In yesterday ’s post on garden experiment , Shane Arthur Swing commented on a possible Citrullus vulgaris autumn pumpkin cross he may have created .
I ask if he ’d let me know how it happened and share a picture . He gracefully agree to share more details and direct me both a exposure and a write - up on his suspect watermelon pumpkin hybrid .
A Watermelon Pumpkin Cross?
I ’ve been garden in Maryland for about six years now . The first few years were experimentation and hear young plants to grow and new methods to render .
So , about four old age ago , I did n’t know any better not to try on and cross - pollenate some pumpkins and watermelon I was growing next to each other in disjoined raised bed . I ’d scratch the male flowers on the female flush of both onto each other .
So , the result is seeable in the painting – pumpkin - watermelon Frankensteins .
These perfectly ordinary nipper are completely unaware of the taxonomical abominations that might be unleash if these Citrullus vulgaris pumpkins were allowed to scatter .
Not until this twelvemonth did I read that doing so was impossible since they are n’t in the same mob — I had to dig up the picture from an older computer I knew I had the movie on .
I ’d like someone to separate me how in the heck this take place . When I opened up these thing , the flesh was more orangish - ish than red and had the fibrous grain that pumpkin flesh had but was a bit gentle . It was sweet tasting , but not as fresh as regular watermelon vine if I remember aright .
These perfectly ordinary children are completely unaware of the taxonomical abominations that might be unleashed if these watermelon pumpkins were allowed to spread.
I did n’t save any seeds because , back then , I did n’t know this was impossible , and I ’d rather just grow individual plants , not mixes .
Is this Possible?
Some strange things have happened via thwartwise - species hybridization and I really want to believe in a parachuting like this .
That said , upon further consideration of this unusual case , my savvy of flora breeding leads me to guess it ’s impossible for the factor to have evidently effectuate the look of the pumpkins the first yr .
Why is that ?
One mutation that led to one branch was later cloned into millions of trees. Photo creditForest and Kim Starr.
A pumpkin vine x Citrullus vulgaris would not become plain until the seeds were planted , since the ovary ( the yield ) is a product of the mother plant . The plant donating pollen would give its genetics to the seeds and if they were plant and the cross took , you could have plants that deliver yield with attributes of both parent the next time of year – but this would not be evident until then .
The yield is a inherited growth of only one parent – and it is n’t the pollen donor . The embryos within the seeded player of a pollinated fruit , however , hold back traits from both parents .
If you cross - pollinated Citrullus vulgaris and Cucurbita pepo and were able to get a successful crossing , you would n’t know it until you set the seeds the next year .
The best means to tell if you successfully cross-pollinate a flower – without wait until the next class ’s yield – would be to do what squash stock breeder do and tape or tie the distaff bloom shut the Clarence Day before they open up for the first fourth dimension . The next morning , you get to the blooms and pollinate them just with your manful donor flower , then close them again . This check that an worm does n’t mouse in and pollinate the bloom when you ’re not around .
If the pollination “ call for , ” the flower will fall and the fruit at its base will raise into maturity . If it does n’t , the nascent yield will simply lessen off in a few 24-hour interval .
Now – as for whether or not you could hybridize a pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo , C. maxima or C. moschata ) and a watermelon vine ( Citrullus lanatus ) , it is rarely possible to make these types of hybridization .
That does n’t intend it ca n’t happen . Just that it has n’t happened and been register . dwelling gardeners are responsible for most of the assortment in garden vegetable and fruit we have today , and they ’re even responsible for for some new specie .
Sometimes a cross will happen but all the seeds will be unfertile .
watermelon and pumpkins divvy up the same kinfolk Curcurbitaceae but they are n’t all that intimately relate and they do n’t reside in the same genus .
bad-tempered - genus hybrid are n’t inconceivable , though . Triticale is a cross - genus hybridization between rye whisky and wheat .
Stabilizing a cross of this nature normally takes some work once done , however , as there are plenty of strange things that go on when chromosome counts , etc . , get mixed together .
So What Happened With Shane Arthur Swing’s Pumpkins?
Whatever create this abnormal manifestation in these pumpkin must have happened due to a hybridizing in the previous coevals or a mutation .
Plant mutations have lead to many of our most darling fruit , blossom and vegetables .
study the floor of the Navel orange , for representative . One mutant two hundred years ago created one of the most popular Orange in history .
One mutation that lead to one branch was later clone into zillion of tree . photograph creditForest and Kim Starr .
A Presbyterian missionary came across the Navel orange back in 1820 and saved it for descendants . Without him , that branch would be long gone and I would n’t be enjoying one of my favorite fruits .
orangeness apart , pushing for cross and saving variation is a lot of fun . These pumpkins were likely crossed with another character before Shane planted the first come in his garden that year – but by all means , keep assay strange crosses .
If you want to terminate up with a unchanging line and your own variety , I extremely urge Carol Deppe ’s bookBreed Your Own Vegetable Varieties . It ’s captivating and hold lots of information , including some of her own thoughts on “ wide-cut hybridization . ”
Keep on experimenting . A watermelon autumn pumpkin cross may yet bechance .
