Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
• Remember to label all pollinated flowers with a tag or ribbon. Without a label, there is no way to re-
cognize which fruits come from hand pollination and which do not. Attach tags loosely, allowing for
stems to grow up to 2.5 in. (6 cm) thick.
• When planting out in the spring, use wide spacing between squash plants to make it easier to determ-
ine what flower belongs to what plant.
• Hand pollination works best with the first few flowers. It works best with later flowers if all fruits
have first been removed with a sharp knife.
• The chances of success are higher in the early morning hours; pollen loses its capacity to fertilize
when temperatures are too high.
• Check on hand-pollinated flowers after a few days to confirm success. As soon as fertilization takes
place, the fruit begins to grow. Each fertilized egg cell yields one seed.
• The number of fruits that should be left on each plant depends on the length of the growing season
and the individual variety. Leave only one or two fruits on varieties that produce very large fruits,
two to four for medium fruits, all for small fruits. In any case, the plant, fruit, and seed require suffi-
cient nourishment. When nourishment is sufficient, seeds develop well. Seed size is also dependent
on species and variety.
HARVEST
Seeds are harvested from fully ripe fruits, which have a hard skin that can no longer be
scratched with a fingernail and a dried stem. Store ripe fruits at low room temperature (54-63°F
[12-17°C]). Cellars are often too cold and too moist. Remove seeds after one to two months of stor-
age, which allows seeds more time to ripen and improves their viability (except for
Cucurbita pepo
).
Seeds can also be taken from fruits stored for even longer. Depending on the variety, seeds that have
been removed from the fruit may be difficult to separate from the flesh. In this case, soak in room-tem-
perature water for 24 hours, then rub seeds against one another in the water. Place in a sieve or on pa-
per towels to gently finish drying seeds. Temperatures of 72-77°F (22-25°C) are ideal; avoid temper-
atures above 86°F (30°C), which can cause the hull to crack. Test a few squash seeds for dryness and
integrity by pinching, bending, or breaking; light brown
C. maxima
seeds especially can be very hard
when dry but also empty (that is, not viable).
SELECTION CHARACTERISTICS
• growth habit: bush or vining
• individual shape, color, and size of leaves
• early flowering with a good balance of male and female flowers (varieties that are not yet adapted to
long summer days in northern latitudes do not produce female flowers until late summer; varieties
that come directly from Central America are adapted to 12-hour days and need to be bred to adapt to
longer days)
• good fruit set
• early and/or full fruit ripening
• uniform, true-to-type fruit shape and color of skin and flesh
• flavor (raw, steamed, roasted) and consistency of flesh, not bitter (= low in cucurbitacin)
• hard or soft skin
• storage life
