I agree with you about how bad it would be for a company to be able to patent such a trait. I heard about some fellow who managed to patent a yellow bean, which he originally purchased in Mexico. Then he won a court case, prohibiting Mexico to export yellow beans, like his, to the USA. Can't remember all the details, but it sounded crazy to me.

Warts don't excite me. But I suppose it would be a good thing for decorative purposes.

George

George,

I like the look of warty pumpkins/winter squash when I pile them up in a big pile of winter squash and gourds by the garage for a late autumn display. (My display is pitiful this year because of the constant rain.) I usually grow Marina di Chioggia (also edible!), Black Futtsu and Red Warty Thing (aka Victor). The ones I grow for decorative purposes grow outside the regular garden in unimproved soil. I'm not going to 'waste' good soil on something we can't eat. LOL

That is a terrible thing about the yellow beans but I expect a whole lot more of this type of thing in the future, and I think the legal system let us all down when they gave that guy a patent on the yellow beans.

Dawn

All the more reason to be saving our seed. This next year will be my first year saving seed but I'm excited to do it :-)

Dawn, I like this warty pumpkin...it should do your display well next year.

Ilene has a bee costume and Dawn likes to grow warty things. What will we admit to next? Now I know how a priest must feel with all of these confessions. LOL

LOL...the forum is colorful isn't it :-)

There are many things going on in the commercial agricultural world involving seed, new technology and patents that is very disturbing.

One of those things is what is known as 'terminator ' technology, which causes plants to produce seeds that are sterile or somehow otherwise 'deactivated' so that they will not germinate at all. That, of course, eliminates seed saving as an option and forces you to buy seed from the company every year. I never will purchase any seed variety with terminator technology no matter what. I just won't. To me, it is a matter of principle.

That same firm is doing other scarey things with seeds, including seeds that won't grow well and produce well unless you use their chemical products, and only their products, on your plants. This is a very disturbing thing, and to me it is very close to an attempt to create a monopoly and I hope they don't get away with it.

We'll have to save this topic for a rainy day when we're all bored, and then we can talk in depth about what is wrong with the mainstream, conventional seed development/production industry today and why it is so important for all of us to support companies that grow O-P varieties. (I am not opposed to all hybrid varieties, but I am opposed to companies that want to force us into using only their patented seeds.) OK, now I'll climb back down off my soapbox.

I like all kinds of oddball things and warty squash and gourds are just one of those oddities. Since moving here, I've grown all kinds of veggies and flowers in odd colors.

I've not only grown regular yellow and white corn, but also sweet corn with kernels that are red (Ruby Queen), green and blue (Blue Jade, at different stages) as well as dent corns with seeds in every color of the rainbow. I've grown Red Stalker corn just to have the reddish-green stalks for fall decorations, and have grown Platinum corn for the purplish streaks in the foliage. And, of course, I love Japanese Striped maize for the foliage....you can plant it with tropical-looking plants for a striking appearance. In the fall when other folks are headed to Hobby Lobby or someplace similar for fall decorations, I just decorate with whatever I've grown that year.

I've grown sunflowers that have green, apricot, nearly white and red/maroon petals in addition to the standard golden-yellow or bright yellow colored ones. Of course, I've grown tomatoes in every color but also potatoes that have red, yellow or blue flesh and/or skin. (Blue potatoes make the most gorgeous lavender-colored mashed potatoes, and chunks of red, white and blue potatoes make a great Fourth of July potato salad.)

One year, I grew grain-type amaranth around the garden sort of like a fence, and had various types so we'd have decorative seedheads in golden yellow, orange, pink, red-maroon and green. It made a nice 'fence' around the veggie garden, and I still have stray amaranth seedlings pop up here and there from time to time. I've used multicolored broom corn in the same way.

Anyone can grow orange carrots, so I like to spice it up and make it more interesting by growing carrots in shades of white, orange, red, purple and yellow. (They're so purty!)

When we moved here in the late 1990s, I planted eggplant one year in all kinds of colors--the traditional darker purple, but also violet, pinkish-purple and white...and one that was white and purple streaked.

I also grow green beans that are not just green but also yellow (Marvel of Venice Roma, and we're having some of them for dinner tonight), purple and bi-colored.

For years I've grown pumpkins/winter squash in a wide array of color---not just orange, golden yellow and white, but also buff-colored, black, dark green and blue...and one particular pumpkin that looks like a bloodshot eyeball (it is, appropriately enough, called "One Too Many"). I also love striped cushaw squashes and the multicolored small winter squashes like 'Carnival'.

In the store, you may see cucumbers only in shades of green, but in our garden, you'll see green, yellow and white ones. Why restrict yourself to just one color?

I also like growing black flowers and green flowers, but didn't plant anything black this year.

How's that for colorful?

When we first moved here and I planted all the oddly colored things, every old farmer and rancher I met here seemed to think I was a nut case, but they eventually got used to me and my weird ways. LOL (It was bad enough that I insisted on being organic, and then I went and planted things that were the 'wrong' color.) I like having a garden that looks like a rainbow, though. When I look at a garden with row after row of green plants, I think it is lovely. However, my garden looks totally different--it is more like a crazy quilt.

Dawn