ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I know there are some very knowledgeable gardeners out there, so thought I'd try this post here, rather than some garden forum.
I don't garden much any more, tired of fighting deer, bunny and bugs. But this year I did plant things more for ornamental purposes. Put in a bunch of gourd seeds from five of the ones DW bought/saved for fall decos last year. Even though some seem a little rotted, almost all the seeds sprouted and I had to thin down to a few plants of each.
For 'fun', I also planted some cantaloupe seeds from a packet. These also sprouted and grew well.
The vines grew so strong (we've had a lot of rain), they are all intertwined. I see quite a few gourds of different shapes/colors, so that looks good. Some might be from the other gourds we composted, can't tell now. I also saw some big green globes, that are now clearly small pumpkins - these are probably from composting the remains of sugar pumpkins we used for pies.
But I don't see any cantaloupes.
My Question: Would the cantaloupes have cross-pollinated with gourds/pumpkins such that I can't tell them from the others?
I'm kind of surprised to see all the variation in the gourds, I thought those would cross into 'mutts'. And the sugar pumpkins may not be 'true' to the parent, but we will probably just use them for decos.
I also have saved seed from some decorative 'broom corn' (or milo, sorghum?) that DW purchased. That is also doing well. Plus a few sweet pepper and hot pepper seeds from a packet - I planted those direct to soil, and rather late in the year. Plants are small and just forming fruit now, so I may not get anything. Also some small tomatoes from compost - I might get a couple to ripen, but those are wimpy little things. Oh, and I had some green onions going bad in the fridge, I planted those, so am getting some onions too. All very simple stuff.
But the garden looks nice with all those big squash-type leaves and blossoms, and the broom corn. Good output for very little work - leaves are so thick I've done no weeding.
-ERD50
I don't garden much any more, tired of fighting deer, bunny and bugs. But this year I did plant things more for ornamental purposes. Put in a bunch of gourd seeds from five of the ones DW bought/saved for fall decos last year. Even though some seem a little rotted, almost all the seeds sprouted and I had to thin down to a few plants of each.
For 'fun', I also planted some cantaloupe seeds from a packet. These also sprouted and grew well.
The vines grew so strong (we've had a lot of rain), they are all intertwined. I see quite a few gourds of different shapes/colors, so that looks good. Some might be from the other gourds we composted, can't tell now. I also saw some big green globes, that are now clearly small pumpkins - these are probably from composting the remains of sugar pumpkins we used for pies.
But I don't see any cantaloupes.
My Question: Would the cantaloupes have cross-pollinated with gourds/pumpkins such that I can't tell them from the others?
I'm kind of surprised to see all the variation in the gourds, I thought those would cross into 'mutts'. And the sugar pumpkins may not be 'true' to the parent, but we will probably just use them for decos.
I also have saved seed from some decorative 'broom corn' (or milo, sorghum?) that DW purchased. That is also doing well. Plus a few sweet pepper and hot pepper seeds from a packet - I planted those direct to soil, and rather late in the year. Plants are small and just forming fruit now, so I may not get anything. Also some small tomatoes from compost - I might get a couple to ripen, but those are wimpy little things. Oh, and I had some green onions going bad in the fridge, I planted those, so am getting some onions too. All very simple stuff.
But the garden looks nice with all those big squash-type leaves and blossoms, and the broom corn. Good output for very little work - leaves are so thick I've done no weeding.
-ERD50