Key Concepts You Must Know to Grow Squash, Melons, Cukes: Cross-Pollination, Hybrids, Toxic Squash

[@danihall3676]

As an ecologist, I love that you include the science of plant reproduction. Great content! We grow mostly Seminole pumpkins because they perform incredibly well in high heat, humidity, and pest pressure. They will sprawl everywhere they can, but are very productive, even in shade! We grow luffa gourds and eat them young and keep some for drying into luffa sponges. This summer I have four luffa gourds the size of my thigh! I love growing things. 💜

[@sbffsbrarbrr]

I would love to try a luffa gourd next year. I am in zone 5b in Illinois. Have to check to see if I have a long enough season. Would be great to take shower with a home grown luffa 😁!

[@midwestribeye7820]

Thank you for this post! I have most of my garden in part shade and have been looking for productive squash/pumpkin that might work.

[@ingeleonora-denouden6222]

Thank you Angela. I tried to explain this some times, but I think your illustration of the uterus makes it much more clear than any 'dry' explanation!

[@JTMaults]

I have just come across your video 2yrs later. I have learned so much and have a very clear understanding now. Amazing explanation and now I’m worry free 😅

[@alwaysaravero5215]

Omg, such an informative video. Love the careful distinctions between species.

[@melstill]

You have a way of making it hard not to learn something...that's good!

[@savannahlee5454]

Thank you! Great info here :) it's nice to hear from other people in the PNW the varieties they have success with!

[@jwrightgardening]

I'm growing buttercup squash this fear for the first time and I didn't know how big and fast it grew. I think I have 18 plants and they have taken over my garden!!! They are covered with fruit so I hope I like them. I grew so many because the 1st 9 plants didn't look like they were going to survive so I planted 9 more on the opposite side of my garden but they all exploded over the last 2 weeks.

[@sbffsbrarbrr]

I had the same thing happen this year. Am growing melon and birdhouse gourd for the first time. Initially I thought the plants were doing poorly and maybe wouldn't survive. Now they are absolutely everywhere. Definitely need to use Angela's method next year and stake where the plant starts 😂

[@tracycrider7778]

Blessed with abundance ❤ hugs

[@anniebancroft1175]

Thanks for all this great info!

[@sbffsbrarbrr]

Can't wait to try some of your suggestions next year. I am getting rid of more and more grass so will hopefully have enough space to let things sprawl. I love the look of spreading squash vines and the yellow flowers are a sight to behold in my opinion. My next door neighbor stuffs the flowers, kind of like with a poblano peppers. And since there are so many more male than female flowers, I don't mind sharing 😊. Great video....you made the info easy to understand!

[@martibroekemeier2342]

I grew 2 purchased plants of acorn squash last year. One grew normal looking acorn squash. The other grew squash in a cream color, but same shape and taste. This year I am growing four of the seeds from the cream color plant to see what I get. Should be interesting!!

[@midwestribeye7820]

What happened with your cream colored squash plants? What a cool experiment. I hope they turned out amazing!

[@twoponchos]

I learned so much from this video. Thank you for taking the time to educate us. ❤️

[@katiedodds8045]

You have answered so many questions I had about cucubrits! Thank you for this video. You are doing a fantastic service to others interested in learning about next level gardening and permaculture 💚🌱

[@Hhaahland4]

Great explanation. Will be saving this video.

[@amyjones2490]

So interesting! I love squash and enjoy growing new(to me) varieties.

[@coroshah7344]

Thank you Angela! what a great video. Great information.

[@wildedibles819]

Great video yes i learned something new about the families

[@oliverg6864]

That was so informative! I never knew butternut squash was a different species, this is so helpful for my garden planning.

[@tgardenchicken1780]

Well said.

[@Heidi5353]

@Parkrose Permaculture, is there anything to be done to help keep from having incomplete pollination? Thanks so much for your video!

[@JohnDoe_88]

Well... Buying butternut immediately.

[@yahushaismyshepherd1179]

Try blacktail mountain watermelon. I live in zone 3 short season.

[@Lochness19]

I just had a squash flower with only 4 petals a couple days ago. I think it was on my vegetable marrow.

[@chiomascharm4596]

This video is awesome and so helpful 💜

[@Fragrantbeard]

Such a great video! Alrighty, the Burgess Buttercup goes on the 2022 must-grow list of seeds. Is there a strain you particularly like? I see it at West Coast Seeds, John Scheepers, Johnny's, Fedco, Seed Savers, High Mowing.... PS. I love my trombocinos for frying or browning then plopped in a gratin with Walla Walla onion and perfect summer tomatoes...the very firm texture (when they're eaten as summer squash) is great for "zucchini" fritters with lots of basil and lemon zest and feta!

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Well, you’re certainly making me want to give tromboncino another try!! That sounds delicious!

[@aprilcoleman3985]

This is the second year in a row I've had to look this video up. ..if I wasn't so damn broke I'd totally pay you.

[@davidbarr83]

Are all winter squash suable to use the seeds to eat? I've seen pumpkin seads at the store but thinking there's probably more that I'm not aware of!

