Mystery Squash

Please check this out from the Plant ID forum.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/771197/

We've been eating these delicious squash since September and they are still coming. The vine is very vigorous. Since I did not plant seeds and it is coming up from my compost pile, it had to be from some squash seeds I composted. I've only had Butternut and Acorn squash which I bought from the grocery store. The flower must have been cross pollenated before my squash formed.

Is there another explanation? I have not planted any squash seeds in my garden. This vine has covered up 1/4 of my backyard. Have to keep it in check.

Yes, I've saved the seeds. These suckers are about 10 lbs and I bake them. Delicious.

Very interesting squash! It looks like a giant 8-ball zucchini. From you plant file entry it seems that you harvest them when young and eat them as a summer squash. What to they look like when you let them fully ripen?

If I cut them young then I cook them like summer squash. If I cut them as the begin to mature I cook them as winter squash. I'll try to cut one tomorrow and take a picture. Have a half in my refrigerator already. Thanks for responding.
Audrey

If this one came from a grocery store squash, it is most likely from the Acorn. They are C. pepo and will cross with anything in that family which includes most of the halloween type pumpkins and almost all of the summer squash. At ten lbs I would guess a Pumpacorn. Eight Ball does not get that big nor does the acorn, a cross between those two would not be that large.

WOW! That's some squash!

Hey MotherNature4;You ask if there is another explanation and there is!The farmer or person who grew the Acorn (C.pepo) and Butternut(C.mochata) was growing for market and not for seed production.And just because these are the Only Varieties that you bought doesn't mean these are the only varieties that he grew.It looks like a C.pepo so we are assuming he had other C.pepo varieties that he grew and these cross pollinated the season before.
Cross Pollination in Squash does not effect the squash that is produced this year, but it does effect the seeds (chromosomes) in this years squash and of course,next years squash.

Thank you Farmerdill and Zebraman. I didn't know about the cross pollination, but that's really the only explanation. I believe it must be a Pumpacorn. Had no idea an acorn would cross with a pumpkin. I notice that the meat is yellow, so that's reasonable. The seeds are the size of pumpkin seeds, too.

What do you think would come up from the seeds I've saved, oh learned ones? No one else in my neighborhood has a garden like we do, so I doubt there's another squash plant to cross with for miles.
Audrey

This message was edited Nov 27, 2007 6:20 PM

Hey Mothernature4; The reason pumpkins and acorns cross is they are both C.pepo's-(same number of chromosomes).The seeds that you grew this year (ie:compost pile) were actually first filial (F1) from last years cross.Since squash are "outbreeders" the seeds will likely be sterile,but even if some grow none of them will produce the squash that you got and liked this year.Your only hope would be in contacting the grower and finding out what other C.pepo's were growing in the field with the acorns.

Actually there is a good chance that a number of the plants will give you a similar fruit to the one you grew this year. There is also the chance that you will get plants that revert back to the parents. So if it is a pumpkin- acorn cross and you plant enogh seeds, you would get something akin to the parent pumpkin and acorn. Because the parents may have been hybrids in thier own right, it is more compilicated than those Punnet squares we use to work in high school biology, but thats the general idea. You will get some squash similar to the one you grew out this year and a lesser number reverting to parent. If you save seeds from the best of those pumpacorns ( F2) you will still get a mix but less, Save the seed from the best rep again, After 5 to 8 repeats, you would have a stable open pollinated "Mother Nature" squash.

The guys are right, and depending on the parentage, you could get a crazy hodge-podge in the next generation too. If you grew out enough seeds, they could be everything from pointy pumpkins to round acorns on anything from a compact bush to a clambering vine (judging by your description, though, they'll probably be vines), but I'm wondering about the species... the fruit does look like a C.pepo, but doesn't the stem look a bit more like a C.moschata? A look at the leaves and vines would help.

Loook like a C.pepo stem to me. But Agrinerd is right, if you remember the vines C.pepo is fleshy and hollow. C. moschata has thin, hard, solid vines . There is less probabily that a grower would be growing a large pumpkin shaped C. moschata with his butternuts. They do exist, but are not popular.

This is so interesting, I've learned so much just by reading. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. C4

Hey Farmerdill; Your description is totally accurate for naturally "Inbreeding" plants like tomatoes but not for cross-pollinating crops like squash.Seeds saved from Squash will either be sterile or will revert to one of the parent varieties.The F2 seeds will produce 0 (zero) of the F1 squash.

Well shucks, no one ever told my squash. As long as the cross pollination is within species ( C. Pepo) I get new ones that I can rogue out to new cultivars.

There are a small few that will cross species, but that's the exception. The Japanese sell C. moschata x C. maxima Kabocha hybrids (like a Buttercup), but they inevitably end up sterile. It usually takes a lot of back crosses to one of the parents to restore fertility, if at all.