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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 16, 2012 20:51:27 GMT -5
I'm growing out some F2 progeny of Ray's Pepita project crossing Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato with Lady Godiva naked seeded pumpkin. The goal is for a naked seeded squash with table quality fruit, in other words we want a new shimmer squash that is a floor wax AND a dessert topping. sorry, I digress... I'd like to use this thread as an online note depository for Ray or others to refer to if they want. Currently I have 32 hills of the F2 plants, one plant per hill. I have four hills of Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato for backcrossing and 4 hills of Kakai naked seeded pumpkin for backcrossing to a naked seeded line. The goal will be to self each plant, and then if possible to backcross an additional fruit to both Thelma and Kakai. Knowing my life that isn't likely to happen for each plant but we'll do the best we can. We try not to let the perfect become the enemy of the good here at Oxbow Farm. So here is a link to an album of all the plants- s413.photobucket.com/albums/pp217/Oxbowfamily/Rays%20Pepita%20Project/I won't show you all of them because frankly they are just pictures of squash plants and occasionally my toes, they all basically look like this.  I'll make a post later with my observations of the plants so far, if I can read my own handwriting |
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Post by raymondo on Jul 17, 2012 5:42:54 GMT -5
A good deal of variation in leaves and some plants seem larger than others. Thanks for all those pics oxbow.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 17, 2012 7:33:33 GMT -5
They weren't all planted the same day. Hills 1-8 and 17-24 are about a week older than the rest due to my not having the ground ready for part of the plot.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 22, 2012 20:38:53 GMT -5
I am somewhat regretting my planting of Kakai due to laziness vs securing some Lady Godiva seed. I had assumed that the two varieties were very similar but Kakai appears to have a very strange, semi-dwarf vine. Observing the F2's it seems unlikely that Lady Godiva has this trait as all the plants are very rambling with long internodes between the leaves. The main vining characteristic that appears to be segregating is degree of branching. Most of the plants appear to be rambling vines with few branches with a significant minority highly to extremely branched. How does Lady Godiva behave as a plant Ray?
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Post by raymondo on Jul 22, 2012 22:09:55 GMT -5
LG was vining but did branch a bit from memory though I wouldn't swear to it because I grew TSSP and LG together on an old compost mound and just kept winding the vines around the mound to keep the whole thing compact.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 27, 2012 11:04:43 GMT -5
Fruit shape is showing a lot of fun variations. Hill 7 has these flattened cheese shapes that are kind of a surprise.  Most of the hills seem to be showing some variation of a round or oblong pumpkin but there are hints of the acorn here and there. Here's Hill 6.  Hill 25  Hill 3 is pumpkin shaped mostly but the fruits have this very tight blossom scar which seems to me must come from the acorn side of the cross.  They seem so far to be still favoring the pale/white color of Thelma Sanders in the F2. It may be too early to tell but they are much paler as immatures than most of my other pepos. Don't have any immature Thelma Sanders to compare them too, the Kakai immatures are much much darker green. |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 10, 2012 20:57:36 GMT -5
Added some pics of the maturing fruit to the album. Managed to try minnie's scarring technique on a few of them. It was fun.  |
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Post by raymondo on Aug 10, 2012 22:06:48 GMT -5
I like the scarring technique for labelling squash. Will definitely give it a go at Chez Ray next season. Can't wait to see inside a ripe one of these pale pearls.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 31, 2012 20:16:17 GMT -5
Update. I've started opening squash from each hill to test for hulless seeds. So far I haven't found a completely hulless hill but #6 is very very close. I was basically using a quick and dirty chew test. I opened a Kakai to get a sense of a fully hulless seed, then I opened a regular pepo for a fully hulled control. Hulled seeds are very chewy and you end up spitting out the hull. Virtually all the hills of Ray's Pepita are intermediate, the hulls are present but are easier to chew up than a regular pepo seed. Number 6 has a hull visually but it is virtually undetectable when you chew it, at least in the wet fresh state. I'm drying them down to try them in comparison to Kakai that way as well. I also noticed that the membrane that gives most pepitas the green color is yellow/white in #6. I'm going to bake a sample of the squash as a test as well. The fruit had very thick walls and a small seed cavity. I haven't got a pic from today but here is an old pic of Hill #6.  |
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Post by raymondo on Aug 31, 2012 22:00:27 GMT -5
Exciting developments. It's fascinating, even watching from a distance. Looks very acorn-like this one. I would never have thought to test them this way. Great idea.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 1, 2012 6:52:36 GMT -5
One interesting thing to note is the way unexpected characteristics are showing up. A good 25% of the hills are warty, which also means they have very hard rinds. Neither of the parents show that at all to my knowledge. I was also surprised at how thick the flesh is on the #6 fruits and how small the seed cavity is. That would be a nice trait to keep if we can get the flesh up to table quality. I haven't tasted it yet.  |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 1, 2012 22:09:27 GMT -5
Another update. I've changed my opinion, #6 is fully hulless. What was faking me out was the color. The seeds are white and I am used to the "greenseed" type hulless seeds. But after repeatedly dissecting both Kakai seeds and #6 seeds they are identical except for color. The Kakai seeds has the reduced hull and the green colored chlorenchyma. In #6 the chlorenchyma is a very pale yellow making the seed appear white/tan colored. Yet another interesting trait that's shown up in the F2. I've also tasted the flesh and it is extremely good. I would call it very dry, sweet, and somewhat coarse, but essentially non-fibrous. Both of my daughters found it quite tasty. My wife liked it very much and said it reminded her of the Panamanian palm-fruit called the pifa (Bactris gasipaes) which she was addicted to in the Peace Corps. The color is a very pale yellow after it is cooked. I steamed up both halves of the fruit. An unexpected result of this cooking method and the extremely hard rind is that the flesh simply falls out of the rind once it is cooked. You just turn the halves over a bowl and voila.  Here I've pureed some of it, made a very acceptable pumpkin pie.  |
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Post by davida on Sept 1, 2012 23:05:37 GMT -5
Nice squash but what a beautiful angel that you have for a helper. Love those big bright eyes. David |
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Post by raymondo on Sept 3, 2012 1:28:05 GMT -5
What a stroke of luck to have hit on the naked seeded trait and tasty flesh in an F2 plant. Can't wait to grow some F3 plants!
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Post by wolfcub on Sept 3, 2012 9:33:00 GMT -5
This almost sounds like the perfect squash. Your daughter is beautiful.
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