Pumpkin "Small Sugar"

* Seed production.
For seed saving, choose the best specimens typical of the variety being grown and care for them diligently.
Pumpkin is a cross-pollinated crop, so if different pumpkin varieties of the same species are grown nearby, they will freely cross-pollinate. Hard-rind squash also cross-pollinates with zucchini, pattypan squash, and crookneck. Varieties from different pumpkin species do not cross-pollinate. To avoid unwanted crossing, grow only one variety per species.
If you need seeds of several varieties, use hand pollination of female flowers with male flowers. The day before flowering, isolate selected male and female flowers by covering the buds with cotton or a paper cap. Isolate buds whose petal tips have turned yellow (they will open the next morning). Pollinate early in the morning when pollen and female stigmas are most viable. Remove the covers and proceed as in standard hand pollination: pick male flowers, remove the petals, and touch the stigmas of female flowers with the anthers of the male flowers.
A more reliable result is achieved by pollinating one female flower with 2–3 male flowers. Male flowers can even be left inside the female flower. After pollination, isolate the female flowers again and attach labels with the variety name and the pollination date. Keep the isolation until the ovary begins to grow (a sign of successful fertilization). Leave 1–2 hand-pollinated ovaries on the plant for seed, and remove the rest as they appear so the seed fruits are well nourished. For the same reason, remove or limit the growth of non-fruiting side shoots and the main stem, leaving only a few leaves above the selected seed fruit.
Harvest seed fruits when they reach full physiological maturity—when they develop the variety’s typical rind color and pattern. After harvest, cure the fruits for 10–15 days in the sun or in a dry, warm place. Longer curing can draw nutrients out of the seeds into the fruit tissues, reduce seed quality, and encourage sprouting inside the fruit. For the same reasons, it is better not to use seeds extracted in winter from fruits intended for eating. Use them only as a last resort when no other seeds are available (after testing germination). This also applies to zucchini and pattypan squash.
After curing, cut the fruits and remove the seed-bearing placentae by hand or with a spoon. Clean the seeds, then dry them in the sun or in a dry, warm place. Store seeds in paper envelopes or cloth bags in a dry room. Seed germination depends on seed moisture at storage and on storage conditions—temperature and especially relative humidity.
Optimal conditions: low seed moisture (no more than 7%), low relative humidity (30–45%), and cool temperature (0–2 °C). High air humidity is particularly harmful, although seeds can remain viable for a long time even at higher storage temperatures (+20–25 °C).
It is better to keep seeds in living spaces at a relatively warm temperature than in unheated buildings with high humidity. Typically, seeds from the sun-facing side of the fruit yield more than seeds from the underside, because they formed under more favorable conditions and matured better. Seeds formed near the stem end, well supplied with nutrients, are more productive than seeds near the blossom end. As a rule, seeds from fruits formed early on the main stem or first-order side shoots have higher weight, stronger vigor and germination, and produce earlier and more productive plants than seeds from fruits higher on the plant that formed later.