Mottled skin Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata, from Thailand)
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meizzwang
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- Joined: Tue May 14, 2024 11:13 pm
Mottled skin Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata, from Thailand)
Before anyone asks, YES, I went through great lengths to produce pure seeds with zero contamination from other cucurbits in the garden, so I will have seeds of this variety probably by mid to late November of this year in case you're in the US and don't want to throw the dice and order some directly from overseas.
Here's something you don't see everyday in the US: here's a winter squash that originated directly from Thailand! The listing seemed a bit dicey, but I said what the hay if I lose $40 it's the risk you take to get the seeds I guess! It was also quite expensive for such a small amount of seeds, but I was feeling risky at the time and prepared mentally for the package to not arrive. I figured if it did arrive, we'll have some interesting looking squash in the garden this year, and if not....well, we're growing so many other winter squash that we'll live without some exotic Mottled skin pumpkin from Thailand!
Fortunately, the package actually did arrive! It took around 60 days to be shipped to California and when I opened up the box, the seeds were in the original breeder's packaging, so I knew they were legit! Almost everything on the package was written in Thai.
I planted 5 seeds in April 2024 and all 5 germinated! I started them under lights because in my climate, april is too cold for winter squash. Come May, I had my entire batch of winter squash hardening off outdoors, and everything EXCEPT this mottled skin pumpkin was thriving! For one, the cotyledons got sunburned even though the other squash varieties hardening off under identical conditions didn't. I almost lost all 5 of the seedlings but babied them for Jesus and eventually they produced a new leaf. AS soon as that happend, I planted them directly into the ground and they were really not happy for a good month: the seedlings barely put on any growth and were still recovering from the sunburn shock. Right after they started getting some good growth momentum, the plants took off and 2 months later, they were in prime condition!
This variety for sure takes a very long time! It has been close to 120 days since sowing and not a single pumpkin is mature to harvest! This variety kept growing vegetatively seemingly forever and didn't produce female flowers for a very long time. That said, the vines are incredibly vigorous and free of powdery mildew, I didn't see too many issues with pests on it either!
Another thing that was a bit of a surprise is the size of these things: each fruit is enough to feed maybe 2 families! I thought these were going to be on the smaller one serving size but NOPE! They have a lot of "meat" on them!
Here's the patch as of September 5, 2024. The vines have finally slowed down but that was by force: I'm giving them less water, they stopped getting fed, and they've run out of room!
and now some shots of the fruit. That red coloration is chili powder to at least slow down the field mice from destroying the crop:
A younger fruit that has a long way to go:
the fruit at this stage are very attractive, these will make some nice decoration while we wait for them to cure:
To be continued.....
Here's something you don't see everyday in the US: here's a winter squash that originated directly from Thailand! The listing seemed a bit dicey, but I said what the hay if I lose $40 it's the risk you take to get the seeds I guess! It was also quite expensive for such a small amount of seeds, but I was feeling risky at the time and prepared mentally for the package to not arrive. I figured if it did arrive, we'll have some interesting looking squash in the garden this year, and if not....well, we're growing so many other winter squash that we'll live without some exotic Mottled skin pumpkin from Thailand!
Fortunately, the package actually did arrive! It took around 60 days to be shipped to California and when I opened up the box, the seeds were in the original breeder's packaging, so I knew they were legit! Almost everything on the package was written in Thai.
I planted 5 seeds in April 2024 and all 5 germinated! I started them under lights because in my climate, april is too cold for winter squash. Come May, I had my entire batch of winter squash hardening off outdoors, and everything EXCEPT this mottled skin pumpkin was thriving! For one, the cotyledons got sunburned even though the other squash varieties hardening off under identical conditions didn't. I almost lost all 5 of the seedlings but babied them for Jesus and eventually they produced a new leaf. AS soon as that happend, I planted them directly into the ground and they were really not happy for a good month: the seedlings barely put on any growth and were still recovering from the sunburn shock. Right after they started getting some good growth momentum, the plants took off and 2 months later, they were in prime condition!
This variety for sure takes a very long time! It has been close to 120 days since sowing and not a single pumpkin is mature to harvest! This variety kept growing vegetatively seemingly forever and didn't produce female flowers for a very long time. That said, the vines are incredibly vigorous and free of powdery mildew, I didn't see too many issues with pests on it either!
Another thing that was a bit of a surprise is the size of these things: each fruit is enough to feed maybe 2 families! I thought these were going to be on the smaller one serving size but NOPE! They have a lot of "meat" on them!
Here's the patch as of September 5, 2024. The vines have finally slowed down but that was by force: I'm giving them less water, they stopped getting fed, and they've run out of room!
and now some shots of the fruit. That red coloration is chili powder to at least slow down the field mice from destroying the crop:
A younger fruit that has a long way to go:
the fruit at this stage are very attractive, these will make some nice decoration while we wait for them to cure:
To be continued.....
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meizzwang
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- Posts: 43
- Joined: Tue May 14, 2024 11:13 pm
Re: Mottled skin Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata, from Thailand)
Picked two of the mottle skinned pumpkins today, although there's probably more in the field that are ripe. These plants are highly productive: each plant produced at least 2 large fruit, I weighed one of them and it's at 13.5 lbs. A single fruit is easily enough to feed 2 families. In person, these pumpkins look soo good too, not sure the photos do them justice:
It's hard to see, but there's a subtle, white powdery "bloom" on the exterior of the skin:
top view:
This is the side that sat on the dirt. You can tell it's fully mature and ready to pick by the tan color. Also, the spots on the fruit start changing from white to a subtle tan color:
Bottom View. After a good cure, when the whole thing turns tan like a butternut squash, I think that's when they're ready to eat:
It's hard to see, but there's a subtle, white powdery "bloom" on the exterior of the skin:
top view:
This is the side that sat on the dirt. You can tell it's fully mature and ready to pick by the tan color. Also, the spots on the fruit start changing from white to a subtle tan color:
Bottom View. After a good cure, when the whole thing turns tan like a butternut squash, I think that's when they're ready to eat:
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Whwoz
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- Location: Trafalgar, Victoria, Australia
Re: Mottled skin Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata, from Thailand)
A pair of real beauties there @meizzwang . Easy to see the difference in maturity with the two different lots of photos. Thank you for posting
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ddsack
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- Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2019 2:26 pm
- Location: Northern MN - USA
Re: Mottled skin Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata, from Thailand)
Quite a find! So much fun to try unusual varieties, will be waiting to hear how you liked the flavor and what it most reminded you of. Just curious where you heard about it that led you on your journey of finding it overseas?