Nice pictures Monty! They look very Lemon-like. Let us know how the flavor is when you eat some.

I am excited for the outcome of this project! keep up the good work guys!!

Thanks for the update Monty! Certainly seems a lot of the genetics at play are not simply inherited. If the F1 is a wild ride what will the F2 bring? Can't wait!

Wonderful pictures Monty, thanks for sharing! I am truly amazed at the diversity in the F1. Perhaps a knowledgeable plant genetics expert can enlighten us with some theories, but the variability in habit, leaf shape/size, fruit color, etc. just wow. I won't be growing anywhere close to 50 plants, but this definitely makes me put some last minute changes into my 2015 plans. I will grow only 1 Tatume and 1 Lemon for comparisons and the rest will be the F1s. It will be interesting to see flavor differences too.

In picture 8, if you only showed me the bottom of the fruit, I'd guess it was a baby Tatume. If you only showed me the top, I'd guess it was a baby Lemon. I'm excited and will be on the look out in the F1, trying to select for vining habit early in the plant life cycle.

Monty your posts have given me the itch! Some very interesting results with your cross. Are they Lemon-like or even more bush like in habit? I usually plant my squash seeds around May 15. But the coolest night over the next 7 will be in the mid 40s with a lot of 50s and 70s during the day. So I said what the hell and sowed today. Nothing to lose but a few seeds, I can always resow if the weather goes down the tubes. But my raised beds warm quickly and are warm enough, and with warmer temps coming I sowed sqaush the earliest I ever have. I can cover because I don't grow much because the garden isn't huge.

Yet another great set of pictures and like your flavor report Monty! Thanks again. Looks like you've got a couple ones to follow that agree with your tastebuds. Have your nights warmed up?

Justin. I went ahead and planted four of the F1 seeds you sent me on May 7 and all of them grew. They seem quite vigorous.
Let me know what you want me to note about them as they growout. I was gonna wait till fall because the heat/humidity will be here soon enough, but maybe they have some tolerance?
Anyway, here they are; A, B, C and D:
[ATTACH]49415[/ATTACH][ATTACH]49416[/ATTACH][ATTACH]49417[/ATTACH][ATTACH]49418[/ATTACH]

Monty how are those squash tasting?

Steve, great to see you've got them in the ground in Florida! They look healthy! I'd be curious if you see the variance that Monty has seen in the F1. I'm also curious to how they do with your summer climate and disease pressures. Tatume (the mother is from Texas/Mexico, so it certainly handles heat, but not sure about humidity).

I've got my seeds in the ground. I sowed an early batch and then filled in with a later sowing. I'm going to be selecting plants in each spot trying to select for vining habit (more like Tatume). I can't wait for these to get going, especially with the variability Monty has seen in the F1.

They are growing fast under ideal conditions at the moment. I think I found a spot with few nematodes. If I can get them to climb I might be able to keep them going when the weather turns more Jungle-like in the next month or so. I will try to keep you posted on any variability I see or anything else that might be of interest.

Great! Thanks again. Obviously if something stands out in production and/or flavor department that would be worth knowing as well. It will be interesting to see if multiple people end up following their own lines how similar or different the endpoints end up.

Monty, Is it hot yet? And if so, how are they handling it?

[QUOTE=monty71466;475676]What is your name? LOL. It's been in the 90s in my GH where the squash is being harvested. Outside, it's in the 80s at times. I can almost guarantee these will not have an issue with heat. I've grown the Lemon in 100 deg weather outside last year, 90s regularly. And, the Tatume is a mexican squash that is prolific in Texas heat from many vids I've seen. Keep sharing your pics sir! Or, ma'am. Hey, don't want to make assumptions.

Monty[/QUOTE]

I will. Its in the low 90's sunny and windy most days here. Thunderstorm may or may not pop up in the afternoons. Once my zucchini die off (which should be Any day by the looks of them) these four plants from Justin's cross will be the only squash around. Thinking ahead, should I let them cross? Or hand pollinate? I know nothing about genetics but I'd be thrilled to do something potentially useful (other than feeding squash to my family)

I'm Steve by the way.

Steve,

What disease pressures do you have in Florida summer? Or is it more just heat related? Insect related?

We get powdery mildew in the later part of summer every year here in Wisconsin, especially by early August with warm days and longer, cooler nights at that point. Occasionally SVB issues as well, Tatume will root at nodes, which helps it survive that attack, although my vertical growing negates that advantage. I don't grow a ton of squash, so I do try to screen plants nightly and destroy any eggs if they show up.

As far as pollination, I'd hand pollinate them if possible, which would be the best way to preserve the genetics unique to the cross (in case of neighboring C. Pepo pollen coming in on pollinators) (and in this slightly odd case) the uniqueness of each F1 since there is variability in the F1 (which from my understanding of genetics is typically not the case, F1 generation is often uniform). If not you're not interesting in save seeds and growing subsequent generations, then it doesn't matter. But if you want to, go for it, but don't feel compelled. I will plan on saving seeds from each F1 and growing the F2 of the plant that I find suits my goals the best in 2016.

Monty's advantage of a greenhouse allows him to do two generations in a year (I suppose you could as well being in Florida), but in Wisconsin I don't think it would be enough time to mature the second generation of seed without a greenhouse.

Justin

Nice Monty! Looks how I would have guessed. What plant is it from (selfed fruit?). I never have matured a Lemon. Do they turn hard or go soft like a cucumber when mature?

I did not eat it (only eaten immature Tatume).

Nice work, they sure look tasty! Hopefully you find something you like the taste of even better in the F2!

Your grilled squash recipe is fairly similar to mine--I do olive oil, salt, pepper, freshly chopped garlic and onions, hit with some fresh chopped flat leaf parsley as soon as it is off the grill. The addition of a little citrus juice sounds like a good addition. We also make a squash skillet dish that uses cumin and paprika so that sounds really good too.

My F1 ones are growing nicely, although the next few nights will surely slow them down as we're expecting some unseasonably cool weather. Not unheard of, but certainly rare for this time of year.

If you get a chance I'd love to see a picture of the plants habit, etc. When do you expect to harvest the seeds from your fruit and plant the F2?

I think I'm gonna need a bigger trellis.

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

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 [url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost.php?p=421953&postcount=9[/url] ).

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

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

Justin's F1's are still growing well in NE Florida. They are just a month old and climbing strongly. [ATTACH]49855[/ATTACH][ATTACH]49856[/ATTACH][ATTACH]49857[/ATTACH]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?