My Squash

joseph · September 10, 2014

I grow several hundred tomato plants per year and am constantly working on developing better tomatoes for my conditions, but my real passion is growing easily-stored highly-nutritious staple foods like peas, corn, beans, and squash.

Here is what today's harvest of mixta squash looked like. I call this a "grex". They were grown together in the same row. Next year and the one after I will call them a proto-landrace. Perhaps in 3 years I will call them a landrace. I have attempted to grow mixta squash for 5 years. This is the first year that I have had an abundant harvest. 70% of the plants this year did not produce fruits, and in previous years I only harvested one fruit total. So this is a good beginning for a landrace: There are at least 7 varieties represented. Approximately 50 varieties failed the survival-of-the-fittest test in my garden. The grandchildren of these plants are where things start to get exciting in a landrace development project.

Today I also harvested landrace moschata squash for seed. There are lots more of these to be harvested for the food pantry and farmer's market. Weight varies from about 2 pounds to 20 pounds. I am currently in the midst of a "frost-emergency" harvest so lots of picking going on. I started working on this landrace in 2009 with most of the survival of the fittest selection taking place in 2010. There was about a 75% failure rate that year.

I am very pleased about that yellow/orange moschata pumpkin. It is unlike any moschata squash I have ever seen before. It gets the rare honor of posing with the farmer.

It was bright yellow even when immature.

I also harvested 2 bushels of small orange/green maxima squash for seed. I forgot to take a photo of today's crops so this is from a couple weeks ago when they first started getting ready.

Today's harvest of the zucchini seed crop looked like this:

I have been working on harvesting landrace beans, but am taking a few days break from beans because they are not damaged by frost.

High resolution version of the bean photo.

I finished the sweet corn harvest a couple days ago. Here's what some of the cobs looked like that I ate for lunch. I have started harvesting the flour corn, but didn't take photos yet. The popcorn is still a few weeks away from harvest.

September 10, 2014	#1
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	My Squash I grow several hundred tomato plants per year and am constantly working on developing better tomatoes for my conditions, but my real passion is growing easily-stored highly-nutritious staple foods like peas, corn, beans, and squash. Here is what today's harvest of mixta squash looked like. I call this a "grex". They were grown together in the same row. Next year and the one after I will call them a proto-landrace. Perhaps in 3 years I will call them a landrace. I have attempted to grow mixta squash for 5 years. This is the first year that I have had an abundant harvest. 70% of the plants this year did not produce fruits, and in previous years I only harvested one fruit total. So this is a good beginning for a landrace: There are at least 7 varieties represented. Approximately 50 varieties failed the survival-of-the-fittest test in my garden. The grandchildren of these plants are where things start to get exciting in a landrace development project. Today I also harvested landrace moschata squash for seed. There are lots more of these to be harvested for the food pantry and farmer's market. Weight varies from about 2 pounds to 20 pounds. I am currently in the midst of a "frost-emergency" harvest so lots of picking going on. I started working on this landrace in 2009 with most of the survival of the fittest selection taking place in 2010. There was about a 75% failure rate that year. I am very pleased about that yellow/orange moschata pumpkin. It is unlike any moschata squash I have ever seen before. It gets the rare honor of posing with the farmer. It was bright yellow even when immature. I also harvested 2 bushels of small orange/green maxima squash for seed. I forgot to take a photo of today's crops so this is from a couple weeks ago when they first started getting ready. Today's harvest of the zucchini seed crop looked like this: I have been working on harvesting landrace beans, but am taking a few days break from beans because they are not damaged by frost. High resolution version of the bean photo. I finished the sweet corn harvest a couple days ago. Here's what some of the cobs looked like that I ate for lunch. I have started harvesting the flour corn, but didn't take photos yet. The popcorn is still a few weeks away from harvest. Last edited by joseph; September 10, 2014 at 04:01 AM.