Squcumber
Teresa Sarsfield
Posts: 5
Hi there I have a mini cucumber plant which has produced quite well, however.. There are a couple of strange vines growing off of it and they are producing a dark green round squash of some description. Everywhere I've looked tells me that this does not/can not happen. Does anyone have experience of this?
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Posts
The seed you planted might have been "crossed", Teresa. Saved from a cross-pollinated fruit. I had a few of those last year with melon seeds.
Hi Italophile.... lost your contact details.... my cucumbers got lost under rampant courgettes and never saw the light of day.... shan't grow them there again .
Tomatoes especially the Soldaki are brilliant ! Am busy saving seed .Huge thanks for last years advice
I had no idea this could happen, it's fascinating
jo - I was wondering how you get on! Glad the toms worked for you. The Soldaki's a lovely tom, for sure.
Teresa - you're right, cukes and squash don't cross-pollinate. The interloper might only look like a squash. Those "celebrity-named" varieties are always hybrids. It could be just a gene pool glitch. Any chance of a photo?
Yes, it's the little Tree symbol in the options above the message box.
Hi Teresa, was it a grafted plant you bought? The rootstock will have been selected for vigour and the scion for its fruiting quality.
Some cucumbers are round and have names like 'apple' or 'sweet lemon' and will look like melons or possibly round squash. Your vines could be shoots from the rootstock.
Hi Teresa, how big are these 'squashes'. Cucumbers often produce male and female flowers although some are sold as 'female'. The little squashes could just be little round fruits growing behind male flowers and should be removed as they are inedible and bitter. Are they growing in a greenhouse or outside?
This one was large orange/small grapefruit sized. There are a few others growing, one of which is now larger than this.
They're growing outdoors at the allotment. I can't remember if the plant was grafted or not, but google suggests that the Jamie Oliver mini cucumber plants generally are?
When it started, I thought maybe an apple cucumber but it's way too dark and the inside just looks squashy..
Wow, that's weird! That definitely isn't like any cucumber I've ever seen. Maybe if its a grafted plant it's come from the rootstock as suggested by others.