| pumpkini update | |
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+4Mary-Anne Gail Little Miss The Estate tessa 8 posters |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: pumpkini update Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:34 am | |
| here's a link to the pumpkini story: http://gardendelights.forumco.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3113&whichpage=1 we're getting to the end of summer now...and the first two pumpkinis are about ready. they're a nice orange colour, which is a little bit suprising, since one parent was a butternut and the other a yellow zuchinni. as immature fruit...they were yellow. while the size might look disappointing to some...i am quite pleased. seems here in these awful summer conditions...i can only grow small pumpkins. only the butternuts have ever produced appropriately sized fruits...and this hybird is about as big as anything i've ever grown here....so i'm very happy! there are two more fruits developing at the moment. both have been fertilized by spaghetti squashes....so it's a three way cross now....and i'm still liking the working name of 'krissy-cross' for next year's grow out. that's providing there are developed seeds inside there. as a footnote...there was not one single male blossom that developed far enough to produce pollen on these vines. isn't that interesting???? | |
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Little Miss The Estate Unionized Gardener
Posts : 2542 Join date : 2009-03-14 Age : 63 Location : The Garden State
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:39 am | |
| cant wait for the taste test Tessa , you must be very pleased so far | |
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Gail Gardener
Posts : 1693 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : near Gympie, Qld
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:29 am | |
| I've been wondering how they are going. I wonder if no male flowers is natures way to stop crosses... | |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:36 am | |
| well...zuchinni and pumpkin should not have been able to cross in the first place. of course...i didn't know that when i performed the cross, or else i never would have tried it. keeping the seeds from the F1 cross was done purely in hope...even tho i could see that they were, essentially, like my sunflower seeds: all casings and no seed material. but there were those 4 in the approx. 100 seeds that had a wee bump inside them...so i gave em a go...and the 2 came up. (yes...we can see nature working against this cross!). then as this vine developed...the female blossoms came FIRST, which is backwards to usual. when the male flowers finally came...they developed only to the day before they were to open...and then tops rotted off. they never opened, and never produced pollen. very interesting, don't you think?
anyway...the real test will be whether or not the seeds in these pumpkins are viable, or also all empty seed coatings. if they're empty...we may be at the end of things in the F3 generation. | |
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Mary-Anne Unionized Gardener
Posts : 3783 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : The Sunshine State.
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:59 am | |
| Oh Yes I agree that is interesting Tessa..
Not been a good season for pumpkins here either they are very small well the grey one is.. | |
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Richard Assistant Gardener
Posts : 591 Join date : 2009-03-15 Age : 63 Location : Hurunui District South Island NZ
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:44 am | |
| Interesting stuff tessa,the male flower thingie is an odd one a bit like my Sikkim cummbber that had no male flowers for a while but started again a month after i posted the thread on it. | |
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Gail Gardener
Posts : 1693 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : near Gympie, Qld
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:01 am | |
| Sorry Tessa but whenever I see the word pumpkini I always think of a pumpkin in bikinis :P | |
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Little Miss The Estate Unionized Gardener
Posts : 2542 Join date : 2009-03-14 Age : 63 Location : The Garden State
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:04 am | |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:58 am | |
| LOL gail. at least you didn't give it that mankini. | |
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Jennywren Garden Sherpa
Posts : 185 Join date : 2009-04-03 Location : WA's Great Southern
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:17 am | |
| It will be interesting to hear what they taste like. | |
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Pitta Gardener
Posts : 1868 Join date : 2009-03-16 Age : 89 Location : Cooktown Qld
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:43 am | |
| Gail great pumpkin bikini paste job. | |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:49 pm | |
| we are about to have the first pumpkini for dinner. i was checking to see if it was ready...and it popped right off the vine. must have been ready! it came in at just over a half kilo now that's not very big...but truth be told...it's one of the biggest pumpkins i've been able to grow over here in our depleted WA soil. so i cut her open she's got the flesh of her mother butternut. at the same time...she was easy to cut through...like the zucchini parent. now...here's the scary bit...see that seed in the forefront? that's how close i came to cutting in half the ONLY SEED this pumpkin produced. there is another seed...but it is small and i don't have much hope for it. all the other seeds were just seed casings. well...there's another four pumpkinis still on the vine. hopefully one of them will have more seeds than this one. fingers crossed. taste report a little later. | |
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Richard Assistant Gardener
Posts : 591 Join date : 2009-03-15 Age : 63 Location : Hurunui District South Island NZ
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:30 pm | |
| At least theres one seed Tessa,so there is some hope. When do we hear about the taste | |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:47 pm | |
| okay...the taste. wow. um....how to describe?
