Unidentified Growing Vegetables: Are Aliens Invading Your Garden?

As you harvest your vegetables have you noticed any UGV or unidentified growing Vegetables?

Does it look like aliens planted something to hatch in your garden? Maybe you’re wondering if your plants cross pollinated and you happen to get a Cucamelon or some sort of bizarre alien squash that was supposed to be a pumpkin but looks more like a Squashkin? Are you wondering if you planted your zucchini too close to your melons or your pumpkin too close to your cucumbers? Did you end up with squashkins? Will planting cucumbers next to watermelons yield cucamelons?

No, it’s not likely that aliens have invaded and are planting our gardens with their grotesque spawn. In reality cucumbers and melons are not likely to cross-pollinate one another, so the answer is probably no. Plants of different species usually do not cross-pollinate in nature. Cross-pollination does frequently take place among some of the winter squash, pumpkins and gourds that are closely related. You would not see it this year with your current crop. It may happen with the seed collected from this year’s crop planted and grown next year.

Let’s discuss a little botany to explain. The fruit of any plant is actually a mature ovary, botanically speaking. The seed inside is similar to a child while the fruit is comparable to the mother. The seed, or child, has characteristics of both mother and father. The fruit on the other hand will look like the mother plant. In other words, if cross-pollination did take place, the seed, not the fruit, would be the result of that cross. The seed is a hybrid of the mother and father plants.

The seed would have to be harvested, stored and planted the following year to determine if cross-pollination had an effect. Then, the resulting fruit on those plants might look like a combination of both parents. There are open pollinated varieties of vegetables that will always look like the parent plant. In my article Heirlooms vs Hybrid I go into more detail about the differences of open pollinated plants and hybrids.

If you do turn up some unexpectedly odd-looking fruits in your squash patch, it is possible that the seed packet contained a few seeds that were of questionable cross-bred parentage. It happens sometimes, but most likely it is more likely that a “volunteer” squash from last year’s garden is the culprit. Sometimes these can be from the neighbor’s garden that a bird or another animal has brought into your garden. They’re not aliens but just a natural crossbred vegetable. The real question is can you eat it? The short answer is yes most of the time there are edible, that is not the same as if it tastes good. Many times, the taste you want is not the taste you get. Other times hybrid has superior taste. It’s all a matter of how the genetics of the parent plants worked out. Sometimes these Squashkins make some of the best Jack-o-lanterns so there is some use for those. As far as the cucamelons go, most likely they are an interesting oddity in your garden, and you can enjoy showing them off to friends and family. If you do see little green men in your garden, make sure they aren’t local children playing tricks on you otherwise you may want to call the government as those might just be aliens

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