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Earlier this year I had a spaghetti squash that was sprouting internally, so I cut it up and planted the pieces. Now the plants are big and healthy and squash are growing! The confusing thing is that the two plants appear to be growing different types of squash. I thought we only planted the spaghetti squash pieces and some cucumber seeds, though my husband says it's possible there were some other squash seeds in the mix.

  1. Can anyone identify these two types of squash? They are still unripe, so the colors will change more.
  2. Is it possible to have two different varieties of seeds from the same squash?

Green and orange squash

White squash

Here's the original squash: Original source of seeds

Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
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David K
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If the seeds both came from the same squash, as stated: You (or your squash vendor) have potentially created two new hybrids, based on whatever male squash flower pollen various bees delivered to the female squash flower in pollinating it.

It's also possible that the small white round squash becomes the larger green and yellow squash later, if you didn't see it at the same size being green. But it's quite possible to produce different hybrid squash from a single fruit.

As for what they are, probably something new, often similar to the parents. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good, and utterly irreproducible (other than by cell culturing the plant) if one happens to turn out to be great, if you don't know the parentage.

Many a fine squash and/or pumpkin has sprouted from an insufficiently hot compost pile (not hot enough where the seed was to kill it) and happily grown there. They, too, are generally "wild hybrids."

Ecnerwal
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  • The green ones definitely were never white, but fascinating that these are probably hybrids! – David K Jul 25 '22 at 14:20
  • If they're hybrids, they'd be F2 hybrids (rather than a cross from David K's garden), since they're different from both the parent and each other, by the look of it. What variety of Spaghetti squash was it? Was it Trivoli F1, by chance? F1 hybrids would be different from the parent, but the same as each other. Of course, they could be both F2 hybrids and an F1 cross from David K's garden. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Jul 25 '22 at 22:15
  • @Brōtsyorfuzthrāx The original squash was given to us by a friend who got it from a farm share, so I'm not sure of the variety. Based on pictures it looks similar to a Primavera. – David K Jul 26 '22 at 12:00
  • @DavidK Do you mean you have pictures of the original? – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Jul 27 '22 at 10:36
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    @Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Yes, though not a good view of the outside. I added the photo to my post. – David K Jul 27 '22 at 11:45
  • @DavidK Thanks. Hmm, the original looks a lot rounder than a Primavera, or any other kind of Spaghetti-type squash I've seen. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Jul 28 '22 at 01:03