strange fruit?

[habitat_gardener]

If a cucurbit gets pollinated by a different cucurbit, will that affect the fruit that forms? Someone at the community garden said she was told not to plant a zucchini next to a cucumber because she'll get strange fruit. She said the person that told her did that one year and got an inedible zucchini-cucumber cross.

I've always planted different varieties of cucumbers or of winter squash or summer squash next to each other, and haven't gotten anything unexpected.

[Neohippie]

Short version: No.

Long version: Ok, for one thing, zucchini and cucumbers are different species (and different genera even) so they won't cross at all, in any way. It's like trying to cross a cat and a dog.

As for different varieties of squash that are the same species, say a zucchini and a yellow crookneck, you still won't get strange fruit on the plants that year. Even if they cross pollinate, the fruit is part of the mother plant, so it will still be whatever fruit the mother plant is supposed to have. (To go back to the animal analogy, if a lab gets pregnant by a dalmatian, it doesn't make the lab suddenly get spots.)

The only difference will be in the seeds. If you were to save seeds from the squash, then plant those, then that next generation of squash will be the zucchini/yellow crookneck hybrid ones.

So it's only a problem if you are saving seeds. If you're just eating them, cross pollination will have no effect.

I know some people swear if you plant a bell pepper next to a hot pepper it will make your bell peppers hot, but I've never heard of the zucchini/cucumber thing before. But either way, it's got to be an urban legend, since plant reproduction just doesn't work that way.

[Doug9345]

I suspect that it comes from someone finding a zucchini that they have missed and has turned hard. They don't realize that it's just a mature squash and they are use to eating baby squash. If you didn't know otherwise you wouldn't know that veal and beef come from the same animal, just at different points in their life,

[habitat_gardener]

The strange thing is that the person who claims to have found the "cross" has been gardening for well over a decade and is the person who's always giving tons of advice to new gardeners at the community garden. But then again, a few years ago she was giving away a whole flat of seedlings from seeds she'd saved of Sun Sugar F1, and when I mentioned that hybrids may not breed true, she said hers did -- and then found out they didn't when the fruits formed. She gets really adamant about things she "knows."

So I'm wondering how to diplomatically counter the misinformation, or whether to bother.

[Rockporter]

We have a community gardener like that, I just listen with respect and then move on. It isn't worth the fight when someone thinks they know it all when they really just know what they have been taught over the years, even if it's not what others might have experienced and try to express to the experienced gardner.

I was given tomato plants and told they were determinate, I now have all indeterminates growing in my buckets and 2 in my EB with EB you are only supposed to plant one indeterminate, not two. I'm not happy about this because I don't have the space for these huge plants which mean lots of cutting back and way too much fruit loss, as well as the amount of water these things are drinking. When I told her about my plight her response was, "I know mine are huge too and I have never had such big plants".

I have since had to sink more money into my support system and lots of time and effort for just a few and I mean like about 6 tomatoes per plant, not happy for sure. I had to cut these plants back when I kept asking her if she was sure these were determinate and she swore they were as I am watching them grow and grow and grow. I wound up having to cut them back so much that I lost many flower sets and many tomatoes I wanted to keep because my arm broke a branch in my effort to contain the jungle. I have vertigo so climbing upon ladders is out of the question and that is the next step with these plants.

Sigh, I told her the difference between determ and indeterm prior to her giving me the plants and made it real clear I could not grow out indeterminates and she acted like she had never heard of any tomato except as well, a tomato. She didn't believe me about how big and tall indetereminates can get and acted as if I didn't know what I was talking about, I am new gardener see?

Lesson learned, I will only plant my own seeds and grow out my own tomatoes so I don't wind up with this problem again. The worst part of this is, I am in the most productive growing time for my area and won't see it again for another year. Ugh.

[Neohippie]

Oh, those kinds of people really annoy me! The know-it-alls that turn out to not know -it-all... at all... and spread around factually untrue information, then if you try to correct them, they talk down to you and say YOU'RE the one that doesn't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, there's probably not much you can do about it, besides telling any confused newbies yourself that cucumbers and squash are in different species and don't cross.

Doug could be right about where the misconception comes from, to give the person the benefit of the doubt. Though that's still pretty ignorant of a gardener to not know what happens if you leave a zucchini or cucumber on the vine for too long.

[RebelRidin]

I have encountered many people over the years that talk about the disaster that will result if you plant cucumbers too close to melons, including my father. I never doubted they had a problem, I just wondered how they (or their parents or grandparents who told them) got their hands on crossed seed. I know why my dad had problems.... he had saved his melon seed from the year before when the crops timing was right to cross. When I tried to explain that.... "Noooo... How could that be? Those melons were fine. It's these that are messed up." Out of respect for him I had to let it go. I did encourage him to just buy those few seeds in the future though...

[BarbJ]

I get this question at work quite often. Or a variation of it, will my X planted next to Y make one or the other bitter, sour, too sweet, sterile, or just plain inedible.

I try and explain that no, it won't make any difference in the fruit/veggie you harvest this season, it may only affect the seeds for next years plants. I then ask, are they planning to save seeds to replant next year? The answer is almost always no, so I tell them don't worry about it.

Only exception is certain fruit trees or shrubs that need cross pollination to get fruit. That's not quite the same question, but the two ideas get mixed in people's minds sometimes. So if they ask about that, I get more detailed.

Occasionally I get a customer who is interested in why, and then they get a short lesson on hybrids, and stuff about that no crosses are possible between two different species,etc, which is cool. Those folks like the info, but most couldn't care less and just want to be reassured they won't grow a monster, lol.

[chancethegardener]

I need more clarification on saving seeds from hybrid plants: If I save seeds from a Sungold tomato, isn't it true that there is a high chance that I will get a "true to its parent" plant from those seeds?

[Jeannine Anne]

It does happen with corn don't forget.XX Jeannine

[Masbustelo]

Chance I don't personally have any experience with the Sungold Tomato. Kowever it is identified online as being a hybrid. It is my understanding that there is a 95% chance that saved seed will revert to one of two parents used in the hybrid cross. However with the 5% chance that the Sungold was pollinated by another variety, perhaps another hybrid, then you have four possibilities, none of which might resemble the original Sungold.