Author : McCreight, James D.; Staub, Jack

Summary : Herbicide resistance has not been identified as a priority for any of the cucurbits although they are affected by the typical warm season weed species found in many of our crops. Some cucurbits pose problems as weeds in agricultural systems. Except for citron, which is cross compatible with watermelon, no weedy cucurbits exist in cucurbit crop fields. Some cucurbits may be weeds in other crops, but there is little evidence of their role as a major weed species in the US. An exception is Cucurbita pepo ssp. ovifera var. ozarkana, which is an aggressive weed in fields of soybean and cotton in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Pest resistance genes may move from cucurbit crops to their weedy relatives. Although this movement will not likely be a problem for cucumber and melon, there may be consequences in relatively limited production fields of watermelon in which citron is a weed. Where C. pepo ssp. ovifera var. ozarkana is an aggresive weed, squash production poses a potential problem to the extent that these weedy populations are pollinated by bees from production fields of C. pepo.