pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

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meizzwang
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pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#1

Post: # 124836Unread post meizzwang
Mon Jun 03, 2024 1:07 pm

here's the start of a grow report on the pueblo highlands landrace squash. This was acquired from experimental farms network, here's a link to the description of this variant: https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.o ... ace-squash


I popped 5 seeds and they all sprouted! At first, the goal was to grow out the entire pack just to see the diversity of shapes and color forms, but the garden is already getting overloaded so the decision was to do a small grow out. So far, the diversity is already evident in the plants!

zoomed out, they all look the same:
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upon closer inspection, there are some subtle differences. one individual has some variegation!
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this one looks "regular" for a lack of better words:
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slightly different colored leaf that seems to have some subtle mottling:
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This leaf has a white tinge to it!
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to be continued....

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bower
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#2

Post: # 124843Unread post bower
Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:12 pm

Can't wait to see the squash. :) Thanks for posting this!
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

meizzwang
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#3

Post: # 128770Unread post meizzwang
Wed Jul 17, 2024 6:03 pm

some updated photos of the pueblo highlands landrace squash! So far, every single individual seedling has different looking squash! The only catch is that so far, each plant is only "willing" to produce one fruit despite being pretty large plants. Lots of female flowers that were pollinated have since aborted.

Anyways here are the pics! These fruit still have many weeks to go before they're mature and I'm sure some will change in color as they reach peak ripeness. So far, many of the fruit look somewhat different from the pictures on the website where I acquired the seeds (Experimental farm Network), but that is to be expected with a diverse landrace:
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love the way this one looks! A bit sad that the female flower I pollinated aborted because it already had this fruit on it. I thought the plant was big enough to support at least 2 fruit but this strain is a bit finicky:
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meizzwang
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#4

Post: # 130199Unread post meizzwang
Tue Jul 30, 2024 1:25 pm

Now that these have developed a bit more, I'm beginning to suspect that the seeds I acquired were either mislabeled or open pollinated with a ton of different winter squash. For example, here's a blue hubbard that I grew last year, still in good shape despite being in a baking hot garage!
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And here's one of the pueblo highlands landrace:
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Here's sunshine F1, notice the greenish coloration near the bloom end of the fruit:
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and then one of the supposed pueblo highlands landrace:
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this looks like a hubbard crossed with something else:
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could be a kabocha hybrid:
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What do you guys think? Has anyone else grown out this strain from Experimental Farms Network?

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rdback
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#5

Post: # 134283Unread post rdback
Sun Sep 01, 2024 10:14 am

meizzwang wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2024 1:25 pm Now that these have developed a bit more, I'm beginning to suspect that the seeds I acquired were either mislabeled or open pollinated with a ton of different winter squash...What do you guys think? Has anyone else grown out this strain from Experimental Farms Network?
No, I haven't grown this strain from EFN but, from what I'm seeing with your fruits, they look very similar to the pics in their ad. I don't disagree with you, though. I think you may well be right. Some folks end up with a cross, intentional or not, and call it a landrace, lol.

What are the fruits looking like now? Are the plants supporting more than one fruit each?

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Tormahto
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#6

Post: # 134312Unread post Tormahto
Sun Sep 01, 2024 6:08 pm

Reading up on it, it looks like its origins will never be known. Therefore, I could care less. What I would care about is a great tasting squash that is not growing on a genetically sickly plant. Shouldn't future grow outs for the traits that you are looking for, be most important to you, not the past?

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MissS
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#7

Post: # 134407Unread post MissS
Tue Sep 03, 2024 9:51 am

Landraces are plants that are mingled together to cross pollinate. They are very genetically diverse and adapt well to their specific growing conditions. They are left to perform 'survival of the fittest'. You will not be growing out uniform fruits.
~ Patti ~
AKA ~ Hooper

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ddsack
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#8

Post: # 134411Unread post ddsack
Tue Sep 03, 2024 10:30 am

Going back to the description at the website link in your first post of this thread, the information there does say ---

"... ‘Pueblo Highlands Landrace’. A true landrace, you can expect from this squash a cornucopia of shapes — from warty hubbards with ribbing and colorful stripes to fat pink bananas, egg-shaped fruit to round blues with pinkish hues, and much more ..."

So there is no expected shape to it, just has glowing reviews of the flavor. I'm looking forward to hearing how you like the taste.

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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#9

Post: # 134498Unread post meizzwang
Wed Sep 04, 2024 10:46 pm

It's one thing to offer a varietal that looks genetically unique in the pictures and have an origin that implies the strain is unique from the rest , it's another to mix a bunch of heirlooms together and call it a new variety. Of course I can't prove anything nor do I know whether or not the strain is legit, but you have to admit, the resulting phenotypes I ended up with do make you wonder.


With the pueblo highlands landrace, I was hoping to acquire a genetically diverse and unique strain that perhaps has traits not commonly seen with the heirlooms that are readily available. The implication is that this strain would have otherwise been a lost genetic resource had they not found these seeds in an abandoned home in the highlands of New Mexico. Flavor is quite subjective, I will do my best to give a detailed taste report once these are fully cured.

That said, If you look at the pictures in the seed listing, especially the first picture, do you initially suspect that these are hybrids with common heirlooms or do they all look genetically unique? https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.o ... ace-squash

Now look at my results. Do you suspect that these are hybrids with common heirlooms or do they all look genetically unique?

Pueblo highlands landrace. What's not obvious in the picture is that this fruit is pretty darn big:
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Pueblo highands landrace from different plants:
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Pueblo highlands landrace. Notice the thick stems. Interestingly, the seed listing doesn't appear to show any fruit with thick stems like I got:
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Sake F1(kabocha) to the left, pueblo highlands landrace to the right:
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ddsack
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Re: pueblo highlands landrance squash grow report

#10

Post: # 134533Unread post ddsack
Thu Sep 05, 2024 3:45 pm

I see what you are saying. You were interested in getting something resembling the old Navajo squash they mentioned. The set of pictures attached to the catalog description imply that you can expect smoother, dusky muted colored squash as the norm, even though the description says multi colored shapes and sizes. It does seems that after some generations the landrace should settle into some dominant color and form, keeping those characteristics most in tune with it's environment, with a few odd ones continuing to pop up. I can see your concern about having so many clearly identifiable types of squash in your sample. If someone is trying to create a landrace, they would want as much diversity in their starting crosses as possible, but I don't know that the early crosses should be called landraces or sold as such until they become somewhat stable in their final form.

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