Landrace Gardening: Hybrid Squash

[ysabetwordsmith]

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. The current batch features landrace gardening.


Landrace Gardening: Hybrid Squash

When I tell people that I am growing landrace crops, and that I allow my plants to promiscuously cross pollinate, their replies are often tinged with fear. They worry about deformed franken-fruits, and about bad flavors, and about ugliness. My experience has been that those fears are not realized in my garden.

Read more of this article.


The fun thing about growing squash is that they're naturally promiscuous, which means they cross very easily and give delightfully diverse results. Yes, you'll probably get some duds, but you'll also get exciting new features. Most of the offspring will resemble their ancestors, at least somewhat, but with squash you never know what's going to pop out of the kitchen junk drawer.

There are various ways to make a landrace of squash. You can start with a grex or hybrid swarm. You can plant a mix of stable cultivars and let them do their thing -- the more the merrier. Or you can choose 2+ of your favorite squash types, plant them together, and hope they make beautiful babies. If you want to experiment with making a landrace, this is a great place to start.

Squashes are very easy to grow. Unlike some crops, plenty of landraces are already available for you to grow. There are also many heirloom and open-pollinated cultivars. Here are some seeds you might like to try ...

Best of Buttercup Hybrid Swarm -- Wild Mountain Seeds

Big Blossom Grex -- Wild Mountain Seeds

'Desert Spirit Culinary Landrace' Squash -- Experimental Farm Network

Homestead Rainbow Grex -- Open Source Seed Initiative

Homs Kousa Squash -- Nature & Nurture Seeds

Hopi Orange (Cucurbita maxima) (landrace) -- Pueblo Seed

Joseph Lofthouse Landrace Maxima -- Penn and Cord's Garden

'Pueblo Highlands Landrace' Squash -- Experimental Farm Network

Squash, Homestead GREX -- Northern Wildflowers (Canadian)

Winter Squash: America (landrace) -- The Buffalo Seed Company

Winter Squash Appoquinimink (landrace) -- Phocas Seeds


Asian Squash Garden Seeds -- Kitazawa Seed

Green Hubbard Winter Squash Vegetable Garden Seeds -- Kitazawa Seed

Heirloom, Organic Winter Squash, IRAN Seeds -- The Amazing Seeds

Heirloom Squash Seeds (C.maxima) -- Heritage Harvest Seeds

Heirloom Squash Seeds -- Seed Savers Exchange

Heirloom Squash Seeds -- Thresh Seed Co.

Heirloom Summer Squash Seeds -- Victory Seeds Company

Heirloom Winter Squash Seeds -- Victory Seeds Company

Open-Pollinated & Heirloom Summer Squash -- Territorial Seed

Open-Pollinated & Heirloom Winter Squash -- Territorial Seed

Open Pollinated Squash -- Willhite Seed

Organic Non-GMO Winter Squash Seed -- High Mowing Seeds

Pink Banana Jumbo Heirloom Squash Seed -- Sweet Corn Organic Nursery

Rare and High Yield Heirloom Seeds Squash -- Heir Seeds

Red Kuri Squash Heirloom Seeds ,Hokkaido, Non Gmo, Organic -- Seeds to Cherish

Squash & Pumpkins -- Annie's Heirloom Seeds

Squash & Pumpkin Seeds -- Mary's Heirloom Seeds

Squash Seeds -- OHIO HEIRLOOM SEEDS

Squash Seeds, Heirloom Squash -- Trade Winds Fruit

Squash, Winter -- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Squash Winter Acorn Autumn Blend 25 Non-GMO, Heirloom Seeds -- David's Garden Seeds

Squash Winter tagged "Open Pollinated" -- Siskiyou Seeds

Summer Melody Squash (multiple cultivars, open-pollinated) -- Wilhite Seed

Summer Squash -- Annie's Heirloom Seeds

Summer & Winter Squash Seeds -- True Leaf Market

Comments

[labelleizzy]

I do wish I had enough space in my veggie garden to try this!! 🍆

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, squash isn't ideal for a small garden. :/ You could scroll through other crops though. Peas, maybe -- those can be grown vertically or as bush types.