well...i baked it. in the bottom of the baking dish...there was about a centimeter of water after it was done. the flesh was soft, soft, soft...i'd say...mushy. like a baked zucchini. the taste was excellent. less like butternut...more like golden nugget. but, alas, mushy.
i will allow the next pumpkinis to mature a lot longer before cooking. let's see if they can hold their shape (they kinda collapsed and fell over). but the taste is there, for sure.
i wonder if the F3 will reveal any new developments. it's all up to that one seed at the moment. hopefully that plant will develop fertile male flowers. the F3 generation will be a butternut/zucchini/spaghetti squash cross. i'm really looking forward to the sqaghetti contribution! | |
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Mary-Anne Unionized Gardener
Posts : 3783 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : The Sunshine State.
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:13 pm | |
| This has been so interesting Tessa, one seed hey that was lucky..
This afternoon I ripped out all the Kent pumpkin vine up the side of the house it has been there over two years, I got another big pumpkin and five small ones sizes ranging from a big orange to a rock melon Tony chopped those ones up and put them in the compost bin with all the vines.
Have vine will travel under the house popped out at the front and back of the house and started strangling a bambino bougainvillea I had growing in a large pot so I don't think I will be growing a pumpkin again for a few years. | |
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Gail Gardener
Posts : 1693 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : near Gympie, Qld
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:14 am | |
| Sounds rather interesting Tessa. Looks a nice one though shame about 'mushy'. | |
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Richard Assistant Gardener
Posts : 591 Join date : 2009-03-15 Age : 63 Location : Hurunui District South Island NZ
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:48 pm | |
| As promised Tessa a look inside Green Chestnut pumpkin for ya | |
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Mary-Anne Unionized Gardener
Posts : 3783 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : The Sunshine State.
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:47 pm | |
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Little Miss The Estate Unionized Gardener
Posts : 2542 Join date : 2009-03-14 Age : 63 Location : The Garden State
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:11 pm | |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:45 pm | |
| oooh nice. can't wait to try it! | |
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tessa Garden Sherpa
Posts : 378 Join date : 2009-03-15 Location : Dangling from the planet's bottom
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:30 pm | |
| well...that little seed from my pumpkin? flat as a pancake today. so one seed. JUST ONE SEED. | |
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Little Miss The Estate Unionized Gardener
Posts : 2542 Join date : 2009-03-14 Age : 63 Location : The Garden State
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Mary-Anne Unionized Gardener
Posts : 3783 Join date : 2009-03-14 Location : The Sunshine State.
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:54 pm | |
| You never know what will happen.. | |
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Richard Assistant Gardener
Posts : 591 Join date : 2009-03-15 Age : 63 Location : Hurunui District South Island NZ
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:41 am | |
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Garden Dan Assistant Gardener
Posts : 570 Join date : 2009-03-21 Age : 71 Location : Brisbane
| Subject: Re: pumpkini update Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:46 am | |
| OK you folk - you have sucked me in - I am going to look up pumpkin growing and get into this - what are the good varieties in your opinion...we did speak of this previously...jap, kent, QLD Blue...but there seems to be others getting a mention.... | |
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