Any idea what this is?

[Inchworm]

It had to have been a stray seed in the zucchini seeds. The plant grew up out of my zucchini "mound." It grew much like a zuke, you know, with the stringy plant hands that grab onto stuff as they grow.

It was on a horizontal wire about 4 feet off the ground before I noticed its oddness and lowered to the ground. I thought it was way too heavy to be doing such things. If it happens again, I'll leave it. It stopped growing and got mushy on the bottom before I picked it today.





I hoped it was a melon of some sort, but it seems to be some sort of squash.

Anyone know what it is?

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

1. Melons, squashes, and cukes

MISCEGENATE easily.

If it doesn't taste good, throw it away.

[Inchworm]

3. Had to look that word up

hehe, yup I think that's what happened.

:hi:

[hippywife]

2. Looks like a cross

between a zuke and a cuke. What else did you plant close to the zukes?

[Inchworm]

4. Bingo!

I'm now learning that is probably what happened.

I had a "winter squash" mix about 2 feet from the zukes and I had cukes about 5 feet from the zukes as well.

Gardening is so cool! I'm like a mad scientist crossbreeding veggies! lol

Who woulda thunk :rofl:


:hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Can't tell size from the photo, but if it's zuke size it looks a lot like the cousa type zucchini.

Cross-pollinations of squashes/cukes/melons do occur but you wouldn't see the result in a single garden season because it's the seed in the fruit that carries the hybridization information. If the plant was a volunteer in an area where you had those varieties last year or you saved seed and replanted, then it's Dr. Inchworm hybrid. If this was the first year you had those varieties in proximity and you used purchased seed, I'd guess that it was a sorting problem at the seed company.

[Inchworm]

6. It turned before I could eat it, but...

I did steal some seeds from it.

Is there anything special I need to do when I harvest seeds from squash?

I'm trying to get a few seeds from everything that grew well just for sport.

Thanks for all your help Gormy! :applause:

:shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Just make sure you wipe off all the flesh and strings and let them dry to the touch,

then put them in envelopes, label, and store in a dark, cool place.

If you grew any F1 hybrids, it will be sporty next year because they may revert to the characteristics of one parent and look NOTHING like what you grew this year.

By the way, I wish I had home grown butternut squash this year (I saw your dinner posting.)

on edit: I wanted to clarify what I posted earlier. Two plants near each other and closely related like a yellow summer squash and a zucchini can cross-pollination and produce a new variety in the same year, but less closely related ones like a winter squash and a true cuke won't show the hybridization in the same season, as a general rule.

[Kolesar]

8. Wow. Great writing

And a nod to Xemasab.

Would anybody care to take a stab at controlling squash beetles? They were quite bad this year, although we did harvest a good number of delicious summer squash. Any opinion on using Sevin / carbonyl ?

[Gormy Cuss]

9. No opinion on Sevin- I've never used it.

I've also never had a serious squash bug problem. I can tolerate the small number who should up. I think using floating row covers helps with any flying pests.

A companion planting solution that I've read but not tried is to plant rattail radishes adjacent to them (rattails are tall plants and after flowering they put out long skinny upright seed pods that look like rat's tails.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattail_radish

[bvar22]

10. Sevin is very toxic for honeybees.

It works well on Squash Bugs and other pests, and according to the promo it biodegrades quickly. However, it is also very toxic to beneficial insects, especially honeybees. If a honeybee carries Sevin back to the hive in its pollen sacks, it can kill the whole hive.

We also keep HoneyBees, so Sevin is completely out of the question when it comes to our garden.
We lost our Zucchini to the Squash Bugs this year, but were willing to lose the crop before using Sevin. We are taking other measures to protect our Squash next year.

Last year, we had a bad late season infestation in some Pumpkin vines that had grown over the garden fence. Since we had already harvested most of the garden, we let nature take its course figuring that all the bugs would die over the Winter. This was not correct. Squash Bugs can survive over the Winter in mulch, grass, and other garden debris to re-infest next year.

