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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 21, 2012 20:20:32 GMT -5
Well, they are responding well to Oxbow Farm. Or those Naples squash were their pollen parent. I'm not seeing any of the dark green style skin like your two big squash. The pics of the small/medium look reasonable, mine are trending much bigger than that. I'm not seeing any of the pumpkin shapes except for a few squat barrel/papaya types which may be all from one plant. I didn't fertilize or lime, they are just growing on plowed up pasture. I'm really liking them and will have fun saving seed, but most of them are much too large to sell well at market for me. I'll try and get out and get a picture of them when our new camera gets here. Dropped the camera the other day Minnie you really should try crossing Musque with something like Kikuza, Chirimen, or Kogiku and see what kind of a love child might result.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 21, 2012 20:51:06 GMT -5
Hehehe. My garden is just barely within the ecological limits of Moschata squash, and then only because I have expended many resources and hours of labor to adapt a landrace to my garden. Good to see that it feels more at home in a warmer climate. [How do you feel about that? Someone calling Oxbow Farm a warmer climate?] So much though for my efforts at selecting for smaller squash. It's too early to tell how big they will get in my garden this year, but I expect to post photos. The larges are already well on their way to greatness. The Long of Naples and the large-fruited landrace were grown about 13 miles away from the small/medium patch last year. But in the 2010 growing season one Long of Naples plant and the Pennsylvania Dutch long-necked squash shown here may have contributed some pollen to these fruits. The smallest fruits from this group are the grandmothers of what Oxbowfarm is growing. I had an 88 day growing season in 2010 between the day these squash were direct seeded and the night that they were killed by frost. [The Long-of-Naples plant survived the frost and was harvested about a month later so it didn't make it into this photo.]
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 21, 2012 22:54:16 GMT -5
It might be interesting to cross Musque with one of those Japanese/Asian pumpkin moschatas like Yokohama or Futsu. They have a similar fruit shape, it might bring down the size of your Musque and still make a pretty squash. Last year I grew a hill of black futsu about 20 feet away from my patch of medium butternut landrace. So keep an eye on your plants, you might find an F1 hybrid. [See the previous photo for what the parents looked like.]
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Post by mayz on Aug 22, 2012 4:32:54 GMT -5
So what has anyone to say about planting too close? Normally I grow close and I obtain fruits until 17-18 kg This year I planted my F2 squash very close. Numerically speaking 37 plants on 20m2 and I obtain fruits from 1kg to 10kg On the other hand you ll certainly find a smaller and tasty variety in heaps of cultivars of C moschata ... like Sucrine du Berry... Attachments:
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 23, 2012 6:09:08 GMT -5
Here's some of the Joseph's medium landrace butternut in my field. The one scarred "Earliest" was the first moschata to flower here this year. You can definitely see some Pennsylvania neck pumpkin in some of these.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 7, 2012 13:43:36 GMT -5
I got another grow report today about my small/medium moschata landrace: She questioned how a 15# fruit could be considered small/medium. Ha! Ain't that how it always goes? Seems like gardening is mostly about location, location, location. Now I gotta wonder what my large moschata landrace would grow like in a warmer climate.
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Post by littleminnie on Sept 7, 2012 20:57:08 GMT -5
I have tons of Joseph's long butternuts in my garden this year. The vines are dead and I can see lots but if I pick them I have to store them somewhere. You can't see all the ones on the end in the photo. Those are the longer ones. Joseph you aren't still drawing a picture on the seed packet are you? ;D
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 7, 2012 21:03:43 GMT -5
I'm in for trying the large moschata landrace next year. I can't wait to see what they do.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 7, 2012 21:31:54 GMT -5
Joseph you aren't still drawing a picture on the seed packet are you? ;D I'm definitely not drawing long-necked squash on seed packets any more... That was an activity for younger and more naive Joseph. And I also don't draw pictures of Butterfly peas.
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Post by littleminnie on Sept 15, 2012 22:23:24 GMT -5
I harvested the squash and pumpkins and put in boxes in the shed for storage as I sell them. It was a huge load and took multiple trips in my truck from the field to the barn. It seems like the large size took care of itself this year; none of the MDP are big. But the Cinderella's and Butternuts are large. Some butternuts are way over 20 lbs. I didn't stop to photo everything but maybe will later. Here was a few.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 16, 2012 16:37:42 GMT -5
I warned you, everything that comes from Joseph's gets huge....beware of anything that Joseph calls small or medium (that's the watchword).
I think that if I grew the "Large version of Joseph's Butternut" I would have to expand another acre, just for that squash ;D
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 16, 2012 17:35:10 GMT -5
Caveat Emptor. Guess it's my fault for trying to grow Moschata beyond the ecological limits in which it is comfortable. Here's a picture from a minute ago about what small, medium, and large look like in my garden: Dang, I did it again this year. Gritting my teeth together trying to hold such a huge squash. And also a photo from a few days ago of my moschata harvest for this year:
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 16, 2012 20:51:58 GMT -5
Hey Joseph, have you ever gone farther with the Buckskin pumpkin project where you were crossing for the dark orange flesh? Or did that get incorporated into your moschata landraces?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 16, 2012 21:11:36 GMT -5
Hey Joseph, have you ever gone farther with the Buckskin pumpkin project where you were crossing for the dark orange flesh? Or did that get incorporated into your moschata landraces? The parents of the cross looked like this: The F1 looked like this: The descendants of those crosses ended up in the recently renamed Super Extra Large Gigantic Moschata landrace, (the fruits on the right hand side of this photo). I'm expecting to cut those squash open and post photos in about a month. I'm thinking that the dark tan football shaped squash is also a descendant of that cross, and probably the deep tan necked-squash are also. Some of the Long-of-Naples type could also have the orange-flesh gene by now since they have been grown together for 3 years.
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Post by castanea on Sept 16, 2012 23:30:53 GMT -5
Caveat Emptor. Guess it's my fault for trying to grow Moschata beyond the ecological limits in which it is comfortable. Here's a picture from a minute ago about what small, medium, and large look like in my garden: Dang, I did it again this year. Gritting my teeth together trying to hold such a huge squash. So what is the long green one?
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