[@maryvance7384]

When do you plant out your cukes, melons and winter squashes in PDX? Do you plant out direct seed or seedling. I am new to gardening in PDX, this yr used the Veggie calendar by Portland Nursery, but their recommendations seemed late for melons, corn and some other items

[@tenllell8325]

We have a weird looking yellow striped acorn squash that grew on it's own in a horse area with manure. Should we dare try and eat it?

[@amandapretti2185]

Very interesting! I really appreciate you explaining what cross-pollination is and is not. I'm also curious if you cut off the growing ends of any of these species? In other words, do you stop the vines from proliferating after a certain point to reduce quantity of fruit grown by a single plant in an effort to improve quality of the existing fruit? I've heard of folks snipping the ends of their pumpkin vines to encourage the plant to divert energy to growing the first X number of fruit rather than putting on more vines and additional fruit.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I do not snip off the ends but I do remove excessive quantities of immature fruit. If I want to get a really big sweet meat then I remove all but two from the vine… That way the remaining two will get much bigger and one of them is insurance in case something happens to the other. But I don’t turn the vines themselves because the more leaves, the more photosynthesis

[@hands2hearts-seeds2feedamu83]

@Parkrose Wow... Very informative. Thank you. And you didn't add a lot of fluff. I have a question for you; can I pollinate female yellow squash with male zuchinni to get fruit for this yr to eat ? I know it is not ideal, but my male and female flowers for their own group didn't have their male or female blossoms at the correct time. So I have tried it, as of 2 days ago. Lol

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Yes! Yellow summer squash and regular zukes can totally be used as pollination partners.

[@hands2hearts-seeds2feedamu83]

@@ParkrosePermaculture sweet, thank you... I didn't know what else to-do, and thought it worth a try other wise I loose out of squash for sure. They are a few day in and have not died yet so nice I will have squash to eat soon.

[@hands2hearts-seeds2feedamu83]

@@ParkrosePermaculture would the seeds from a cross like this grow good fruit next year ? Asking to see if I can save open seed or if I should make sure and pollinate each with their own kind and Mark them.

[@Lochness19]

Do you have much trouble with cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt? I've had 5/18 cucumbers, 3/5 cantaloupes and 1/12 summer squash affected so far.

[@2blueheelers1]

I have a question for you: I planted crimson sweet watermelon, butternut squash and candy roaster squash all three within 4-5 feet of one another. My watermelon grew great,, large but the flesh had this horrible taste and we could not eat them. Could the squash have cross pollinated with the watermelon causing that terrible taste?? Thanks

[@christiegrows2022]

Do you have to hand pollinate just once per plant or per fruit?

[@sbffsbrarbrr]

You have to pollinate each female flower with pollen from a male flower, so once for each fruit.

[@christiegrows2022]

@@sbffsbrarbrr thank you. This year is the first year I’ve managed to grow them! 😊

[@kathystrasser8225]

I have for the first time this year grown winter squash. I ordered the seed and started them myself but evidently the seeds were labeled wrong. I was supposed to have ebony acorn squash and what I got was a huge white squash that is more round.. i have tried my best to find out exactly what it is and when it will be ready to pick but i can't seem to find out about it. Can anyone help?

[@listennow5261]

Can you get sick from eating cross pollinated acorn squash?

so cute

[@Mik-mk8us]

What happens . I planted 20 acres of everything . I had 20 gallons of seed .I threw all around

[@thegrandlevel313]

Ok… all I care about is if it’s SAFE to eat

[@DaveSmith-pm2yq]

Try landrace. Look up Lofthouse gardening.

[@LucasBrook]

Excellent video! During your research for this did you come across the various sources that state some of the squash/pumpkin species can in fact cross pollinate? www.morningagclips.com/the-complicated-world-of-cross-pollination/ This article states (without references!) that: "Complicating things further, some of these 4 species can cross with other species within the Cucurbita genus. For instance, pepo can cross with argyrosperma and moschato, and moschato will cross with maxima." This obviously contradicts what most people say about cucurbita cross pollination. Considering how common hybrid speciation in plants actually is it's probably not a far-fetched claim. I'm thinking maybe it's a case of it being a rare enough occurrence that it's not a concern for the home gardener? There's also an interesting discussion on permies.com (permies.com/t/10230/Pumpkin-Squash-Interbreeding ) about this with someone stating they had a moschata pollinated by a pepo that produced fruit without seed. Would love to hear your thoughts!

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

As far as I know, you can force a hybrid between moschata and maxima and produce a sterile squash but it’s not that common. I’ve seen one paper on squash genetics about it. Apparently they’re sometimes called “Shinto”. There has been a lot of research trying to successfully create fertile offspring from moschata and maxima bc moschata is so much more resilient and resistant to pests. It hasn’t been successful. I even read one study while preparing for this video where somebody grafted maxima fruit onto Moschata vines in the hopes of thwarting Squash borers. Grafting winter squash is pretty hardcore for me, but I also don’t have borers here.