Naked-seeded pumpkin project

[meadow]

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.

For the orange one, did you notice the condition of the stem and nearest tendril? When you press your thumbnail against the shell, does it feel hard?

If the orange one was ripe, then you run the risk of the seeds starting to sprout inside of the shell. That happened to me last year with Lady Godiva.

eta: Although the roasted seeds were interesting! They puffed up and then collapsed, making all kinds of noise.

 

[Zeedman]

With a hard freeze approaching, I harvested all of the Little Greenseed pumpkins Thursday; the killing freeze was last night. It was actually a good thing that a previous light frost had killed most of the foliage, since the plants were closely spaced & I had to follow vines back from the pumpkins to see which plant they came from.

I ended up with 16 pumpkins, so an average of 4 per line (although I didn't follow the bee-pollinated pumpkins back to verify that). There should have been a lot more, since I missed a lot of hand pollinations initially (which I broke off) and some of the hand pollinations didn't take.

Little Greenseed

Fortunately, one hand pollination from each line was successful (the ones with string on the stem). from right to left, those are 2021-02, 2021-04, 2021-08, and 2021-09. I would have liked for them to have gotten riper; but given that they were planted 3 weeks late, I'm counting my blessings.

This is a very small population for a breeding project; but that being said, I am very pleasantly surprised at how well all lines appear to have conformed with last year's observations. I chose to develop all of the small-fruited lines, and only a few of the bee-pollinated pumpkins (not sure which lines) had slightly larger pumpkins. I will allow all pumpkins to cure for at least a month indoors before opening, both to allow the seeds to fatten up, and to check for the low/no sprouting trait that was observed in the original LG grow out. After taking this photo, I wrote the line on each of the 4, to avoid possible misidentification later.

I will post an update when the pumpkins are opened & the seed has been extracted.

 

[flowerbug]

...
I will post an update when the pumpkins are opened & the seed has been extracted.

i'm hoping i can start opening them up sometime in the next few weeks. i have 4 from 02 and 2 from 04.

 

[BeanWonderin]

With a hard freeze approaching, I harvested all of the Little Greenseed pumpkins Thursday; the killing freeze was last night. It was actually a good thing that a previous light frost had killed most of the foliage, since the plants were closely spaced & I had to follow vines back from the pumpkins to see which plant they came from.

I ended up with 16 pumpkins, so an average of 4 per line (although I didn't follow the bee-pollinated pumpkins back to verify that). There should have been a lot more, since I missed a lot of hand pollinations initially (which I broke off) and some of the hand pollinations didn't take.
View attachment 52717
Little Greenseed

Fortunately, one hand pollination from each line was successful (the ones with string on the stem). from right to left, those are 2021-02, 2021-04, 2021-08, and 2021-09. I would have liked for them to have gotten riper; but given that they were planted 3 weeks late, I'm counting my blessings.

This is a very small population for a breeding project; but that being said, I am very pleasantly surprised at how well all lines appear to have conformed with last year's observations. I chose to develop all of the small-fruited lines, and only a few of the bee-pollinated pumpkins (not sure which lines) had slightly larger pumpkins. I will allow all pumpkins to cure for at least a month indoors before opening, both to allow the seeds to fatten up, and to check for the low/no sprouting trait that was observed in the original LG grow out. After taking this photo, I wrote the line on each of the 4, to avoid possible misidentification later.

I will post an update when the pumpkins are opened & the seed has been extracted.

Those look great @Zeedman! Hoping they ripen up well.

 

[Zeedman]

Update: while cleaning up the garden, I found two more pumpkins that had been well hidden until more leaves died down. One of those is a second hand pollination from the -04 line - and completely orange.

Yeah, I'm up late. Just finished putting up all of the shelly beans, and running a few experiments (more on those later).

 

[flowerbug]

patch 2021-04 has 6-8 semi-green to almost completely orange small punkins out there, after a half dozen or more frosts. i'm thinking they might still be ok so i'll bring them in this week or at least check one out to see if the rest should be brought in. if they are viable they will be much nicer than only have 2 punkins. i've been so busy i haven't even looked that direction longer than a few seconds so i didn't really notice they were all there, but now that the leaves have all died back from the frosts, there they are. and miraculously the deer have ignored them (after eating them earlier in the season).

 

[flowerbug]

i picked six of the little punkins today, and they are now safe inside. most were fairly green with just a little color starting on them - a few were a little further along. one was left out there as it was way too green and i doubt the seeds inside would have been very developed. two other punkins were half eaten by deer. still not sure how well developed any of them are but at least they won't be eaten or trampled.

 

[Zeedman]

Today I decided to open one of the open-pollinated LG pumpkins to see how the seeds were developing. In spite of the late planting this year, the results are not bad. While there are some under-developed seeds, there are also quite a few that appear to be close to full maturity. Most important IMO is the total lack of sprouting, which is one of the traits I am selecting for... and given that, I will allow the pumpkins to cure another week or two before testing another one.

The interior of these pumpkins is solid, not like the hollow heart of the larger Styrian-type oil-seed pumpkins. Those larger pumpkins are often broken open by dropping them on the ground. I initially tried breaking open the LG pumpkin that way - it just bounced. I tried using a rubber mallet too, it felt like hitting a baseball... but then, not wanting a George Carlin-style watermelon disaster in my kitchen, I didn't push the mallet too hard. So at least I know the pumpkins could ship well. I ended up just cutting the pumpkin in half, through 15-20 seeds. I'll experiment further to determine the best / easiest way of opening these, hopefully with minimal damage to the seeds.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm wondering if any of the later ones i picked will be good or have viable seeds as i broke a few open the other day and the seeds were all pale and not very developed. i'll still keep them in my room here and open them up later when i get a chance but i'm not getting my hopes for those very high, so i can be surprised to the good side if it happens.

the other ones i picked quite some time ago i've not touched yet, but hope to have them looked at soon as this weekend is looking to not be an outdoors time and i need to clear my desk off where they are sitting. so i get a twofer one on top of having extra worm food if i need it.

 

[flowerbug]

did not have time to get seeds from all these today but got four of seven done. details at the end of the page at:

Squash | Anthive

My adventures in the squash patches...

www.anthive.com

(too tired to write it up again going to sleep).

last six squash i picked from 2021_04 were not developed. so only two from that lot made it to viable seeds for me. good chance that the last three squash i have left to do which are from 2021_02 lot will have viable seeds.

flesh of 2nd squash i did tonight from 2021_02 lot was edible with a bit strange texture, but adding spices, brown sugar and butter made it acceptable rations in a pinch. did not need anything else added at all to be creamy enough texture. plain i could not eat much of it at all the texture just didn't go with the taste well enough and was slightly bitter. would describe the more plain flavor as mild Acorn. time to zzz Zeed...