Tilhana wonders if squeeze breeding has to be difficult :
“ This is maybe somewhat off topic but apt to the land race labor : I have see you talk in your videos about breeding pumpkins / squashes and having varieties that you bred / discovered that were really excellent , and keeping the seeds from them and replanting . But I ’ve never seen you talk about actively controlling the pollination . I had just simulate that you select pumpkins the direction you would other crops : choose the unspoiled ones , keep the seed , replant next yr .
But I ’ve been reading Carol Deppe’sThe Resilient Gardenerand she talks about breeding squashes in a agency that makes it sounds like something only the most devoted , meticulous , and time - wealthy nurseryman can do . She is adamant that if you plant more than one miscellany ofCucurbita muschataorCucurbita pepo , they will cross , and you will have no means of knowing which 1 interbred until the next generation , and that this cross - pollination will destruct any good diverseness you bechance to pick up , so if you want to save seeds , you have to visit the garden every day , record the flowers shut , and hand pollinate , or else you’re able to only plant one variety from each species , AND make trusted you do n’t have any nearby neighbor plant another variety show because those bee get around .
I am skeptical that this amount of work is necessary . But yield the elbow room squash reproduce and express their phenotype , I have to include that her point is hard to contend with … surely the varieties will cross - pollinate , and you will have no way of knowing whether the new pumpkins that spring up from your seeded player will be anything like the parent you were trying to copy , until it ’s too late . And you ’d have no manner of knowing which seed , if any , actually possess the trait you are trying to preserve .
So , can you convince me that I can multiply squelch without making it my full prison term job ? I ’m already moderately sure I ’m not as picky as Carol Deppe about perceptiveness – she seems to be really snotty about her vegetable multifariousness . I just want to cover for plants that are mostly edible and live enough to thrive on absolute Total Utter Neglect , or as close as I presume to get to that . Can I do it ? How did YOU do it ? I ca n’t see you wiretap flower exclude and coming back the next day to manus pollinate … so what is the secret ? Just getting comfortable with chaos and randomness ? ”
Yes . make comfortable with topsy-turvydom and randomness is my approach .
I ’m not as smart as Carol Deppe is on seed - saving . She ’s intense , and follows traditional meticulous gentility practices .
My approach , which is much close tothat of Joseph Lofthouse , is to merely plant just variety to begin with and then let them cut across and see what happens . We always get plenty of estimable , edible squash . I ’m not seek to preserve summer squash vine and winter squash racquets of the same metal money , however . We ’re grow all winter squash types , mostlyC. moschata , and letting them run together to make our own breed . The ones with the best flavor and dynamism we ’ll save .
If you bug out with good parents , you usually end up with good children . I have no desire to tape bloom shut out and create fate of bringing up paperwork .
I hate the fiddly clobber .
If we like the mode it looks or if it tastes sound , we save the seeds . Plant them all and let God separate them out .
