As those who know me would probably already know, I am always looking for new information and research in the area of cucumber-melons. Of particular interest to me was an article about the crossing of a Mediterranean snake melon with an Indian hermaphrodite melon. The article is entitled, “Impact of Breeding Hermaphroditic Melon on Early Production and Yield: Case of Snake Melon (Cucumismelo var. flexuosus) and Tibish (C. melo var. tibish)” Though I know this is not the most thrilling thing to all of you, I found it pretty interesting and wondered what it would be like to grow some hermaphrodite carosello fruit. Shortly thereafter, I discovered some strange-looking female flowers growing on one of my Spuredda Tarantino. Could it be? If not a hermaphrodite flower, it is at least a complete or perfect flower (having both male and female parts on the same flower). I was able to self-pollinate each flower, which would lead me to believe that it was capable of self-pollinating if there was ample wind, but I’m not sure if they would have self-pollinated in a greenhouse (without insect pollinators).
Despite growing the fruit out and collecting the seed, I’m not exactly sure what to do with the seed now. I’m at a point of thinking “Now what?” Will another generation of this seed produce weird-looking fruit or will it produce something that looks different from the parent fruit? I’m not exactly sure. If someone more knowledgeable than myself knows, please leave a comment below.
Along with the hermaphrodite flowers there were a couple of double flowers. I find it interesting that both the hermaphrodite and double flowers appeared around the same time, early in the season – though not on the same plant. I knew that the double flower may have aborted or not grown fully, so instead of chancing something it, I intervened and pulled it early. Though still – double flowers are kind of interesting to see.
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| A "perfect" melon flower with both male and female parts. |
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| The first time I identified the strange female melon flowers |
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| A closeup of the half-female flowers |
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| The female flower getting ready to set fruit |
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| The perfect melon flower with both anthers and stigma |
Despite growing the fruit out and collecting the seed, I’m not exactly sure what to do with the seed now. I’m at a point of thinking “Now what?” Will another generation of this seed produce weird-looking fruit or will it produce something that looks different from the parent fruit? I’m not exactly sure. If someone more knowledgeable than myself knows, please leave a comment below.
Along with the hermaphrodite flowers there were a couple of double flowers. I find it interesting that both the hermaphrodite and double flowers appeared around the same time, early in the season – though not on the same plant. I knew that the double flower may have aborted or not grown fully, so instead of chancing something it, I intervened and pulled it early. Though still – double flowers are kind of interesting to see.
I'm sorry, I'm not more knowledgeable, but I was curious if you ever tried to grow any seeds from these. I was in my garden today and discovered a honeynut butternut squash flower with both male and female organs. And instead of a mini butternut shaped squash at the base of the flower, there is a sphere. The flower just opened today, so I don't know if it will grow, but it looks to be well pollinated. I was looking up whatever I could find about it, and came across your blog. I saw that this was back in 2020, and wondered if you were able to get viable seeds from yours.
ReplyDeleteHey there Den Vita. Thank you so much for your question. I did not get a chance to grow the seed, as I decided that I was no longer interested in growing out this specific type of carosello cucumber variety. However, I have noticed that some of my other cucumber varieties have done similar things before. This may be a natural way for the plant to be able to keep up genetics even if the female flowers are not able to pollinate properly. I have heard that these mutations occur from time to time, though I am not exactly sure why.
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