th pumpkin in my sweet-potato-over run-by-squashes patch, I kicked a small hubbard squash off of it's vine. Not thinking, I threw it to the horses to eat, but realized that the other 5 hubbard squashes won't have time to mature, and I'd like a nice meal from them.
How did you prepare it?

 

[Zeedman]

The pumpkin was very immature & dark green, basically zucchini stage. I cut off about 1/4" from both stem & blossom ends, then quartered it, and sliced the quarters. I steamed it just like zucchini (checking often for tenderness) and poured it into a bowl with melted butter, salt, and Thai basil. The squash was very tender, so I mixed it by pouring back & forth between two bowls. Then I sampled it... and just kept sampling. I've done this with other immature squash, but those often had some bitterness; the LG was completely sweet. I hunted through the vines today hoping to find more, but all of the pumpkins I saw are changing color.

 

[flowerbug]

the frost the other night meant that all the squash plants have been knocked out.

the NSP's in the garden that were harvested yesterday were two left, one i'd let go completely orange as long as it could and the green one i'll just leave there and see if it changes or not before doing anything to it. i don't expect it to have any viable seeds, but perhaps whatever it does have would be edible in some form.

i've not yet scanned the other two gardens but i do have NSPs from one of them for sure, but i won't know until i cut them up if they're actually got viable seeds in them. i'm hoping probably for both gardens because that would mean at least half the gardens have given desired results.

the garden towards the front will be a complete surprise either way. i don't think i saw any NSPs in there at all yet, but some could be hiding it was a rather sprawling garden with vines going 20ft or more in many directions and there are other gardens around where pumpkins can be nesting.

 

[flowerbug]

turned out that the front garden that might have had NSPs did not have any. so only 2 of the 4 lots survived deer and chipmunk predation and gave me fruits. i have them inside so they are safe. i need to cut some of them open and see how the seeds look. they're all orange now i just don't know really how long i can leave them go or should i harvest seeds sooner rather than later and get them dry? anyways inside they are as safe as they can get. i wrote the lot number on each pumpkin so i didn't forget what came from where.

 

[BeanWonderin]

turned out that the front garden that might have had NSPs did not have any. so only 2 of the 4 lots survived deer and chipmunk predation and gave me fruits. i have them inside so they are safe. i need to cut some of them open and see how the seeds look. they're all orange now i just don't know really how long i can leave them go or should i harvest seeds sooner rather than later and get them dry? anyways inside they are as safe as they can get. i wrote the lot number on each pumpkin so i didn't forget what came from where.

They should be ok for a month or two easily. Last year I waited until Christmas to process the pumpkins. I think 2-3 weeks after harvest would allow the seeds to mature a bit more and may improve their viability.