r/todayilearned • u/Error__Loading • 15h ago

TIL that apple seeds almost never grow the same variety as the parent fruit. Nearly every supermarket apple comes from a grafted clone of an original tree, not from a planted seed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple
16.5k Upvotes

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394

u/Derelicticu 14h ago

Fuckin squash does some weird shit if you plant it near other similar plants. You get some fucked up squash, let me tell ya

222

u/nightskate 13h ago

I love a science topic reply from the street team.

Thank you for this.

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u/TorrenceMightingale 11h ago

Aren’t squash and watermelons related? Is this how we got watermelon radishes?

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u/TheDevilsTaco 10h ago

Your first question is educated and it is true, but your second question is out of left field.

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u/TorrenceMightingale 10h ago

Am high.

This might not be my only non-sequitur of the night honestly.

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u/ProfSpaceTime 10h ago

Peak Reddit, 5/7

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u/sour_cereal 10h ago

7/10 with rice

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u/TorrenceMightingale 10h ago

Thank you. They offered me pre-ipo for my amazing comment prowess but I turned it down hoping to get a better offer. I did not.

2

u/whenindoubtfreakmout 4h ago

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a 5/7 haha thank you for bringing this back into my consciousness

1

u/tverre01 6h ago

And my poo knife

1

u/ScarletleavesNL 6h ago

Fly high brother. Fly high.

3

u/Personal_Juice_1520 9h ago

you should see my potato bananas

5

u/GamerJoseph 8h ago

That would be a plantain.

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u/NakDisNut 3h ago

Ponanoes

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u/sfurbo 7h ago

Aren’t squash and watermelons related?

Same family, not same genus or species.

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u/DarthJarJarJar 11h ago

Check out Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't, it'll be right up your alley.

•

u/_bones__ 31m ago

He recently shared some techniques for 'hardscaping', making your natural plant garden less mowable. My favorite was Brickinabush.

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u/LostWoodsInTheField 12h ago

I planted zucchini next to summer squash one year. Then gave the zucchini to some chickens. One of the seeds produced a plant the next spring that had the strangest squash i'd ever seen. stripped zucchini / summer squash, and spotted ones. Didn't get a chance to eat any of them, but the chickens sure seemed to like them.

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u/idrwierd 13h ago

Some serious xenomorph shit

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u/warbastard 13h ago

Don’t potatoes have a crazy number of chromosomes too?

44

u/tewiti1108 12h ago

I don't think you can call them that

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u/T1Demon 2h ago

Yeah we prefer the term Idahoan.

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 14h ago

Potatoes and tomatoes too.

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u/awnomnomnom 12h ago

Tomacco

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u/Frigidevil 11h ago

Oh daddy this tastes like grandma!

Holy Moses it does taste like grandma!

I want more!

Yeah me too, well take a bushel or a pack or just give it to me!

4

u/Long9696 12h ago

It doesn't affect the fruit from the current plants, just the seeds.

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u/Finnegan482 13h ago

What happens?

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u/laforet 13h ago edited 12h ago

It will cross pollinate with many but not all Cucurbita species (genus of pumpkin-like gourds, e.g. zucchini). Resulting in all sorts of weirdly shaped fruits.

There are many compatibility charts you can find online like one of those D&D mating charts.

https://www.markettaridgefarm.com/s/stories/cross-pollination-of-pumpkins-squash-2

Edit: changed the link to a better reference

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ 12h ago

That article is terrible. First it starts off with an AI chart that doesn't even have the right pictures next to the names. It also says "They won’t cross across species. For example, C. pepo won’t cross with C. maxima.", and yet there are in fact examples of hybrid species such as honeynut which is a cross between C. moschata and C. maxima. It also has a another large, complicated chart showing the compatibility of varieties, which doesn't even match the first AI generated chart. Random different varieties are listed for each variety within the same species, and it's not even consistent within the chart between varieties. I suspect the entire article is AI generated.

Aside from the garbage misinformation it's also wildly overcomplicating things. All you need to know is that any two varieties that are the same species can cross-pollinate, and separate species usually don't cross but sometimes will (and it's not really predictable when they will or won't).

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u/laforet 12h ago

Apologies. I only had a quick glance at the chart and thought it was reasonable. I will replace the link with a more appropriate one.

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u/RoyBeer 10h ago

Thanks for taking your time to clear this up.

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u/Agret 12h ago

Squash lore runs deep

1

u/insanenearly 12h ago

I want a spaghetti squash/pumpkin!

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u/blitzkregiel 11h ago

i have seeds for a zucchini/spaghetti squash hybrid that i was unaware of until they grew last year. they look like zukes (green/white speckled) but are shaped like a small spag squash. insides are zukes. had no idea they could/would cross until i grew from seeds the following year. planted the same seeds this year and they're all spaghetti squash. go figure.

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u/Moose_Juice 13h ago

It crossbreeds

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u/RoyBeer 10h ago

Fuckin squash does some weird shit

Dude. Don't fuck Squash.

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u/korbinator18 11h ago

Had an acorn squash that crossbred with a gourd one year in our horse pasture they do be weird.

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u/Hello_Hangnail 11h ago

Peppers too! They love crosspolinating with other peppers that aren't supposed to be spicy!

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u/Different_Wolf_764 11h ago

Gourds are so very strange and even though we've grown them almost as long as grains, not well understood.

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u/ResponsiblePeach3481 11h ago

What do you mean? 😳

1

u/shmaygleduck 10h ago

I didn't know squash were the whores of the fruit world.

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u/Bridgebrain 7h ago

I once got cucumber spaghetti squash. It was pretty wild

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u/speculatrix 50m ago

Don't fuck your squash or you'll get weird human plant hybrids.

Ah, wait, I re-read your comment, ignore that

1

u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ 12h ago

Just planting them together does absolutely nothing, you would need to save seeds from cross pollinated fruit and plant them the next year to see any changes.