Naked-seeded pumpkin project

[BeanWonderin]

An update on my 2022 (yes) grow-out:

As I had mentioned previously, we had a pretty poor harvest which I think is mostly due to insufficient water throughout the season and because they were planted too late. I ended up with a few pumpkins which I stored on our unheated basement floor for the winter. All but one eventually shriveled or rotted. The one shown below, a hand-pollinated specimen grown from the 2021-09 selection, still looked pretty good in May, 2023 (photos below). So this was Planted 7/2/22, pollinated 9/5/22, harvested 10/20/22, and kept until cut open on 5/5/23. The seed production was low, but I think that's due to the other factors I noted. I'm impressed with the storage quality on this one.

 

[BeanWonderin]

And now for 2023:

We seem to have a strong crop this year. I have 4-6 plants each of the seed collected in 2021 from 2021-02, -03, -04, -08, and -09. I did not replant any from my 2022 grow-out.

So far, the plants have put out vigorous growth and there are several naturally-pollinated pumpkins. And, we hand pollinated the first pumpkins this morning!

Is anyone else growing Little Greenseed this year?

 

[Zeedman]

Is anyone else growing Little Greenseed this year?

Not this year. I had hoped to plant the most promising seed from 2022; but heavy weed presence in the planned location (and very little help) led to those plans being canceled. Although I haven't quite given up on this project, not sure how much effort I'll be able to devote to it now that its just me.

I still have plenty of the original -02, -04, -08, and -09 seed, and the hand-pollinated 2nd generation -02, -04, and -09 from 2022... I would be happy to send seed next year to anyone interested. Chances are though that you will be progressing faster than I am on this project, @BeanWonderin .

The good thing is that although I only planted a small sample of each line last year (2 plants each) all of the seeds from those were hull-less. I'm overjoyed to see the selection process showing good results so quickly, much faster than I expected.

Didn't have room in my home garden to squeeze in those (longer than expected ) vines this year. But the true-bush acorn squash has become scarce, so I'm growing a few plants of those for seed... just did the first pollination this morning.

 

[flowerbug]

i ran out of space for planting yet more large vine crops so i did not plant any LGS. i'm glad i didn't based upon the large weedy jungles i'm looking at now out there... eek! good luck @BeanWonderin !

 

[BeanWonderin]

I'm taking note of the growth habit of each Little Greenseed selection. Some are vining considerably and some are bush-like. I've also noticed at least one type that has a tendency to throw double and triple flowers. If the production and other factors are comparable, I will probably choose the bush habit to grow moving forward.

 

[Zeedman]

Before you consider selecting for bush habit, I would recommend carefully examining the main stem. The performance of LGS in my garden - with SVB visibly hovering in & around the plants - seems to demonstrate SVB resistance. I attribute that to the very hard stems, and the roots which formed wherever the vines touched the ground. It is possible that in selecting against the long vines, those SVB-resistant traits may be left behind.

That being said, given the now-reduced size of my gardens, I would be far more likely to grow a bush version in the future. I do love pumpkin seeds.

 

[BeanWonderin]

The tidy Little Greenseed patch has exploded with growth and is threatening a hostile takeover of the adjacent garden rows. It's been a struggle to track each flower to the proper plant, but we are now up to 20 hand pollinated pumpkins and many more naturally pollinated. It's looking to be a good crop!

 

[flowerbug]

that's amazingly good looking patch you got there... congrats!

 

[Zeedman]

Looks really great. I think that like much of the garden this year, they were just waiting for some good rain to take off. I can't wait to see your harvest.