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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
 Posted - 16/01/2009 : 14:11:43
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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
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pitta
head gardener
Australia
1209 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 15:04:18
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Congratulations Tessa the plant breeder. Now you will have to give it a name.This could be the start of something big.
I await the pictures and results of the taste testing.Pitta.
If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.
Gwen
Cooktown |
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The Estate
head gardener
Australia
3676 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 15:24:01
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OMG Tessa, well done, you would need a big Adam for that leaf 
My basic weeding rule: if they grow in rows they're flowers;
if they don't they're weeds.
Melbourne |
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Mary-Anne
garden sage
Australia
10809 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 15:33:38
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Oh that's Fantastic. 
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life
Love Your Enemies... It Will Drive Them Nuts |
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Gail
garden sage
Australia
7707 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 16:01:25
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It's rather exciting  I'm looking forward to seeing what happens 
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad.
A ounce of common sense is worth more than a ton of intelligence.
Gail, near Gympie, Qld |
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medburygardens
gardener
New Zealand
639 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 16:44:47
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| That's so interesting tessa,looking forward it see how this cross turns out.I would have thought that they are so distant genetically that they couldn`t cross, this wee fella says it for me |
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Di Taylor
assistant gardener
New Zealand
188 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 17:55:12
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I think a good name would be Tessa's Butterccini
A good year is when more things get harvested than die! |
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Mary-Anne
garden sage
Australia
10809 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2009 : 18:41:44
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Oh What a Lovely Name..
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life
Love Your Enemies... It Will Drive Them Nuts |
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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
Posted - 20/01/2009 : 16:50:14
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how good is everyone else's memory?
i can't for the life of me remember what kind of zucchini i crossed this pumpkin with! but it's starting to look maybe like a ball zucchini...tho i don't remember growing them before last year, which means not at the time i crossed this pumpkin.
anyway...here's the first fruit getting ready:
and a subsequent one is showing the same shape:
the very interesting thing now...is that this plant is going to throw out a female blossom BEFORE the males...so i will have to pollinate this with a pumpkin...so now i will be back-crossing it.
looks like the only pumpkin i have with male flowers ready is an unknown pumpkin that is the result of my sweet dumplings having gotten cross pollinated.
oh! this is starting to get really messy!
hopefully later fruits will have more clear-cut parentage.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
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Mary-Anne
garden sage
Australia
10809 Posts |
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medburygardens
gardener
New Zealand
639 Posts |
Posted - 21/01/2009 : 01:49:19
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| does look a bit the same |
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Pamela
head gardener
Australia
3949 Posts |
Posted - 21/01/2009 : 06:09:29
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How exciting Tessa!
"The air of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears." |
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Gail
garden sage
Australia
7707 Posts |
Posted - 21/01/2009 : 06:56:44
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I remember reading that post when you mentioned crossing them but can't find it. I'll have another look later.
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad.
A ounce of common sense is worth more than a ton of intelligence.
Gail, near Gympie, Qld |
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The Estate
head gardener
Australia
3676 Posts |
Posted - 21/01/2009 : 07:06:44
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Hoe clever are you Tessa, well done
My basic weeding rule: if they grow in rows they're flowers;
if they don't they're weeds.
Melbourne |
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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
Posted - 21/01/2009 : 19:58:07
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i vaguely recall there might have been a yellow zucchini involved in this cross.
is this evidence of that?
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever! perth, wa |
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medburygardens
gardener
New Zealand
639 Posts |
Posted - 22/01/2009 : 02:51:58
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| Starting to look that way Tessa. |
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Topic |
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pumpkini? zucchernut? zumpkin?