Red Kuri Squash Seeds (Cucurbita maxima)

Cucurbita maxima “Potimarron”

Potimarron, Hokkaido squash, sweet Hokkaido pumpkin, chestnut squash: its name says it all — pumpkin and chestnut. Its dense, sweet flesh truly tastes like chestnuts, and its thin skin is edible, saving you the tedious step of peeling. Enough to win over even those who do not like squash.

Characteristics:

• Chestnut flavor: dense, sweet and low in water, with a rich aroma.
• Edible skin: thin and melting when cooked — no need to peel it.
• Bright red to pink skin, sometimes green or bronze depending on the plant.
• Excellent storage: until April of the following year in a dry cellar.

Precautions:

• As with all cucurbits, a fruit with a very bitter taste may contain cucurbitacins, which irritate the digestive system. Always taste a small piece: if the bitterness is pronounced, discard the entire fruit.

Sowing advice:

• Exposure: full sun, in a warm spot.
• Soil: rich, deep and well-drained, with a generous addition of mature compost — this is a very hungry plant. It dislikes stagnant water around the crown.
• Method: sow in pots under cover at 20–25 °C from April onward, or sow directly in the ground after the last frosts, 2–3 cm deep, with the seed placed on its edge. See how to sow your seeds.

Planting advice:

• Transplant after the frosts, spacing plants at least 1 metre apart. A vigorous trailing plant, it can also be trained on a sturdy structure to save space.

Care advice:

• Water generously at the base, without wetting the foliage. Apply a thick mulch.
• Limit to 4 or 5 fruits per plant in cool climates by pinching the stems after the last fruit.

Harvesting advice:

• Harvest before the frosts, when the stem is dry and corky. Leave 5 cm of stem: if cut flush, the fruit rots quickly.
• Important: do not eat it right away. Its flesh improves significantly after one to two months of storage, as the starch converts into sugars.

Beneficial pairings:

• It forms part of the “Three Sisters” trio with corn and climbing beans. Nasturtiums divert aphids. See companion planting in the vegetable garden.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its large yellow flowers offer abundant pollen and nectar to bees and bumblebees early in the morning.
• Its trailing foliage widely covers the soil, suppresses weeds and protects it from summer drying out — a real service to the living soil.

Uses:

• In soup, roasted in wedges with the skin on, mashed, baked in a gratin or used in a sweet tart. Its density also makes it an excellent base for gnocchi. The seeds can be roasted.

Harvesting your own seeds:
Take seeds from a fully ripe fruit, rinse them and dry them flat. Cucurbita maxima does not cross with zucchini (C. pepo) or butternut squash (C. moschata) — but it does cross with pumpkins. See how to save your seeds.

Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, without any chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.

The chestnut-flavored squash you never have to tire yourself peeling.