I planted a whole lot of pumpkin and kabocha seeds this year but one
plant has "fruit" that looks like zucchini! I've never grown zucchini
here so it couldn't be a volunteer. Could it be that a bee pollinated
one of the pumpkin flowers with zucchini pollen and that's what
happened?

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 19:05:37 GMT, Dan Musicant
wrote:

I planted a whole lot of pumpkin and kabocha seeds this year but one
plant has "fruit" that looks like zucchini! I've never grown zucchini
here so it couldn't be a volunteer. Could it be that a bee pollinated
one of the pumpkin flowers with zucchini pollen and that's what
happened?

Wouldn't it be more likely that this happened *last year*,
i.e., that a bee pollinated a pumpkin or kabocha plant last
year with zucchini pollen - and the seed you planted this
year is a hybrid (mix)?

I'm NOT sure of this, maybe someone else is?

The question: can fruit *this year* become different
because of pollination from a different variety?

Or can it only affect *next year's* fruit?

Pat

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 15:38:36 -0700,
(dkra) wrote:

:x-no-archive: yes
:
:In article , Pat Meadows
wrote:
:
:snip
:
: Wouldn't it be more likely that this happened *last year*,
: i.e., that a bee pollinated a pumpkin or kabocha plant last
: year with zucchini pollen - and the seed you planted this
: year is a hybrid (mix)?
:
:snip
:
:Once a neighbor grew a "squash" that was a true hybrid of the zucchini he
:grew last year and the pumpkin we grew last year. The resulting plant and
:its fruit looked a little like each of those of its parent plants.
:
:If the plant doesn't look like a cross between the two kinds of vine but
:*exactly* like one or the other, I'd think the seed company made a mistake
:in identifying and packing its seed. I've heard of this happening before
:with tomato varieties.
:
:-- dkra

I've never purchased pumpkin seeds or kabocha seeds. The ones I grow
every year originally came up as volunteers, no doubt the result of
someone throwing the remains of their dinner preparations into the
compostables. This was when I had housemates. However, it's been 3 years
since I had housemates and I haven't bought zucchini seeds for many
years and never planted any here.

I think it is indeed likely that this happened last year and what looked
like a pumpkin contained seeds that would grow something that looked
very like a zucchini. Unfortunately, the plant isn't doing very well. I
should have thinned my plantings but decided to let the seedlings fight
it out. It's an interesting experiment but next year I'm going to thin
my seedlings.

Hi All,
reply at the end.

Pat Meadows wrote in message
...
On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 19:05:37 GMT, Dan Musicant
wrote:

I planted a whole lot of pumpkin and kabocha seeds this year but one
plant has "fruit" that looks like zucchini! I've never grown zucchini
here so it couldn't be a volunteer. Could it be that a bee pollinated
one of the pumpkin flowers with zucchini pollen and that's what
happened?

Wouldn't it be more likely that this happened *last year*,
i.e., that a bee pollinated a pumpkin or kabocha plant last
year with zucchini pollen - and the seed you planted this
year is a hybrid (mix)?

I'm NOT sure of this, maybe someone else is?

The question: can fruit *this year* become different
because of pollination from a different variety?

Or can it only affect *next year's* fruit?

Pat

as far as I know it can only affect next years seed. if you eat fruit from
an F1 hybrid the fruit is normal, it is only when you plant saved seed the
next year that you get problems. hope this helps you.

Richard M. Watkin.