I use the rocks around the perennials, primarily. Keep in mind that unless you’re planning to plant in precisely the same place next year, you’ll have to remove anything you put down.
This is one of the reasons why I like the idea of using organic mulches that will biodegrade, like cardboard, wood chips, and autumn leaves.
The other reason is that rocks seem to disappear just as quickly as wood chips. Except, instead of biodegrading, they sink into my soil and are a permanent nuisance. Not my preference! With trees that have tough roots that stay in one spot, rocks probably won’t sink down and disappear much, so rocks could be a great mulch around trees.
Most varieties are failing.
I think it’s the harsh conditions I put them in. The ground didn’t get a proper till, maybe a half-done till by my hand shovel. Also, they are on flat ground, and I think most were bred to be in mounds. Also, the centipede grass is surrounding them on all sides which I think might be producing chemicals to harm the Moschata.
Anyways, what I wanted from this project from the beginning was a low-input Moschata that is strong enough to handle neglect and poor conditions. One day I want to be able to call this thing: “Meadow Squash.” 5 years from now I want to be able to throw down old fruits somewhere random in a neglected pasture and come back 6 months later and collect loads of squash. Is this an impossible dream?
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I think it’s a very possible dream, given that David the Good’s son is landracing watermelons in much the same way, and it’s working. It’ll just take patience and keeping on going. 
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I’m rooting for you and your squash. This is really good, because you’ll get viable seeds. Consider the long term, that your seeds from these survivors are more valuable than the bumper crop you could have gotten with lots of tillage and fertilizer. In fact it seems like great selection pressure, but I know it can be hard to watch.
Did you take the Landrace Gardening course? You really should if you haven’t, it will give you confidence to stick with it.
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Not yet but I plan to take advantage of those extra resources soon. Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement.
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I planted March 25. First picks today 6-23 “90 days.” The pumpkin is from a deliberate planting in my original 35ish growing areas. The squash is from the volunteer. I am definitely saving seeds from the biggest and most mature fruit. I am calling it “Perseverance” for not going extinct, despite me having tossed it away and did nothing for it except tolerate its existence.
I need the area to plant some musk melon so it’s gotta go. Is anyone interested in these seeds?
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Definitely interested in starting up my own moschata next spring and welcome adding some of your seeds to the mix I am putting together.
Yes! Have you tasted it?
For sure save any extra seeds for contributing to the moschata mix. This spring we sold out early.
I’ll be sure to contribute to the GTS mix.
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Sure, I will probably wait about a month before I open this first batch. At some point I’ll need an address. You could message me it. This is an open invite for others with special interest. I don’t mind sharing these seeds. I will have too much for myself.
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I’ll send a PM and include seeds I have in case you want to trade.
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I’m not surprised to hear the moschatas sold out early. When I’ve made trades with other gardeners, I’ve been surprised at how much more popular my moschata seeds have been than my pepos or maximas. Like, at least four times more popular. My current theory is that people in areas with squash vine borer want to focus on moschatas, which would make perfect sense. 
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What a great project Austin. Good work.
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Although I haven’t read her book yet, I’ve heard of Carol Deppe. I read on a seed catalog that her “Bigger, Better Butternut variety was originally sourced from Ultrabutternut HP Hybrid. I read this on Quail Seeds.
I became immediately inspired to order her seeds in addition to the origin. I haven’t received her variety yet (on the way.) I did receive today in the mail what I believe to be her seed variety origin. I went ahead and planted about 10 seeds on top of a couple pounds of Alabama Gulf Coast shrimp waste.
I also planted Dickinson and Kentucky Field yards away a few days ago. I have noticed these 3 varieties have a similar seed hairiness that is uncommon, at least not noticed from the other 35ish varieties I have.
Harvest so far. I have a few unripened pumpkins out there. I have not had a lot of success given the number of plants out there and the time/effort investment. But I have learned a lot in general.
For anyone who lives in a hot, humid climate that plans on neglecting their pumpkins, I would recommend Magic Cushaw. It really is as good as the seed description says.
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Now I have another to track down, sounds good this swamp moschata.
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I looked into Cushaw some more. Magic Cushaw is listed as C. moschata but the Green Striped Cushaw is C. mixta. Both are said to be resistant to the SVB and cucumber beetles. Did you try the Green Stripe variety yet? They say it makes a tastier pumpkin pie than pie pumpkins and nicknamed it Sweet Potato Pumpkin.
I found another moschata. This one seems to be quite rare as in hand collected in Bochalema in Columbia during the 1950s. I have only seen one seller on Etsy with it and it is called Bocalema Squash with the different spelling.
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Yeah I actually planted those around and within some Moschatas maybe 8 to 12 weeks ago. I probably planted about a dozen seeds in various places. I’ve seen 2 confirmed failures on them. The vines grew about a couple yards and established one fruit about the size of a large grapefruit. Then the whole plant died as if attacked by something. I didn’t take the time to investigate cause of death.
I tasted both unripe fruits. They tasted good but slightly stringy. It’s too bad. During this period, not a single Moschata was putting up female flowers. With such genetic diversity present in the pumpkin patch, there must be some great limiting factor that could make all of these pumpkins refuse to bring up female flowers. My guess is the temperatures being consistently over 90 degrees is a signal to the Moschata that conditions are not favorable. Maybe they want to wait until it cools down. Anyways, this green stripped cushaw would put up female flowers in bravery then get murdered by something.
I have one fruit that was recently pollinated that might be another green striped cushaw, or it might be one of those long neck tropical squashes. I can’t tell yet.
I have planted so many seeds and varieties, I really don’t know what I have anymore besides a few exceptions.
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