pumpkin/acorn hybrid? *Now w/pics*

[sparkles2307]

Um, so I planted seed that I saved from my acorn squash and ended up with pumpkin vines that are bearing 50% fruit that looks like normal sweet pie pumpkins and 50% fruit that is shaped like a pie pumpkin but has the smooth black skin of an acorn and the stem of an acorn.... I'm anxious to try it out for flavor. Not impressed with unplanned vines all over the garden tho. I will take pics when I can!

 

[vfem]

Worse case, I bet they'd be pretty and unique to decorate with in the fall.

:tools

 

[Ariel301]

Hahaha or chicken food.

Squashes and pumpkins will hybridize regularly. It makes saving them hard, unless you only grow one (and your neighbors are not growing other kinds) or you hand pollinate and put bags over the blossoms/fruits to be saved.

Let us know how they taste!

 

[sparkles2307]

Well, we picked one last night, the flavor is a little milder than a regualr acorn, kind of bland. But it tasted good nonetheless and the kids ate it all up.

 

[vfem]

Ooooh, you might have you a 'moon and stars' squash. It does look like the watermelon... and the acorn squash... and the pumpkin...

I'm glad it tasted good. How did you prepare it?

Are you going to keep seeds and try to grow this again? It looks very cool!

 

[sparkles2307]

I just baked it and mashed it with brown sugar. I'm not keeping the seeds, it was planted next to 3 other types of squash and who KNOWS what it's gonna come out as next year. I am not doing anything that I know has pumpkin in it next year as I am tired of vines.

 

[digitS']

The neighbor and I "share" a tractor guy who tills both gardens in the spring. One year, the tractor guy scattered the seed from the neighbor's pumpkins all over both gardens including my squash and pumpkin patch. I got mixed up as to what I'd planted and what I didn't !

What grew from the volunteers was essentially something like a gourd. Once again, the neighbor allowed some of these things to mature and the tractor guy scattered them throughout the gardens the following year .

I took it on myself to eradicate these useless things in both gardens that year. (The neighbor had an extended vacation and I was in charge of irrigation .)

Pumpkins and zucchini cross-pollinate. At least, I think that is what those things were. Maybe, if they'd been harvested very young, they would have been edible. As it was, they were neither attractive nor edible. Basically, they were just large weeds!

Steve

 

[journey11]

Yep, crossing squash can produce some freakish monsters. You lucked out Sparkles! Glad it was edible!

 

[old fashioned]

Actually that squash you have looks like most of our pumpkins & if left on the vine will orange up. In fact, nearly all pumpkins I've grown start out green like that one & the orange spot is usually where it's touched something & the longer it sits (picked or left on vine) the more orange it becomes. Though I will say the inside pic looks more like acorn.


Don't mind me, just making an observation! :happy_flower

 

[sparkles2307]

I'll post some pics of the ones that look more like pumpkins. The texture of the skin is different altogether. The skin on the one I picked is smooth and almost black like an acorn, with the orange "ripe" spot. The Pumpkins have the more "veiny" green (light green base with dark green netting over the entire thing) and are shaped quite different. Hard to believe the seeds came from one squash that I saved last year.