Speaking of squashes . . .

[rainarana]

Has anyone ever had a green striped spaghetti squash develop along with normal yellow ones?  My plant took off over the fence when I was out of town for a few days and this morning, when I was on that side to sling the fruit I noticed one for the first time that was green.  Looked like a gigantic zucchini but I have no zucchini growing there.  I do

Comments

[virginiadear]

" Is this just some kind of mutation or throwback? Part of the plant not growing true to the hybrid?"

I'm going with "Yes," on this. A few years ago, I had one---just one---Roma tomato come in striped orange and yellow with some slight ridging. A gardening "guru" in my neighborhood looked askance at it and declared, "I wouldn't eat that. In fact, with that growing on it I wouldn't eat anything at all from that plant."
On that person's say-so I didn't use that tomato for anything, but y'know, I bet it was just fine. I've seen "Striped Roman" tomatoes since then which look exactly like that odd-ball tomato and mutation/genes/anomalies make sense to me.

[rainarana]

Yeah, I totally would have tasted the tomato as well. I have green zebra heirloom tomatoes growing in my garden this year, so striped is not unheard of in tomatoes. The cultivar you had was probably created using on of the striped varieties.

[yesididit]

possibly cross pollinating with something else in the squash family. one year i got two yellow zucchini that were fine. they tasted like zucchini, werent rotten or soft or anything. just yellow instead of green.

[rainarana]

I was wondering if it was possible to have been cross pollinated. There is watermelon and cucumber growing right next to it. In one of the discussions I read (briefly so not sure if I'm getting this right) someone said that it wouldn't happen from pollination during the fruiting, but rather when the seeds for this plant were formed. No idea if that's true and I'm not that familiar with pollinating plants, but interesting. Oh, here's a picture of what it looks like.

[rymrytr]

Sometimes "nature" does create hybrids. There is an apple that is now in full development for growing in Orchards... can't recall the name, but the "Farmer" found it growing from an old fence post (made of apple wood) and called the extension agent.

It's a rare thing, but sometimes, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

PS. I would have tasted the tomato!!! :o)

[virginiadear]

*nod, nod*

Today, I would, too.

[rainarana]

Yeah, me too! I totally plan on eating it. I'm thinking it's probably a throwback to some plant it was created from.