One of the great mysteries of growing annual fruiting or vegetable plants is why there are so few self seeders in the lot. Finding species that self seed without having to be replanted every year is not a common experience with most species of cultivated food plants. There are few types of what would be called ‘volunteer’ plants in the cultivated food section of the aisle in the grocery store. But even if that was possible, the over breeding and selection process in this modern world we live in, the result would be dismal. You can’t just throw something out into a field and expect it to self seed let alone flourish. Sure there are tomatoes along the roads, once in a while with a pumpkin, but it is not reliable in terms of self seeding. Why is that? I had read articles about squash and gourds that are found in North America that are great self seeders. They did not need help from people. These were native gourds that were found on their own as part of the landscape for thousands of years even prior to the cultivation of pumpkins and squash. Some were used to a limited extent by Native Americans for medicine but unlike the squash and pumpkins we currently eat, these were not edible. In fact, some are poisonous. The extremely bitter alkaloids found with them make them impossible to consume. But they did posses a certain stick-to-it-ness as far as self regeneration goes. It was from here I began plantings of the buffalo gourd and the ozark gourd in an attempt to create a self seeding selection of Curcubita that would at least leap frog over my pasture grasses and drop high energy seeds in their wake. The idea that the selection process should start from a uncontrollable vine that is successful on the new ecological theatre we are witnessing would be a good idea. I did that and the results were uncontrollable. But it did not flood my fields with gourds. Instead something better happened. It started to create a scenario of non-bitter seeds that potentially wouldn’t cause illness or death if I tasted them from time to time. I might be onto something! In the meantime, the flowers and the fruits came in great abundance. The deer loved the foliage pretty much wiping out whole generations in one shot. But eventually, they too gave up and even today I wonder what the future holds for the Green Blanket. It self seeds. It drops high energy seeds in its wake. It creates ecological wealth measured by its broad leaves, large pollen rich flowers and don’t forget the seeds. But maybe just maybe it could become not just edible but delicious and self seed in great abundance. For now, the bitter alkaloids will warn you in case you wonder off the path too far. So far the alkaloids rule and each color variation offers no hints of an end in sight. For that I may have to sneak in a bit of pumpkin to calm the alkaloids down.
Comes with a free packet of Styrian Naked Seed Pumpkin which could potentially move you to a better neighborhood of edible seeds. Something to dream about in the world of self seeders in the worlds of Curbubita. Colors vary from white, green and yellow. I mix them equally when creating the packets.
The seed canister in this case is the skin of the gourd which can retain the viaility of the seeds for at least two years outside in the rain, snow and heat. The seeds remain dry in the gourd mixed with the dust of the inner physiology of its fruit. After the seeds are released by crushing the gourd or if some animal decides to go after the seeds, the seeds will then germinate in great abundance. Self seeding the plants seems preferrable as sometimes for whatever reason the deer and groundhogs only like a portion of them or give up entirely. But of course hoping for that is not a real solution so with that knowledge in tow, I hope to plant several vines near groundhog entrances to test my claims of immunity to animal browse. Who knows what will happen?
