Cucumber and Squash have combined

Jul 30, 2006 5 Replies

I think I planted my cucumbers and squash too close together. The cucumbers are yellowish and are shaped more like summer squash than cucumbers.


1) Is this a common mistake?
2) Is the food edible?
3) Once they've cross-bred, anything I can do.

A gardener with mutant veggies....



Not very, but I've heard of it happening. It's as much a function of the range of your pollinator friends and prevailing breezes as it is of distance, I'd think.

Sure, but you get to experiment with how to cook it, or how to dress it raw in a salad. Have some fun with it. I'd try a quick stirfry, I think.

Praise the Lord for this unexpectedly intelligent design. :-) -aem

It happens.

Yep. Had watermelon squash once. Quite tasty once I stopped trying to catagorize it.

Keep them from having children?

Look at it this way, you could have crossed your squash with gourds and had to use a table saw to have dinner.

They're all mutant if you go back far enough.

Yes

Maybe. Suck it and see, as the saying goes.

Goto 2

Steve

Whoa: 1. Cucumbers and squash do not cross. Even if they did, the cross is in the seeds, so it does not show until the next generation. 2. Most likely. If you planted mixed seeds. It could be be the growing conditions. Do you know what cultivar, you supposedly planted. There are several yellow cucumbers in the edible stage and most turn yellow or orange when they form seeds.

  1. Don't save seeds.

"SueB" wrote in news:1154290490.834391.25740 @m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

Yes, thinking that cucumbers and squash have crossed because they look funny is a very common mistake. Cucumbers (Cucumis sativa) and squash (Cucurbita melo and other species) do not cross-pollinate. And for the varieties of melon or squash that do cross-pollinate, it only affects the seeds and the plants they will grow into. After all, if your black poodle is impregnated by a white poodle, she doesn't turn grey. Only the puppies are affected.

Try it and see.

Don't save the seeds for next year if you have any questions.

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