Winter and summer squashes, 2026!

General Gardening
41

For winter squash I’m going to continue making my own hybrid, borer resistant strain of maxima-type squash. I also grow some butternuts.

This year I intend to introduce a lot more maxima material since there was a lack of pollen for the Tetsukabuto to cross with. They still made lots of fruit without abundant C. maxima pollen. But those non-pollinated fruit were vegetal and bland. The fruit with viable seeds were sweet and rich. Didn’t seem to matter if I harvested early or on time.

Saved

  • Tetsukabuto

  • Marine Grey

  • Honeypatch 898

  • Honeynut

In Packets

  • All of the above

  • North Georgia Candy Roaster

  • Pink Jumbo Banana

  • Theron’s Winter Harvest

  • Sweet Meat Oregon Homestead

  • Blue Kuri (Adaptive)

  • Blue Kuri (Fedco)

  • Red Kuri

  • Lower Salmon River

  • Doran Round

  • Sonca Orange Butternut

For Zucchini I am just selecting based on surviving vine borers. I have seed saved from a few plants which made it.

I’m also going to be letting these cross with pie pumpkins and long pie to try and create a sort of dual purpose zucchini/summer squash.

3 Likes
42

My Honeynut vines were around 16’ from end to end. I didn’t alter where they went at all, you could definitely have made them more compact. Somewhat compact would be how I’d describe them.

The related Honeypatch 898 is a little smaller and a very compact bearer. 3 of those vines produced just as many fruit as my 2 Tetsukabuto plants which stretched maybe 40’ end to end. Less weight obviously than the Tetsu, but lots of fruit.

1 Like
43

I grow them to eat. They’re not as sweet and magical as kabocha or butternut. However, they have a high yield, so I add them to soups and stews where the squash doesn’t have to be the star.

2 Likes
44

Interesting i see it relatively often in the grocery stores here, never tried it tho

45

Anyone know if there’s any truth to floating seeds being bad? My partial eclipse have a 0% germ rate after 2 weeks at 75. I just put some in to soak again and they all floated

46

Seeds float when the organic matter inside dies. It creates an air pocket. So there is definitely truth to it. It is not a 100% effective method though. Floating seeds can germinate sometimes.

1 Like