Discover Top Posts Tagged with #gourd experiment

no wait i want to hear about the gourds i want to know about them so bad, they’re gonna be handcrafted by you [with care and love and dedication] (there is so much) please i want to know them with you

'please i want to know them with you' is such an impactful line so im going to say it even though i was hesitant to (because sometimes i start these things and dont finish them and that would be embarrassing), but ive been thinking about this consistently for a few months so i think i want to at least try to go through with it. i dont think its as interesting as people seem to be expecting it to be, but:

a few months ago i got an ask about gourd genetics. i looked it up and went down the gourd rabbithole where i learned that there are only like, 4 species of gourds and all the other gourd species are just variations of those, which is what allows a lot of them to interbreed in weird ways, but try as i might i could not find a good resource on exactly what those hybrids look like. simultaneously i saw a bunch of forum posts from people all over encountering weird gourd-producing plants in their gardens the year after they planted several types of gourds in that same spot, and everyone seemed to be attaching photos of their mystery gourds in all these different places asking the same question: who were the parents and what gourd is being produced here?

and so my experiment has two stages. stage one is planting 36 plants of cucurbita pepo, the gourd/squash species that's been domesticated to encompass pumpkins, zucchini, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, pattypan, and a bunch of ornamental gourds among other varieties. i havent decided on exactly which varieties im going to use yet, but i want them to:

1. be cucurbita pepo varieties (pumpkin, zucchini, and various squash hybrids seem to be among the ones that Fuck the most in people's gardens, leave seeds in the ground, and come back the next year; therefore that's the gourd species im using)

2. be popular varieties people often have in their gardens (specifically in the US for the purposes of this)

3. be a mix of 'summer' and 'winter' squashes, aka, gourds with soft rinds like zuchinni and gourds with hard rinds like pumpkins. ideally i would have three 'summer' varieites and three 'winter' varieties.

the experiment is just to pick six varieties and plant them in a physical grid, with six parent varieties in a horizontal row and the same six parent varieties in a vertical row. this experiment will take two years; ive sketched out the two years here:

(note: this is set up like this because when one plant fertilizes another, the gourd with the seeds that are the result of that cross are contained in a regular-looking gourd produced by the mother plant, so the gourds produced in year 1 will look normal. the weird gourds are only produced when those seeds are planted and become mother plants of their own)

as i explained in the diagrams, each one gets hand-crossed, and i take fruits from each plant and remove the seeds, label them, and store them for next year. when next year rolls around, i plant them and pick the weird gourds, which brings us to stage two of the project: making the beginner weird gourd atlas.

i want this gourd atlas to be on a website of its own. tons of photos of the plants and the gourds of each cross with measurements of each fruit and, if possible, notes on how they ripen. i want to write down anything that strikes me about each gourd cross that might make it easier to identify. most importantly-- and this is almost like, a stage of its own-- i want to make notes about what each hybrid gourd tastes like by having people try them and give their squash reviews, and i want to write that down, too. maybe make a weird squash tier list or something.

all this stuff... is probably out there. like this isn't super groundbreaking stuff. there are probably expert gourd and squash breeders out there who know exactly what like, a pumpkin x spaghetti squash hybrid looks like instantly, and gourd and squash researchers who know everything about these down to the genetics and evolution of each, and people who have been growing squashes and gourds in their backyards for like 30 years who know instantly, too. this is for them if they want, too, but the goal here is to make an open resource that (at least for the resulting 36 kinds of gourds) attempts to answer the question of 'what parents did this weird gourd in my garden have last year' for people on the internet about to ask that same question out of mild curiosity. the website probably won't be pretty either but im here for the gourds, idk much about web design, as long as its navigable it should be good.

so, the steps of my theoretical project:

1. breed gourds

2. record gourds

3. post gourds

several more notes:

1. i still need to decide which c. pepo varieties to use, not just in terms of cultivar and/or variety, but in terms of brands. like, i suspect there's no singular 'pure' pumpkin or zuchinni, and if there is, it probably isn't what people are growing in their gardens. best case scenario i find some sort of gourd industry spreadsheet with the most popular selling gourd seeds ranked, but the plot i applied for is 10 feet by 25 feet, and i need to plant each plant one foot apart on average (probably a bit more to keep them from interbreeding too soon), so this means that theoretically i could make two ~7 foot by ~7 foot plots and try the same experiment with two different popular brands for each, and try to figure out the similarities and differences between each one. it would be easiest just to find one best-selling seed company and buy the most basic parent seeds from that same company, just to keep things consistent, and just find a second popular seed company for the second plot if im going that route.

