John Myers
Growing pumpkins in your own garden is fun, but it can lead to poisonous fruit. We explain to you what you should definitely pay attention to.
In this way you avoid the pumpkin becoming poisonous if you pull it yourself
Growing your own fruit and vegetables is a wonderful activity. Many hobby gardeners also produce their own seeds and lovingly raise the little plants. But this can be dangerous, especially with pumpkin plants.
- You don’t need to worry about pumpkin plants and pumpkin seeds from the nursery. The fruits of these plants do not contain any toxins. However, make sure to always water the plants well, as toxic bitter substances can develop in dry conditions.
- The situation is different if you use plants or seeds from other hobby gardeners or from your own production. Here it can happen that the fruits develop the poisonous bitter substance cucurbitacin.
- Cucurbitacin protects wild pumpkins from predators. This bitter substance was bred away from squashes. However, it can definitely develop again when cucurbits cross each other. In the home garden, this process is usually difficult to prevent.
- That’s because cucurbits, which include zucchini and cucumbers, are cross-pollinated. This can lead to unwanted crossings. Especially if the plants are grown together in your own garden or in the garden of the neighbors.
- To make sure you’re not eating poisonous fruit, you should first taste cucurbits. Poisonous fruits taste bitter and must therefore be disposed of. Otherwise, in the worst case, the meal can have fatal consequences.
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