Gourds, squash, and pumpkins, cross pollinating?
My friend told me not to plant gourds near my squash and pumpkins because they'll cross pollinate. Is this bad just if you want to save the seeds? or will the squash get gourdy like? And if they can't be planted together, then how far apart must they be as to not cross pollinate? In a different garden altogether? I can't find this online for some odd reason.
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Yep: Only if you're saving seed, since it'll be the offspring that will harbor the cross. And everyone would have to be in the same species- moschatas, mixtas, etc. A moschata won't cross with a mixta or a maxima. So if you're growing butternuts & hubbards, you should be ok. If you're growing cucurbit gourds, they may cross with some squash & pumpkins (I can't recall what their species is) but the hard shell gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) won't cross with cucurbits. But those will cross with other hard shell gourd types...!sheeshshe wrote:My friend told me not to plant gourds near my squash and pumpkins because they'll cross pollinate. Is this bad just if you want to save the seeds? or will the squash get gourdy like? And if they can't be planted together, then how far apart must they be as to not cross pollinate? In a different garden altogether? I can't find this online for some odd reason.
https://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/experienced.html
That link says a half mile is best to prevent same species crossing. (!) But if you want to save seed, it's easy enough to bag a bud, hand pollinate when it opens & then rebag.
I save some of my pumpkin seed, and since I don't do anything, I get some pretty funky pumpkins, (stripes & warts & wild colors) but they're not for eating, just for foolin' around.
Corn may be a little different, depending on the variety of corn you are growing. A sh2 supersweet variety should be planted 250' away from any other corn, or have two weeks difference in tasseling. I understand that the corn may turn to starch. I think that as long as sh2 isn't in the variety of corn, you are ok.
Brad
Brad
With corn, you are eating the seed! It IS the offspring. I wouldn't grow any 2 types of corn close together unless they are maturing at different times or if it doesn't really matter if they cross. I grow SE varieties and it doesn't even bother me if the one that is supposed to be a yellow, produces some bi-color ears. I make a little joke about growing so many different varieties that they all turn up as bi-colors. That's not quite true but they do cross.dtlove129 wrote:Is this true for everything like corn too?. .
Field corn? I wouldn't want field corn anywhere near my sweet corn. And yet, I have no experience with field corn anywhere nearby my gardens.
One popular variety of gourd - going back to that important, original question
- Turks Turban, is a Cucurbita maxima variety. Buttercup, Hubbard and Kabocha squash are C. maxima, also. If you grow those together you probably shouldn't be saving the seed.Yes, squash seed of the same species should be grown at a considerable distance for each other - bees, you know. A certified field for seed production might require miles of separation. Of course, gardeners are NOT usually growing and selling seed. Still, we may want to save seed and crosses growing in our gardens are sometimes NOT what we want, either!
Jack o'Lantern pumpkins and zucchini are both C. pepo. The cross might be edible but I'm not bothering with it! It is actually quite gourd-like!
If you check out the species of each of the varieties that you want to grow, you probably can grow quite a selection, save seed, and not have to worry at all about cross-pollination. It just takes a little checking. And then, it is growing One from Column A, One from Column B, One from Column C . . . like that!
Steve
Well, I am growing blue hubbard, straight neck summer squash, bat wing pumpkin, and a small sugar pumpkin. and a thing of mixed gourds. I planted everything but the gourds thus far. I honestly ran out of space. grr. maybe I'll just do the gourds on the community plot, but they're growing pumpkins and squash there as well.
can I save the seeds of the group of things I planted here, or is that a bad cross? do you know if all seeds are effected? or is it like tomatoes were 8 out of 10 seeds are true and only 20% are actual crosses?
can I save the seeds of the group of things I planted here, or is that a bad cross? do you know if all seeds are effected? or is it like tomatoes were 8 out of 10 seeds are true and only 20% are actual crosses?
The Straight Neck Summer Squash is a Cucurbita pepo. Reimer's Seed says Bat Wing Pumpkin is a C. pepo. And, the Sugar Pumpkin is a C.pepo.
So, all of the the 3 have the potential to cross and likely will.
It is hard to say about the mixed gourds but I would think that they would cross with each other, even if none are the same species as the plants grown in nearby gardens.
Squash flowers are very open in structure compared to the closed type of a tomato flower.
Steve
So, all of the the 3 have the potential to cross and likely will.
It is hard to say about the mixed gourds but I would think that they would cross with each other, even if none are the same species as the plants grown in nearby gardens.
Squash flowers are very open in structure compared to the closed type of a tomato flower.
Steve
