Return to the Edible Landscape Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Mystery squash plant
| | |
Posted by gardengal_deb 6 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 10, 04 at 18:29
| Can anyone tell me what kind of squash plant this may be? I had an odd plant start to grow in one of my pots containing purchased annuals. I recognized it as some type of squash plant, and planted it in my vegetable garden. It has "taken over" and produced, to date, several round, green, squash about the size of a volleyball. I thought maybe it was watermelon, as the squash has ridges and looks very much like a watermelon, except that it is round. I cut it open, and it has yellow flesh and very large seeds, like a pumpkin. Could it be a pumpkin plant that I have? When do pumpkins turn color? Do they start out dark green? Or do I have just an odd squash plant? Since it has taken over my garden, I cannot decide whether to leave it in, with the hope of harvesting pumpkins in the fall, or to rip it out! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Mystery squash plant
| | |
| Any seedling squash/melon/cucumber plant is a mystery. For it to already have colored flesh means it might not be a melon, they take a long time to ripen, and they have highly lobed leaves. I just pulled one ten-footer out that probably sprouted from bird feed--it wasn't producing anything. Pumpkins start out green, turn color in late summer. Try cooking one now and baking one in the Fall and see if it is any good. You might have some bonus food. |
RE: Mystery squash plant
| | |
| I too had an unusual squash that I have never seen before. It came from a bunch of buttercup squash seeds I planted, either from a collected seed or from a supplier. In any event, its egg shaped, with a gray skin, and looks nothing like a buttercup. Its bigger than a basketball in its larger end. I have saved its seeds and will try to grow some more this year. If it works, I might have stumbled onto a new strain of hard orange fleshed squash. |
|
|
|
|
