Muskmelon? or what?

brown40 · Jul 10, 2015

I tried the same thing with pumpkin seeds 5 or so years ago and got a bunch of strange mutants where the pumpkin crossed with neighbors. They were interesting to see; all from the same pumpkin but different crosses. They didn't taste good or hold up after harvest for long. There were at least blue hubbard and white scallop genes that were showing traits. Should have taken pictures.

randy41 · Jul 10, 2015

cross pollination affects the seeds produced by the fruit, not the fruit itself.

2LaneCruzer · Jul 10, 2015

Correct...but the affected seeds will produce the mutant fruit the next generation.

2LaneCruzer · Jul 10, 2015

Deere Dude said:
The problem with that is we never saw those kinds of plants before, or even close to that and now we got three nice healthy plants with some odd thing growing. We will see after a month or so when I cut one open.

I suspect that the salvaged seeds were NOT the source of the mystery plant, if they were recovered from Cantaloupe or Muskmelons. Perhaps your friendly neighborhood Mockingbird deposited those seeds, or they made their way into the garden through some mulch or some compost. My first thought was that they could have been mixed in when the seed producer packaged the seeds, but apparently not. I know one thing, my compost contains everything from Cantaloupe seeds to Babyback rib bones to the most horrific array of weed seeds you can imagine.