George Shirley wrote:
Fran wrote:
....
I'm assuming that the gardeners who told me about older pumpkin seeds
found out what they were telling me based on experience just as you did
with your summer squash. One of these gardeners also told me that dog
poo was a superb fertiliser under lemon trees. Can't say I've ever been
tempted to try that one but since he was a gardener who worked for many
years at Government House then he should have had some knowledge and
skills.

Same, same Fran, squash and pumpkins are all basically squash.
Nomenclature is just a way to get your kids to eat pumpkin. G

We have numerous acorn squash seed that didn't compost well so one of
the beds has lots of squash growing. I baked a store bought acorn squash
and tossed the seeds in the composter. The seeds germinated in the
garden bed and are producing what looks like a Hubbard squash that has a
light green background and dark green stripes. Hybridization does that
to plants. Doesn't matter to us as squash is squash and might be a
pumpkin but it's all edible. Amazes the great grand kids when they see
something different and teaches them a small lesson about hybridization,
I hope.

i've always seen recommendations to include a
variety of types in a patch to encourage good
fruit setting/filling. my own experience here
bears that out.

as we don't have a formal compost pile to
put scraps in i put them in the worm bins, but
after several years of having squash and melon
seeds pushing up through my other seedlings i
decided the past few years to separate as much
out as i can before putting things in the worm
bins and to put the seeds into only one of the
worm bins (that one doesn't go out into the
gardens each spring).

as most squash seeds are great when roasted
i've taken to squeezing them out of the pulp
(do not add any water) and drying them on a tray
before rubbing the last bits of stuff off them.
i have a good supply now for planting. if we
had more empty fields about i'd be scattering
them in those to see if i can get a wild
population established. i'm hoping i can get
out in the back area (on the other side of the
large drainage ditch) and scatter a bunch of
squash and melon seeds back there. likely
most of them will be animal food, but that's
ok...


songbird