2. i have decided on the ideal name system. female plant first half of name, male plant second half of name. a cross where a pumpkin is the mother and a zucchini is the father shall be a pumpkini, and a cross where a zucchini is the mother and a pumpkin is the father shall be a zucckin, and so on so forth. a zucchini mother with a zucchini father shall be called a zucchini. this is important

3. i need to make sure that any seeds i get are fertile and not just F1 crosses meant for one go. seeing how much these plants seem to breed in peoples' gardens, that shouldnt be too hard, but im still wary about it.

anyway that is my Gourd Plan. the community garden lady emailed me earlier today and told me that the remaining plots after the regulars have gotten theirs are first come, first serve, and that an email will be going out to the interest list on march 9th. go insane go insane

#gourd experiment

hey everybody, I wrote out a super long post with detailed gourd updates but I’m still in Posting Jail and using the tumblr browser client on my phone and it reloaded and deleted everything, so in short:

1. i got the garden plot! Its messy and I need to cut down all the semi-wooden-ish plants the previous tenant planted, im guessing butterfly bushes or milkweed. they also left some tools and straw behind!

2. im reducing the size of the experiment from 36 plants to 6 or maybe 12 to prevent havoc! my plan is to hope each plant produces at least six female flowers, and I need to figure out how to collect pollen in a viable form for weeks or a couple months at most. I have a zip tie marking system and am planning on using pollination bags to keep everyone from wilding out without me.

3. the currently represented varieties are pumpkin, zucchini, delicata, scallop, vegetable spaghetti, and acorn. currently grappling with how to deal with the breeds of these produced by different companies, and if, for instance, crossing a burpee black beauty zucchini and a burpee table queen acorn squash would produce the same result as crossing the baker creek heirloom versions of the same varieties that I currently have, and if it’s more important that I breed these plants in their ‘true-to-form’ heirloom states or in the states regular people might come across in their local grocery store (Burpee for example).

4. slightly unrelated— does anyone have any experience setting up a public seed library in their local library? how did you do it?

#gourdquest #gourd experiment #gourdposting #yes those are good tags

fellas I am putting myself in Posting Jail for a hot minute by passing the account this blog (and 10 others) are on off to a roommate because I am coming off some psych meds and keep picking fights with people on my personal like a little internet troglodyte and I am an adult and shouldn’t be doing that. it is cringe circumstances for sure but it must be done. in the meantime my quest for gourds continues and I’ve seen your messages warning me about toxic squash syndrome so I’ll be taking that into consideration as well (which is wild to me as a concept because they Fuck so much and we MAKE them Fuck so much! how are we as a species alive with toxic squash syndrome??). the book im currently using for breeding info is ‘The Compleat Squash’ by Amy Goldman Fowler. Posting Jail visitations can be made over discord for those who have my handle

#not plonts #gourd experiment

ok i know im breaking my Posting Jail Time like one day in but i went to get seeds for my gourd project and rareseeds.com (baker creek heirloom seeds), an heirloom seed company with a huge selection that i found recommended in that one gourd book im using, is donating all profits to world help to help provide essentials to ukrainian refugees through today and until midnight tomorrow (feb. 26th and 27th). they have a huge variety of flowers and vegetables and so many squashes and gourds that im sad that i only am picking six.

We offer over 1350 heirloom varieties, www.rareseeds.com. We only sell open-pollinated seeds: pure, natural & non-GMO! Started in 1998 by

also im going to plug my favorite gourd theyre selling (that ive found so far), the pineapple squash:

95 days. Young fruit are delicious as summer squash and mature fruit make incredible stuffed squash. In 1884, the Burpees catalog introduced

Amy Goldman classifies this one as a kind of acorn squash. to quote from The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower's Guide on the strain she grew for the book (unsure if its the same beyond the broad variety): "Extraordinary shape. Doesn't perform in the kitchen, but who cares?". i have to agree, just look at them. im obsessed

#not plonts #gourd experiment