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Post by FrostyTurnip on Apr 21, 2023 6:29:58 GMT -6
Your jump start will help carry some weight in the event drought returns. I gotta start some in pots this weekend. Like you mentioned, we gotta be on top of timing.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 21, 2023 18:57:00 GMT -6
macmex , I’m glad your pumpkin seedlings survived that 34 degree night the other night. Are you due for more cold weather this weekend? @frostyturnip mentioned on the weather thread that there might be some freezes in her area.
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Post by macmex on Apr 22, 2023 8:02:19 GMT -6
I was watching temps yesterday evening and covered some of them, just in case. Been burning the candle on both ends for a few weeks, as my wife has been away. Last night was my chance to sleep a full 8 hours. Still, I set an alarm for 4 am so I could check temps. At that hour I can tell if there truly is a danger. The lowest temps are just at sunrise. Anyway, I checked and everything was warmer than expected. I went back to sleep. At 7:30 am, it was still pretty chilly, 45 f.
Lost my first transplanted pumpkin yesterday. When I checked on them I found that one of our livestock guardian dogs had discovered the soft worked soil (my row, planted in WBPPs. He dug out a crater to lay in, eliminating a plant. I need to see about placing some obstacles to make it difficult for a 100 lb dog to stretch out there.
Otherwise, things are looking good.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 22, 2023 8:11:54 GMT -6
Is that the Grand Pyrenees? I don’t know lots about dogs, but I understand that they are great diggers.
I’m sorry that you lost a plant, but at least it was only one.
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Post by macmex on Apr 22, 2023 10:00:50 GMT -6
We presently have three. One is 1/4 Great Pyrenees& 3/4 Anatolian Shepherd He's getting up there in years and tends to sleep in the same place every day Another is also getting up there in age, but he's a few years younger. Mando is 1/2 Akbash & 1/2 Anatolian Shepherd. I suspect he's the culprit.
This is Mando, in what I call his "road kill pose."
Our other dog is 1/2 Sarplaninac & 1/2 Great Pyrenees. His name is Sensei and he's coming up on 2 years of age. He still acts like a puppy. He would have been my first suspect except I had him kenneled while I was at work. He likes to steal eggs from the chicken coop.
All livestock guardian breeds seem inclined to dig large holes when they sleep. They are also nocturnal, patrolling the grounds all night and basically sleeping all day. Few recognize, however, that they are ALWAYS alert and on duty. While they are crashed (sometimes in a hole) they are still listening. At the slightest sound which indicates trouble they're up and away in a flash. I once saw one asleep on the north side of our house, suddenly leap to his feet, run around to the south side, leap over the pasture fences and run like a flash, about 200 yards to get under a hawk that was swooping down on one of my chickens! To this day I don't know how he knew!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 22, 2023 14:14:49 GMT -6
Mando’s “road kill pose” is hilarious.
Wow. That’s a pretty amazing story of the livestock dog protecting your chicken. I wouldn’t have a clue either how he knew.
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Post by macmex on Apr 25, 2023 7:18:54 GMT -6
Little things make for a good story. That little squash plant got buried/squashed/lost on Monday the 21st and then popped up anew, on Wednesday the 23rd, looking a little rough but still alive.
We had another frost yesterday. The squash were covered and did fine. Yesterday, also, while we were at work, one of our neighbors cattle got out and came down the road. By the looks of the tracks, they briefly explored this garden, which is on the roadside. They must have been in a hurry though. Not even my peas, in the same garden, were touched.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Apr 25, 2023 7:37:15 GMT -6
That one’s a keeper!
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Post by macmex on May 16, 2023 8:56:23 GMT -6
Here's an update. I was away, out of state for two weeks, from April 28 until May 13. Of course, we had a pretty hard frost on May 1. My family was too much under the gun in my absence to send me many updates on specific plants, so I waited until I got home to find out more about Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin. I think I lost two plants in the main garden area and in my planting behind the shop I lost two out of four. The survivors look like they are thriving now. I may replant some, as there is still time.
This is a photo of the main planting, taken on May 13. I probably need to pull that volunteer potato plant. It's crowding one of my squash.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on May 16, 2023 11:57:56 GMT -6
Awesome! Well done.
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Post by macmex on Jun 1, 2023 7:20:28 GMT -6
Update June 1, 2023
We had a hard frost on May 1, while I was away from home for two weeks and my family at home was unable to cover things. This combined with a problem with one of the livestock guardian dogs digging resulted in me losing a couple of plants. Still, after the "dust settled," I believe I still have 13, maybe 14 plants. Here's a photo of the row, two days ago, showing the "skip" in the row where I lost a couple of plants. There is also another planting, about 120' away, which had four plants and now, due to frost, has only two. I really like having more than one site for this grow out. It is a bit of insurance against mishap.
Here's a better picture, showing the growth of the vines. It was taken on May 28. At this time of the season it's hard to stay current on the growth. They are growing VERY rapidly.
I have been inspecting the vines, hoping to see an indication as to the shape of the fruit they will produce. Normally, with the Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin, each vine has it's own shape of fruit. One vine will not produce two different forms. Only a few vines have immature fruit forming at this point. Two have this style of fruit:
These fruit, though of high quality (very good for food production, having long necks and won't have a large seed cavity) are longer than what I remember from what I originally grew out. Either, this seed, being from a very early growout, contains a slightly different mix of the original genes, or else... it was crossed. If crossed, I don't know if it was crossed in my garden or if it was grown out by someone else who had a cross occur.
This one vine looks more hopeful.
Though still too early to be certain, it appears to be an immature fruit of the chunky butternut shape I do remember. Only three vines have any immature fruit to observe at this time.
So, what should I do if there has been a cross? Well, this is what I'm thinking: 1) I will largely let the entire batch cross pollinate freely, in order to preserve the wider gene pool. But... 2) I will also self pollinate any vines which show the more squat shape that I remember. Then... 3) In future growouts I will mix this seed and hopefully do a gradual selection back to what is more along the lines of what I remember.
The good thing is that even the fruit which are not exactly "right" will almost certainly have the same good eating quality of the original. I can work with this.
I can also hope that somewhere, someone has some more seed in frozen storage. Literally, if could be a decade or two before it surfaces.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jun 1, 2023 12:49:04 GMT -6
Very nice.
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Post by macmex on Jun 7, 2023 10:50:57 GMT -6
Been having a terrible time getting anything planted this year but the Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin project has been a bright spot for me. It is progressing. The other day I checked on each plant and found fruiting buds to be forming on most. Almost every shape of fruit I've found has fit with what I remember of this squash, all except the ones which are longer (I call them elongated)
Elongated fruit shape
Can't say that I ever saw this trait until receiving seed from the Seed Savers Exchange. However, with this being 1986 seed, it makes me wonder if it wasn't a trait found in the original mix, which I simply missed and, thus, since I was hand pollinating and often "selfing" my plants, I may have eliminated from the gene pool. Who knows?
However, there are a good many shapes of fruit represented in this grow out. All of the others fit with what I've seen. I'm quite encouraged about it.
Oblong
I have always loved the oblong fruit fruit variety produced. This little fruit/flower looks very promising
Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin always produced some butternut shaped fruit.
My earliest memory of this squash was that of seeing the "fat butternut shape" mixed in with "Oblong shaped fruit."
I took a photo of the vines and... misplaced it. They are growing well!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 7, 2023 17:47:34 GMT -6
Thanks for all the photos, Macmex. Even though the fruit are immature, of course, I think I’ve already taken a liking to the oblong and fat butternut as well. I can see why you might have selected toward those over the years.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 10, 2023 16:26:20 GMT -6
George,
That is so cool!
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