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Can anybody identify this plant that came up in my row of cucumbers??
I've had people tell me it was a pumpkin, a gourd, and a lemon cucumber. I thought it might have been a lemon cucumber when I first looked at some other pictures of them, but I don't really think thats what it is now.
They remind me of those little pumpkin lookin' things you decorate with at fall.
I really hope somebody can help me because I don't know when to pick them or how to fix them or even if they're edible!
Some of the lemon cucumber pictures I saw on google look like this, but a lot of them are lighter yellow and have little dot lookin' things on them. I also read where you're supposed to harvest lemon cucumbers way before they turn orange, and if I harvested these before they turned orange, they would be about the size of a cherry tomato! They don't really turn yellow, they basically go from green to orange with white stripes!
it looks a lot like these
http://www.seedquest.com/veget…..pkemon.htm
I don't know how others think, but unless I'm absolutely sure that I know what I'm about to eat…I won't eat it
Whatever it is though….at least you have some nice fall ornaments there ;-)
7:47 pm
October 18, 2010
OfflineIt looks like a gourd to me. They come in all different kinds of shapes and sizes. Maybe a gourd seed got mixed in with your cucumber seeds? Or maybe it hopped in your garden from another place (did you have gourds planted last year, or in your compost?)
9:38 pm
November 15, 2010
OfflineI'm beginning to think they look a lot like the plum grannies! Although the plum grannies look a bit more round than mine. Mine resemble the shape of a pumpkin. Does that matter? I got the cucumber seeds from my father in law, I believe he saved them from the year before. I've never planted any kind of melon or pumpkin in my garden and we use chicken litter from our chicken houses to fertilize, so maybe the seed snuck in the cucumber seeds.
9:22 am
August 6, 2010
OfflineCould be a hybrid–maybe one of his cuke flowers was pollinated by a bee carrying pollen from another type of melon. They are more than likely edible, but may not taste very good. At least they are pretty!
If they are plum grannies, you will be able to smell them!
12:19 pm
February 10, 2009
OfflineCucumbers and melons (or gourds/pumpkins/squash) are a totally different species, so no, they can't cross outside of a laboratory with people who can splice genes. (This HAS been done in labs between cukes and melons by the way, but highly unlikely in a garden)
Cucumbers of different varieties can cross though, or a bird or animal may have carried some gourd or squash seed to your garden, or some cucumber that found it's way into your compost was an odd variety or was the product of some cross from two different cucumbers that you bought or got from a friend.
Those crosses don't show up until the year after the fruit sets, the fruit itself looks perfectly normal.
Squash, gourds and pumpkins are all in the squash species, and so can interbreed and produce seeds so the next generation can be a cross between a yellow crookneck and a pattypan and such. At least the crosses are usually within the summer or winter types due to the blossoms being ready to fertilize at the same times… usually. (yeah, I know) They are not related closely enough with cucumbers or melons to cross naturally with them though.
Some people think that a crop of melons that just don't taste good must have crossed with something odd, but usually it's from crummy weather, or soil problems. Cukes are very sensitive to water issues too.
I wouldn't be afraid to taste something like that that showed up in my garden, things they may have crossed with are just not likely to be a problem.
To add to BuckeyeGirl's post, it could be a "sport", a natural mutation that didn't necessarily cross with anything. I've seen that many times in planting heirlooms or open-pollinated seed. To me it does look like plum grannies but then you'd know by the smell. I'd definitely not be afraid to try it, and also to save some seed!
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