A Cute Squash Cross-Up

[kayjay]

Hi folks! I haven't been around in a while, but I thought I'd share the results of a fun experiment.

A coworker gave me some seeds saved from a pink variety of pumpkin. I know better than to expect cucurbits to NOT be cross-pollinated, but I figured what the heck.

This is what I got:




It must have gotten crossed with either a delicata or dumpling squash. Probably dumpling because delicata is more oblong. I've nicknamed it the dumpkin.

It got a little sibling a few weeks later, and it looks nice on my kitchen table with its friends:

[applestar]

That IS fun!
Hopefully they will taste good too.

Will you save and continue to grow subsequent generations? You may be able to stabilize this super interesting appearance.

Heh, I might try growing dumpling just for the off-chance to achieve such an effect….

[kayjay]

I am definitely saving the seeds just to continue the experiment. The next generation, though, might be cross-pollinated with zucchini or cucumber. If I knew it was going to be this cute, I would have bagged the blossoms and hand-pollinated. Oh well.

[applestar]

Zucchini would be interesting mix because that may increase chance of good eating as young/immature fruit and allow salvage in case of disease or SVB type unexpected demise, even if mature fruit quality might suffer.

You may be able to early detect from leaf shape and/or if the seedling/young stage won’t start to elongate and start to grow into vines. (BUT maybe able to pursue “bush” type and more prolific fruiting from those variants with some luck and effort.) Also fruit shape will be indication later — maybe only keep round fruit seeds.

Cucumbers are closely related to melons as species so won’t need to worry for this purpose.

[kayjay]

Update: the seeds would not germinate.

I saved them the usual way - gentle rinse in a sieve under running tepid water, dried them out well in our very dry/cool basement.

Then I did a 3-way germination test: float test (failed), germination in a paper towel (failed), germination in soil (also failed.) There were at least 6-10 seeds in each test.

Oh well, it was fun, and at least the dumpkin tasted good. I still have 3 seeds from the originals my coworker gave me, and if they grow again this year, I'll try to hand-pollenate and save them again.

[applestar]

Oh wow, what a bummer!

Cucurbit seeds can be tricky sometimes, and other times when you start extra, they go nuts!

Hope your other garden endeavors are going well.

[Gary350]

Update: the seeds would not germinate.

I had trouble getting, melons, peppers, tomato, seeds to germinate. I learned something new Google search, plant seeds in very soft soil, seeds only 1/2" deep, keep seeds at 85°f, make sure soil stays wet, keep them in full sun all day. Ultraviolet from Sun light can penetrate soil 1" deep. Seeds can detect the ultraviolet light and 85° temperature this makes for faster germination. Seeds start producing chlorophyll from the ultraviolet light & tiny plants that come up through the soil are already green.