The Case of the Mysterious Pumpkin
A squash plant germinated in our front flowerbed this May. I’m not sure how it arrived, but I welcomed it to the garden. I placed a little plastic cloche over the seedling to protect it from our chilly late spring weather and drizzled a cup of diluted fish emulsion around its base. A few weeks later I jetted off to Cuba forgot all about the mystery growing right outside my door.
Fast forward to August. I returned home and discovered our little squash had grown into a full-fledged pumpkin plant. I noticed a few of the fruit were shriveled on the vine—victims of poor pollination. So I taught Jon how to self- pollinate and he made like a bumblebee, rubbing the pollen from the male flower into the center of the female blossoms.
Last week I cut four basketball-sized pumpkins from the vine and arranged them on our front porch with some overgrown ‘Eight Ball’ zucchini and a couple other squash I had growing around the garden. I’m still not sure what variety the pumpkin is, but that’s okay. Sometimes a little mystery is good in life.
Wowowow, I had no idea you could self pollinate a pumpkin plant. My sorry pumpkin plant was the victim of poor pollination. Next year, I will take your advice. Thanks!
September 29th, 2009 at 6:11 pmI have no clue what your mystery pumpkin is but it does make me want to ask a question from my own garden I posted today… I have one sugar Pie Pumpkin that is partially orange and with the first frosts expected later this week I worry it won’t ripen before then. Can I ripen a pumpkin off the vine or will it survive a light frost?
You have beautiful volunteers in your garden!
September 29th, 2009 at 7:33 pmHow can you tell a male from a female? I had a volunteer squash that blossomed but never made fruit. Could I have intervened and made some squash?
September 29th, 2009 at 8:58 pmWe discovered this year, because we kept lots of volunteer squash plants from the compost, that squash apparently rarely breeds true – the volunteer seeds, even though they came from “pure” fruit, were already hybrids. After hopefully cutting open a few kubocha/zucchini Frankenstein fruit, I would definitely say that some are more successful than others!
They look beautiful, though!
September 30th, 2009 at 5:22 amNice. I had several mystery curcurbits come up from vermicompost I applied to seedlings. For fun, I grew a few on. One produced a couple of small fruits; I thought they were tiny delicata squash, but they turned out to be a couple of delicious melons. Another produced a honeydew. Both plants were blessings as I hadn’t intentionally planted either of these types elsewhere in the garden. I’m seriously considering taking a large pile of vermicompost out next year, depositing it in an otherwise rarely veggie-planted portion of our parking strip and just letting it be. Maybe I’ll get luck with some pumpkins like yours next year! Cheers to the good gardening surprises
September 30th, 2009 at 8:07 amI have a mystery pepper this year. I bought the plant from the Farmers Market thinking it was a jalapeño. When it started producing 6 inch long bumpy peppers that quickly turned red, I knew it was something else. I haven’t seen the person who sold it to me again to ask her what variety they are but the plant was the best producer out of all my peppers and they taste great (much milder than jalapeños.) I’m very happy I didn’t get what I asked for.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:33 pmLooks like you are all set for a pumpkin/squash carving party, just in time for Halloween!
September 30th, 2009 at 8:34 pmI adore volunteers! And pumpkins! Your porch looks fantastic.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:09 amNicole and Sunshine + Design–Hand pollination is super easy and a great way to ensure that you get a full crop of whatever squash (or cucumber, or melon) you are trying to grow. Here’s a link to a step-by-step article I wrote on the subject:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4468625_hand-pollinate-squash.html
Jaspenelle–In my experience pumpkins don’t ripen very well off the vine (though I usually leave mine outdoors, inside they might fare better). I would definitely harvest before frost though as exposure to a hard frost will hasten rotting.
Severn Clay–You’re right. Squash are super susceptible to being cross-pollinated with pollen from another variety by a pollinator. To ensure that the seed becomes true you have to hand pollinate and then tie the flower shut with a rubber band so a bee doesn’t deliver squash from a different variety.
Garden Mentor–How cool you got volunteer melons! And they ripened! That is truly a nice surprise.
Amber–The same thing happened to me only with a tomato. One of my tomatoes was supposed to be ‘White Currant’ but instead it is a ping pong sized red and yellow striped tomato. Very tasty, so I didn’t mind either. I’d be curious to find out what the variety of your pepper is if you ever track down the person you bought it from.
Rebecca–Yup! All set for the annual pumpkin carving party. Though we are considering buying a couple of big Jack O’Lanterns.
Aimee–Thanks for the complement. I think the porch looks pretty cute, too. Soon I’m going to cut down my corn stalks and add them to the decor!
October 1st, 2009 at 11:19 amI love that those pumpkins simply turned up at your place…they have good instincts!
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:04 amSweet. Love the squash on the steps. Very homey. Aren’t mysteries in the garden grand?~~Dee
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 amOh, how I covet your porch with all those wonderful pumpkins. I ended up with a measly two sugar pumpkins and one lonely gourd… I should have hand pollinated! Duh! Thank you!
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:41 amThat was one SMART pumpkin vine! it knew exactly where to go to find a wonderful home – someone who would lovingly cover it with a cloche and hand pollinate and care for it until it gave you it’s bounty!
October 6th, 2009 at 9:22 pmIf I were a pumpkin seed, I’d scoot myself to your place somehow and throw myself into a pile of compost. I know what’s good in this world!
I love the color on your porch! What a great time of year… sweaters and cider, pumpkin seeds and roasted root vegetables. M’mmmm….
October 12th, 2009 at 2:05 pm