You Can Plant Cucumbers Next to Pumpkins

The old adage “don’t plant your cucumbers next to your pumpkins” is not true.  You can plant pumpkins next to other squash, melons and cucumbers.

When we purchase and plant a seed of one of these tasty vegetables; that seed grows into fruit we desire. If the bees carry pollen from one plant to another, cross-pollination can occur. This affects the seeds, not the fruit you’ll eat.

If you save the seed from these plants and use them in next year’s garden, you may be in for a surprise. The offspring might be a yellow and green acorn squash, yellow spotted zucchini or pumpkin with green warts.

And even if you didn’t save and plant seeds, you may find a few surprises in the compost pile or garden. Cross-pollinated fruit added to the compost pile or allowed to decompose in the garden leaves a few cross-pollinated seeds behind.

A bit more information: Cross pollination occurs within close members of this family. The female flower of the plant will only accept pollen from closely-related members. So a squash and cucumber cannot cross pollinate. But an acorn squash can cross with the more closely related zucchini or gourd.

Tags

squash pumpkin cucumber melon summer-squash winter-squash

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