|
Post by hortusbrambonii on Sept 20, 2013 5:24:17 GMT -5
I bought this baseball-shaped pumpkin on the market, I actually selected it out of a batch of freshly harvested mostly red kuri/pottimaron type pumpkins with some aberrations like this one (some others had green or other spots, but only a few were longish like this one). It's bigger than the others, baseball-shaped and a bit more starchy than what I expect the other ones to taste like if they are what I think they are, but good for soup or gratin or such. I suppose it to just be a nameless accidentak cross of the standard red kuri-like race of most of the others with another type of C. maxima. Don't know which one though, I thought most of those longish hubbard-thingies were less short-season than this kind of hokaido-pumpkins. Anyone a guess? And the main question: if I would plant the seeds of this one, is there any chance I would get something inedible in the mix? I know C. pepo pumkins can cross with all kind of indedible C. peope decorative gourds. Are there C. maxima-equivalents of those that could be in the mix too that could have created this one as an edible F1? (foto's from facebook, hope they work)
|
|
|
Post by mayz on Sept 20, 2013 5:55:42 GMT -5
if the fruit comes from a field of maximas. It should be crossed with other edible maximas. Thus no problem of edibility for the next generation.
But experiment always dominates on the deductions. Sow them
|
|
|
Post by hortusbrambonii on Sept 20, 2013 9:36:06 GMT -5
Seems like bitterness, at least in C. pepo is indeed dominant, and also that different parts of the plant can be bitter apart from each other: The results indicate that bitterness in the root, cotyledons and fruit of Cucurbita pepo appears to be controlled in each plant part by a monofactorial dominant gene. Seedlings with nonbitter roots generally had nonbitter cotyledons, while seedlings with bitter roots had non-bitter or bitter cotyledons. The gene for cotyledon bitterness may be dependent on the gene for root bitterness. Since fruit bitterness segregates independently from seedling bitterness, selection against bitterness of the fruit can not be done in the seedling stage (from cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cgc/cgc10/cgc10-39.html)I don't have much reasons to expect bitterness anyway I suppose, the pumpkins looked like a 'genetic variable' population derived from red kuri but with a lot of other traits in certain individuals too, like spots and stripes in several colors, and a few with different shapes like this one. I suppose it's just from a maxima field with a variety that isn't 100% pure. I don't know if bitter unedible maximas are even grown over here... Let's see what the seeds give next year...
|
|
|
Post by raymondo on Sept 20, 2013 16:46:01 GMT -5
Nice looking pumpkin.
|
|
|
Post by Drahkk on Sept 20, 2013 17:02:59 GMT -5
Smallish, orange with thin tan stripes; looks like Sunshine F1 may be in its heritage. Never heard of a bitter maxima, but I'm not the most experienced person here. I'd plant them and see what you get.
MB
|
|