Mixed-gender Zucchini Zucchino Rampicante Trombomcino - Male Fruits ?!?!?!?!?!

[Chuckers]

First time this year I'm growing Zucchino Rampicante aka Tromboncino squash and I am thoroughly confused at what I am discovering.

It appears that the stems that should normally be growing male flowers are growing squash as well, and some of the flowers on these "male" squashes have both male and female sex organs.

I just don't know what to say. I have seen some strange things in my years of gardening, but this? This has never happened on any other squash I have grown. This is new seed bought from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) this year.

These male squashes are not growing as the female, but then they should not be growing at all! I have yet to cut one up to see what they look like inside, but the skin is definitely not the same color/pattern as the female squashes. It appears that all males flowers that have developed so far have developed a squash behind them before the flower matures and blooms. Some of the male flowers only have the male sex organ while some have both male and female organs!

I'll just leave you with a few pictures as I have nothing more to say.

Discussion welcome.


Female squash:

Male squash with both male and female sex organs in the flower:

Male squash with only male sex organ in the flower:

More male squash:

 

[Chuckers]

So I harvested the large one today (9 oz. without the stem) and found that the small one that had only male sex organs in the flower fell off just as it should/would had it just been a male flower. I cut the small one open and it is in fact a Zucchino Rampicante with no seeds at all inside. I have not cut open the large one, will do that tomorrow. But the top is deformed and I can see what appears to be seeds growing on the outside of the deformed part. I expect to see seeds inside this large one when I cut it open tomorrow.

Here are some pics...

The inside is definitely Zucchino Rampicante meat (the top part without the seeds)...

The large one with flower petals removed. Very deformed on top and you can see the female (right) and male (left) sex organs still attached. I suspect that the deformed part is the bulbous seed part that would have grown had this grown normally on a female stem, with solely female sex organ in the flower, because as I said I see what appears to be seeds on the outside of this deformed part (sorry I didn't take a picture of that).

 

[Chuckers]

I sliced open the large one today and sure enough it's just a rampicante squash just as the small one and normal ones but without seeds. The top part that was deformed had a few seeds but not many.

Still...a very strange thing going on.

 

[Ezramoro]

Wow. Have you tried a google search to see if anyone has an answer for this?

 

[Chuckers]

Wow. Have you tried a google search to see if anyone has an answer for this?

Very briefly, but when I got results that I kinda figured I was going to get, I gave up...quickly. I figured a gardening forum was the best place t look for this type of info, but apparently this forum isn't used as much as I thought it might be. I guess everyone uses sites like Facebook groups and whatever these days, sad. I prefer private, niche forums.