My Squash

[jmsieglaff]

Some great photos Joseph, I enjoy your landrace experiments. You definitely have a need to let things cross and select for your climate. Carol Deppe's book actually was my inspiration in my squash project. I loved reading her squash breeding story. I often reread that part, I wish more books like that existed. We do get some of that here though, so that's nice.

[joseph]

I read Carol Deppe's book, "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties", many years ago. It greatly influenced my gardening style and way of life. We are collaborating on a few projects. I feel honored that I learned enough to share something with the teacher.

[joseph]

I've continued working on adding diversity to my squash... Last year a couple of interspecies hybrids between mixta and moschata squash showed up.

Here's what one of them looked like:

F1: [mixta X moschata], also showing squash like the mixta and possible moschata parent.


This year I grew the hybrid seeds from that squash in an isolated patch. This is what a couple of the siblings from that fruit looked like. (Different daddies).

Looks to me like a classic moschata squash, so I'd guess that the genetics are, BC1: ([mixta X moschata] X moschata).


I'd guess the genetics of this squash are, F2: [Mixta X Moschata]. It's picked up the orange-fleshed trait from moschata.


This week I received seeds from a [maxima X moschata] hybrid. I'm looking forward to adding that to the mix next growing season.

[joseph]

This year's squash harvest was glorious. I took this photo to celebrate being at the lowest weight in decades. I'm down 70 pounds from my maximum. It melted off when I stopped eating wheat, and kept coming off when I started biking the 7 miles to my fields on a regular basis.

[imp]

Congratulations on bothg your squash crop and losing weight as you wanted to do so!!

[bower]

You're quite the poster boy for squash! They look amazing... beautiful colors there!

[joseph]

I've spent the past few days saving squash seeds. I taste every squash before saving seeds.

[Jimbotomateo]

That picture blows my mind! Truly beautiful specimens. Colors are outstanding!

[BigVanVader]

I just saw your musk melon listed at Carol Deppe's website. I think I will buy some seed of it and see how it performs here in the south.

[AlittleSalt]

VERY nice looking squash.

I need to look into losing 50 pounds - then maybe I can grow some squash too

[joseph]

Last week my son gave me a photo from about 20 years ago. So here it is compared to one from last week. I've been saying that I lost 70 pounds, but it looks like more than that...

[Jimbotomateo]

Good job Joseph, lost 40 myself. Much easier on back and knees.

[BigVanVader]

I'm growing summer crookneck and I lost a few plants to SVB, and squash bugs are here but, so far I'm getting quite a few. Mine are quite lumpy skinned.

The LOL muskmelons are performing exceptionally, and of the 12 or so early melons to set most are a dark green color with striping. One looks completely different. Excited to watch these grow.