| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| tessa |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 14:11:43
some of you may remember a few years ago when i was growing out my very first butternuts...and i had a female blossoming but no males.
ignorance led me to hand pollinate the pumpkin with the only other male flower on my block...a zucchini.
ignorance can sometimes be king because, by all accounts, a zucchini and a butternut cannot cross.
well...they did. and i put a big black X on that butternut...and when it matured, i ate it, and then saved it's seeds.
i'm not sure why i didn't try growing it out last year...but i didn't. i was rummaging around my seeds a month ago...because i had a container come available and i was looking for something to put in there. i found the crossed seeds. i looked at them...and they were all empty seed coats. apparantly it was true. they cannot cross and go on to produce F1 hybrid seeds.
well.
never underestimate me.
i fondled every seed in that packet...and came up with 4 seeds out of about 100...that didn't quite feel as empty as the others.
i planted all 4 out.
2 came up.
now...check it out:
if you've ever grown a butternut...you will know that the leaves are somewhat small for pumpkins, a bit on the pale side, and fuzzy.
zucchinis on the other hand, have large, dark green, smooth leaves.
and that's what i've got here.
i've got zucchini leaves from a seed that came out of a butternut pumpkin.
so...
tessie's first hybrid.
what will it come to?
i am dreaming of thin, green-skinned, oranged fleshed pumpkinis.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Mary-Anne |
Posted - 06/04/2009 : 23:45:30
OK 
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life
Love Your Enemies... It Will Drive Them Nuts |
| gardendelights |
Posted - 04/04/2009 : 10:19:37
pumpkin update on the other board. |
| Mary-Anne |
Posted - 04/03/2009 : 09:42:23
That will be interesting.
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life
Love Your Enemies... It Will Drive Them Nuts |
| The Estate |
Posted - 04/03/2009 : 06:28:51
 very clever Tessa
My basic weeding rule: if they grow in rows they're flowers;
if they don't they're weeds.
Melbourne |
| tessa |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 19:07:32
hey...i forgot to take a pic of how big the fruits are today. pretty nice size for container pumpkins.
in the meantime...another girlie has blossomed. my problem is that all the male flowers die without ever opening. the vine is sterile.
so this one i've cross pollinated with a spaghetti squash. my fave.
let's hope we get something special on vines that are not shooting blanks.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| The Estate |
Posted - 31/01/2009 : 09:44:15
lets hope we get t hear about the taste test Tessa
My basic weeding rule: if they grow in rows they're flowers;
if they don't they're weeds.
Melbourne |
| Mary-Anne |
Posted - 31/01/2009 : 09:44:06
Maybe you are..
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life
Love Your Enemies... It Will Drive Them Nuts |
| tessa |
Posted - 31/01/2009 : 09:34:22
krissy-crosses are going nicely.
you can see from the picture that they look like a cross between yellow zuke and butternut. very interesting shape tho.
and just as an aside....check out the fun guys growing amongst the basil and cukes.
maybe i'm watering too much.
LOL.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| tessa |
Posted - 27/01/2009 : 19:29:53
*ew*
maybe he would have only been infertile because no dog in her right mind would have mated with him.
the first two hand pollinations did not take.
the second two appear to be going full steam ahead.
those were pollinated with a spaghetti squash.
i quite like the krissy-cross name...so i might call those that. at least i'll be confident of their parentage. they will be zucchini/butternut/spaghetti crosses.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| Di Taylor |
Posted - 27/01/2009 : 18:08:03
He is a weird mutant story, we had a wee dog came in straining in labour for an emergency c-section, the pup we removed had died but was a tenth of her weight with a round head no snout and one eye like a cyclops, now I think he would have been infertile !
A good year is when more things get harvested than die! |
| tessa |
Posted - 26/01/2009 : 18:12:09
yes, this is a definite possibility, which was already apparant in that only 2 out of a huge bag of seeds from the initial cross germinated. but those two are the true mutants, right?
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| Di Taylor |
Posted - 26/01/2009 : 17:21:10
Maybe it is like breeding cats that have a mutant gene with each other... the offspring are always infertile (think Manx, scottish fold and Ragdoll cats)
A good year is when more things get harvested than die! |
| tessa |
Posted - 26/01/2009 : 12:04:43
inspecting the plant further today, i note that the first female blossom has now dropped off.
unsuccessful pollination.
the second one i still cannot tell.
this morning i've pollinated blossoms 3 and 4 with the pollen from a spaghetti squash.
time will tell.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| tessa |
Posted - 26/01/2009 : 08:15:13
yeah...it's definitely fun.
i'm using this thread as a sort of diary so that i don't have to make notes elsewhere.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
| Mary-Anne |
Posted - 26/01/2009 : 06:55:33
I had to do a bit of that last week also and there are now a couple of Kent Pumpkins getting bigger where before they were going yellow and dropping of the vine..
There does not seem to be so many bees around this year..
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life
Love Your Enemies... It Will Drive Them Nuts |
