Squash breeding project

[Stvrob]

I think I'm gonna need a bigger trellis.

[jmsieglaff]

Wow! I'm going to need to get my pruner sharpened to keep the plants straight!

[jmsieglaff]

Monty,

I see a lot of Tatume in those pictures. It was the mother so there maybe something to the DNA that comes solely from the mother. The dark green vines and ability to climb are much like Tatume. The leaf shape while isn't exactly like Tatume, it has deep leaf notches, which Tatume does, especially compared to Lemon. You can see a few pictures of Tatume on the 1st page of this post (first picture here is a good zoom out of Tatume plants http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....53&postcount=9 ).

The fruit definitely look more like Lemon, in shape, size, and color.

I've got a few F1s along with 1 plant of Tatume and Lemon growing this year.

Justin

[jmsieglaff]

Hey Monty,

Thanks for the update. Mine are growing well. Not too big yet, but our weather is much warmer now. I should have an idea of habit better in the coming 1-2 weeks. I'll post some pictures once they get a bit bigger. The F1 plants are bigger than both my Lemon and Tatume plants started at the same time.

Justin

[Stvrob]

Justin's F1's are still growing well in NE Florida. They are just a month old and climbing strongly. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433872624.969607.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1433872640.642543.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1433872651.789172.jpg

[jmsieglaff]

Thanks Steve! They look very healthy. Mine are doing well. It is raining now but I suspect my flowers will be in the coming week or two. I'll have to look more closely but it appears the Tatume sowed at the same time as the F1 is vining out slightly sooner, but the F1 is larger than the Lemon of the same age.

[Stvrob]

We just ate four of your F1's. They had excellent taste, they were quite a hit. Unfortunately, i just discovered a hatch of vine borers on all four plants. Nearly every unopened flower and all the baby fruit had a hole with a worm, and the growing tips of three of them had to be pruned. Hopefully I got them all! Luckily no damage to the lower stems at all.

Justin, I think you did good with your cross. The fruit is really good. One thing though, for such a large plant it doesnt really put out that many female flowers. This might change as it matures, maybe. The plants are only 6 weeks old.

[jmsieglaff]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Glad to hear you are enjoying the F1! Brent, any clear winners in the fruit in terms of flavor or all pretty similar? Did all your greenhouse F1s have the green bottoms or only some? Steve, good luck with those evil SVBs. I like a lot of things about Tatume, its production is only so so though, I find Lemon produces better in my garden, so hopefully F2 will bring some differences in terms of production.

I've been meaning to snap some pictures of my Lemon, Tatume, and LT F1 to show how they are similar/different to each parent at this stage in their development. I don't have flowers open yet, but the Tatume is climbing, no climbing from the F1s yet.

[Stvrob]

Monty, how old are those LT crosses in your picture? Also, is it hot yet in your part of AZ? Its only just starting to get in the high 90's here. Usually this weather quickly kills off squash, we shall see. Other than the outbreak of vine borers they have been quite healthy.

[jmsieglaff]

Very interesting Monty. I never have had ridges in my Lemon squash, I never have saved Lemon seeds, my seed source for this is Baker Creek and my Lemon squash have always been the same from year to year. I think what you're saying is very possible and I also think simple inheritance does not seem to be the case with these hence some variability? (Based on my very rough understanding of plant genetics.)

I'm very intrigued by your longer shaped ones, more Tatume like. Keep us posted on that, both plant habit and flavor.

Below are a couple pictures. The first is a Lemon (bottom) then 3 F1s (the last one can't be seen and is smaller than the others, so I may cull it, but I will let it fruit first). The F1s are a little taller than the Lemon and also are developing long tendrils, but not really vining just yet. They have some immature tiny fruit, I'm guessing about a week til they start opening.

The second picture is Tatume (right) which you can easily see vining already. Then the left 3 are F1s. The middle 2 are smaller due to age and the far left one is the same age as the other F1s in picture 1 and the Tatume and Lemon plants.

I should be getting into the more exciting time soon!

[jmsieglaff]

Selfing the first F1 tomorrow morning! They are vigorous plants and look to be about a week ahead of the Tatume, probably 2 weeks ahead of the Lemon.

[jmsieglaff]

Squished about 6 SVB eggs today, 3 on a Lemon, 2 on an F1 and 1 on another. Evil, evil creatures that serve what purpose? None, other than angering humans. I think the food chain could do without them. At least with my small garden I can do a reasonable job of scouting for eggs, but they are easy to miss being so small.

[jmsieglaff]

Looks like the selfing took. Now if I can keep the SVB at bay. Will be selfing other plants soon. Growth habit has been pretty much the same in all F1s except one is the runt of the litter. Definitely a blend of running rambling Tatume and semi-bush Lemon. Looking forward to eating some in a couple ekes too.

[jmsieglaff]

Selfed another two F1 plants today. The one looks to be very similar to the other I selfed, the other is the runt. I'm keeping the runt around just to taste the fruit to see if it will be any different the other plants. Here are a couple pictures of F1 habit vs. Tatume. First are F1s, same age as Tatume in the 2nd picture (some younger F1s are next to the Tatume, but aren't much smaller than the other F1s). The Tatume is flowering and setting fruit, the first of which was about 4 days after the first F1. The Lemon still has not begun to flower, but Lemon is always a couple weeks later than Tatume in my garden.

How are your guy's F1 doing? Some plants will be setting second fruits soon and I've got another I cannot self tomorrow since there are no male flowers that will open on that plant tomorrow, so I plan on eating it assuming it sets.

[Jonnyhat]

So I preface this by stating i am beginner, my squash/zucchini are all doing awesome in fact I am eating some every day. I have green G-Star F1 OG Hybrid Patty Pan squash, Tigress F1 Zucchini Squash and Yellow fin F1 OG Squash all growing great. However... About 2 weeks ago I noticed a 4th variety of squash growing in my garden that I did not plant and was not in the row I had them planted in. I let it go and it resembles none of the other varieties. In fact It looks like a Provence type, light green, round and about the size of a hand grenade. Any ideas how this could have happened?