Weird "squash"

[blurose]

I have found a couple of these things on my crook-necked squash plants. They are so much darker than the normal squashes and never get bigger than 3". Can anybody tell me why the plant produces them?

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Where did you get your seeds? Or did you buy starts? I don't know for sure, but I'll guess that either the seeds were not completely true or there was a mutation . . . .

 

[tiffanyh]

Are your squash planted by pumkins or zucchini??? Cross pollination?

 

[DrakeMaiden]

That was my thought, but cross-pollination only shows up in the next generation . . . so the seeds would have had to have been from squash grown the previous year next to other types of squash.

 

[tiffanyh]

got it..........

 

[blurose]

I got them as starts from a local nursery here. These squash "nubbins", as I call them, look more like gourds with warts than squashes, although I know they are related.