volunteer squash surprise

[rxkeith]

the squash part of the garden after a really slow start have started to grow. one day after a warm and wet spell, i noticed squash coming up in
several spots at one end of the garden. i suspected most would be summer squash because that area last year is where i had the scallop, striata di italia, and another summer squash or two. some mature squash were left out over winter, and some seeds managed to survive. what i have picked so far is a scallop squash that looks like the real mccoy. another pear shaped squash that is white in color, and a third type that looks like a white acorn squash. all are bush type. i haven't tried the acorn looking squash yet. it is either a hybrid of the scallop or possibly a cross between thelma sanders, and scarchuks supreme. i am letting one of them mature in case its a winter squash. the plant sure looks like a summer squash though.
so we steamed the scallop, and the pear shaped squash, and they were very good, flavorful, and tender.
there are also some vining squash volunteers that are starting to run all over the place. they are looking like a small round dark green type that had silver lines on it. the original squash was obtained from a local market farmer. he got the seeds from baker creek. i keep growing out that one from saved seeds each year. it is a good eater. single serving size, so eat two!
i'll see what else develops out there, and what may be worth growing out in the future. you never know what you will get volunteer squash.


keith

[karstopography]

https://www.simplemost.com/toxic-squash-syndrome-facts/

Just be aware of Toxic Squash Syndrome. Can happen with unintentional crosses.

I knew of a couple this happened to. They were violently ill from a few bites of a zucchini cross.

[rxkeith]

still here, and feeling fine.
no bitterness with the crosses, but will keep an eye out.
i think i would be pulling anything that tasted bitter. no sense in something taking up garden space
that you don't want to eat.


keith

[karstopography]

@rxkeith true, but the couple that I know well that ate the zucchini cross didn’t detect the bitterness in taste of the cross. They actually attributed the illness to some other cause, but then had the zucchini once more and again became very ill.

Saved zucchini seed in a Massachusetts garden, this is where this happened.

[brownrexx]

That's interesting @karstopography . I had never heard of that before.

I quit letting volunteer squash grow but for a different reason. 4 years ago I had a lot of squash pop up on the compost pile and I let them grow just to see what they would become. I didn't pay much attention to them and they became a mass of vines covering the compost pile.

What I didn't notice was that the vines became infested with squash bugs and since I was not bothering with them the bugs got really out of hand and they moved into and destroyed my butternut squash which was growing nearby.

Now I rip out wayward squash vines.

[rxkeith]

it looks like toxic squash syndrome is more of a problem where there are wild cucurbits, gourds, or ornamental pumpkins growing.
you aren't going to find wild cucumbers or squash growing in da U.P. no one near me is growing gourds or ornamental pumpkins.
i think i am pretty safe eating any squash hybrids coming out of the garden. how can something good to eat pollinated by something
else good to eat give you something toxic? i'm not following the logic here. i can understand a hybrid that just doesn't taste good, but toxic?

i guess one advantage of living where i do is i have never had a problem with squash vine borers.



keith

[karstopography]

https://www.times-gazette.com/story/lif ... 112782314/

This gardener in Ohio got a toxic cross from saved seeds of various ordinary squashes and he wasn’t growing gourds or anything like that. He did detect the bitterness, though and didn’t eat the toxic cross.

Man in Germany died from toxic squash syndrome. Shouldn’t be any wild squash over there, but maybe he grew gourds or something nearby.

Sounds like it is rare in any event, just a heads up awareness thing in case some random cross seems a little off on flavor or bitter. May be toxic squash syndrome is one of these things that happens more than realized and chalked up to some other causation, stomach bug, something they ate someplace else, something else went bad, etc.

I mean, who would think it is even possible, random cross of two good squash or one good and one bad and get something really bad?

[JRinPA]

Seems to me I read eggplant crosses could be toxic as well? Read it here or on the tville?

I'd say that squash looks good but, man, no pic?


re: toxic squash syndrome, I don't doubt it is possible, but it's hard to take a website like that serious when they put click-bait hyperlinks for "become violently ill" which resolves to child abuse/salt poisoning or "hair loss" and it resolves to an am@zn link for messy bun fake hair.

[rxkeith]

we ate some of the acorn looking squash yesterday along with some of the other hybrids, and it was good too.
i might be saving seed for this one. it is productive, and has eye appeal. right now, the hybrids are the only ones
producing of the summer squash. i had planted striata di italia, woods early, and golden zucchini. they may not have
survived. at any rate, we have squash, just not anything that looks like something you will find in the grocery store.


keith

[Tormahto]

Keith,

If you possibly have a cross with Scarchuk's, perhaps you should check on the plant's vine thickness later on.

[rxkeith]

picked six of the white pear shaped mutant. two more smaller ones on there plus a
big fat one i shoulda picked a couple days ago. i might save that one for seed. the plant
sure is pumping them out. i cooked a potful of scallop, and another mutant that is top shaped
with ridges at top, and tapering to a something of a point. both are good eating.


keith