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Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

Has anyone tried crossing a green squash with an orange pumpkin? From some of the posts I have read, crosing unrelated lines can result in more "hybrid vigor" and better chances of a real giant. Green and orange would certainly be unrelated. Since our weighoff pays over $2000 for the biggest but only $100 for the prettiest, I'm mainly interested in getting something big. If I can get a seed from a 900+ squash and cross it with good orange genetics, what could I expect from the resulting seeds? Any opinions on this idea would be greatly appreciated.

12/4/2006 4:25:52 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

I've wondered about this as well.

12/4/2006 9:51:35 PM

Eugene,OR

Squash tend to be "heavier" than pumpkins, so it makes a lot of sense. A great example of a spumpkin that has produced very heavy offspring is the 1058 Houghton (which was the reverse cross of the once-world-record 1337 Houghton). The 1058 Houghton was almost green and orange striped. Some of its 1000+ lb offspring have been over 20% heavy.

12/4/2006 11:57:34 PM

Netherlands

I'm thinking about crossing a 1195 Van Kooten (842 Eaton x 960 Perras) with a 1063.5 MacKenzie* this year.

12/5/2006 3:09:00 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

More then likely the resulting seeds would be greenies!

12/5/2006 8:44:47 AM

Western NY

I'd be interested to know if the 745* Miller was ever grown. state record squash, and the pollinating plant was the 723 bobier.

12/5/2006 9:12:05 AM

western PA

I belive the green coloration in these pumpkins is a ressesive trait. That would mean that the offspring of an orange crossed with a greenie would be orange. Unless the orange had the ressesive allels for the green coloration and were not expressed in the coloration of the orange pumpkin.

12/5/2006 9:59:02 AM

Netherlands

I know Theo Kiewiet (from the Netherlands) grew his Dutch record squash this year off a true orange pumpkin. His squash was green from start to finish.
Quinn Werner's 1053* from this year is 848 MacKenzie* x 898 Knauss. That could be an interesting cross. Eddy (ice-man) crossed a 218 Andrews* with a 898 as well a year or two ago.
The famous 990 Hebb is also half squash, half pumpkin. It threw both pumpkins and squash.

12/5/2006 10:35:27 AM

Netherlands

I think the 848* MacKenzie would be a good seed to cross into a pumpkin. Remember the 848* has produced heavier progeny than say the 801.5 Stelts or 1230 Daletas.

12/5/2006 10:41:43 AM

Netherlands

The 1119.5 Razo 06 is the 1367.5 Rose x 848*. That should be interesting as well.

12/5/2006 10:43:55 AM

Western NY

the 770 rose was from the 801 stelts, pollinated with a 900* Lyons that threw green.

I grew the 770 this year and it was a nice pumpkin. I pollinated it with my 275* squash (which threw green). the 275* has an odd mix of all squash genetics.

12/5/2006 12:03:56 PM

Long Island,New York

Flip a coin...it could go either way. I don't subscribe to the punnet square/dominant-recessive views on green and orange. I don't think green is green...any more than orange is orange.Is peach orange? Is red-orange and shiney -orange? How bout salmon?...is that orange? Grey green blue and all sorts of shades have been put into one catagory...green. Geneticly I think the greens and greys are related but separate genes. We simplify the color issue with green vs orange then complicate it by making one OK in a pkn contest and one not(until recently). There's a whole lot more going on with colors than we can ever expect to figure out.

12/5/2006 5:15:58 PM

Utah

ditto to what glenn said.

Hester has done a fair amount of mixing "pumpkins" and "squash". A few other have too. There are seeds out there... who knows what they will produce.

12/5/2006 6:06:22 PM