We had a re-infestation this year that was localized in the same area we had had it last year, but we were much more aggressive (daily inspection and hand picking) this year, and it never progressed beyond the mild stage (which was enough to get our Zucchini), but we saved other crops.

Unlike last year, we are carefully removing all mulch and debris from beds that had any problem with Squash Bugs this year. We have also allowed our chickens to graze in these beds and surrounding areas to catch any small bugs. They seem to be very thorough.


Next year, we are going to use a trellis system to keep our Squash off the ground, and allow wide spacing between plants. We are going to prune low branches so we can easily inspect and monitor the stalks for any bugs.



This works surprisingly well....

...and is fun to use! It will be even more effective if we grow our Squash vertically instead of allowing it to lie on the ground.

We (Starkraven and myself) developed a tactic where one of us water floods from one side, and the other mans the Vac to suck up any Squash Bugs that run from the water.
This little vac is very handy, and we've used it to remove mud daubers, wasps, and fruit flies from inside the house and kitchen. Very effective & no muss, no poison, no squashed bug bodies.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x8830


Good Luck.
We hate Squash Bugs.

[hippywife]

11. Soon you won't recognize

those squash beds. Our chickens have totally cleared our beds, unfortunately including the strawberries. :mad:

[bvar22]

12. Yeah, they did a good job on the Squash Beds.

We have planted brocolli, garlic, onions, radish, peas, kale, mustard, and lettuce,...So the girls are now banned from the garden. They don't really understand, and follow me to the gate everyday.

Pied Piper

They could easily fly over the garden gate, but haven't figured that out yet.
I hope they don't.

[hippywife]

13. I'm thinking of

planting some more stuff now that most everything in there is dead. I may be a tad too late for everything but the garlic, do you think? I just haven't had the energy or inclination lately.

Ours are now roaming all over about 2 acres of our place, they just don't go any farther than where Bill has mowed. The high grass is a good barrier. The nice thing is that so far they go back into the pen to the nest boxes when they want to lay. Every time we open the front door to go outside for something, they think we're bringing food and come running. They also follow me to the compost and stand there staring while I dump stuff in, like I would be dumping something they could eat. Rambo is now eating out of my hand. Long as I have some good scraps, she'll gladly take them from me. The black giants can be real bullies with the others and I don't like them sometimes.

Lots of fun, huh? :hi:

[WolverineDG]

17. I just bought 2 strawberry plants

one with a ripening berry. I was letting it ripen, so I could do a taste test. The dog beat me to it. :grr:

dg

[Kolesar]

14. We have not seen a wild honeybee for two years, but that is still good advice

The "problem" with applying pesticides is that they kill the predatory insects. I have been seeing a few praying mantises around this year. We put an egg sack up in the garden. Although we never saw them burrow out, the mantises are still apparently "around here" on some account.

I would like to start two new planting beds last year for squash and then plant potatoes in the beds that were so taxed by cucumber beetles and squash beetles this year.

[OnionPatch]

15. This happens to me a lot. I had a Punkinni last year.

I had let a few volunteer plants grow and this one bore a big orange, ridged thing shaped like a zucchini. This year I have a cross between patty pan squash and God knows what. They are shaped like a zucchini but have the ridges around the middle like the patty pans and are the same light green color.

After figuring this out, each year now I leave a few volunteers in safe areas, just so I can see what pops up! These are always good conversation pieces when I show people my garden. :)

I get my weird veggies from volunteers that sprouted from seeds from the previous year. I didn't know it would happen in the same season from cross-pollination. :shrug:

[Quantess]

16. Mixed breed squashes are fun.

But---one year I planted decorative gourds, which are inedible. They sprouted up all over the place the next year, and I think they mixed with the zucchini and spaghetti squash. Anyway, the offspring were inedible too.