FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Not related to CP's or orchids, but hopefully someone in here knows the answer.
This year I really want to grow birdhouse gourds, cantaloupes, and sugar pumpkins, but only have enough room to grow the three extremely close together. I know the cantaloupes won't breed with the gourds, but what I can't find out is if pumpkins and gourds can inter-breed??
This normally wouldn't matter since hybrid fruits only show up the next year, but I intend on saving seed, which is why this is a problem.

Short answer-- What you have there will not interbreed. Gourds and pumpkin interbreeding is slightly complicated, due to more general use of the word "gourd". Many "ornamental gourds" are actually more like squash, and so can interbreed with pumpkins.

This is the most helpful I've seen on this topic.

Remember-- if the first word in the Latin name is the same, then they can interbreed. Miniature Ornamental gourds are Cucurbita Pepo, while sugar pumkins are ALSO Cucurbita Pepo. Birdhouse gourds, however, are Lagenaria Siceraria. So if you were growing ornamental "gourds", they would interbreed. But since you are growing birdhouse "gourds", they won't.

Sorry for the confusion. This is one annoying taxonomical issue. Why in the world we call the little things that look like colorful mutated pumpkins "gourds" I have not a clue.

You will have to mesh in the blossoms and pollinate by hand if you want to save seed.

the bees will do it for you lol. 2 years in a row now we've had pumpkin x spaghetti squash, spaghetti squash x Italian squash, and even an acorn squash x pumpkin last year lol. was pretty cool to see the hybrids, and they grew the crop year that they were crossed in. the largest squash x pumpkin hybrid we got out of the garden last year weighed in at 8lbs! it was cool to cut them open and see the not-so-typical flesh on the inside for the species lol (i.e. the squash pumpkin hybrid was the shape of a spaghetti squash, had the mottled rind color of a young pumpkin, but the flesh tasted/looked like pumpkin but shredded like a spaghetti squash lol)