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AR15.COM
6/24/2010 9:32:55 AM EDT
i have a deacon that swears to me that my fruit will taste like the other (pumpkin taste like WM and visa versa) if I grow them in the same garden and even if  the vines don't touch they will cross pollinate (of sorts) due to the bees...

I have never heard this, this is my first year with both, and I can't find anything on line....is this something he picked up at the gun counter or what?


Thanks
6/24/2010 9:53:05 AM EDT
[#1]
I have never heard of anything like that before.

That reminds me of a episode of The Simpsons where they grew a field of tomatoes next to a field of tobacco, and ended up with "tomacco"
6/24/2010 10:49:41 AM EDT
[#2]
Some species will form hybrids.   A good example are squashes.  For hybrids to form the plants have to be closely related genetically.  Not sure about pumpkins and watermelons.  To far north to grow watermelons.
6/24/2010 11:06:51 AM EDT
[#3]
Quoted:
i have a deacon that swears to me that my fruit will taste like the other (pumpkin taste like WM and visa versa) if I grow them in the same garden and even if  the vines don't touch they will cross pollinate (of sorts) due to the bees...

I have never heard this, this is my first year with both, and I can't find anything on line....is this something he picked up at the gun counter or what?


Thanks


He speaks the truth.  I got some abominations 2 years back.  Not sure of the exact science, but this can happen I believe .


Edited to Add :Can not find anything concrete on the interwebz, but from personal experience I got some watermelons with weird rind and bitter flesh.  The pumpkins came fairly normal, so I guess all in all, it might have been a bad batch of watermelon seeds.
6/24/2010 11:10:48 AM EDT
[#4]
Is the deacon, by chance, color blind?  
6/24/2010 12:59:53 PM EDT
[#5]
He's wrong, first off the pollen is probably incompatible between the species, second the type of pollen doesn't change the fruit but the seeds my end up as hybrids.
6/24/2010 9:23:46 PM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
He's wrong, first off the pollen is probably incompatible between the species, second the type of pollen doesn't change the fruit but the seeds my end up as hybrids.


This.

More or less, it wouldn't affect anything unless seed was saved and planted the next year...and that's assuming cross pollination could occur.