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| As always, I have a mystery cucurbit.
Its in the beans so, despite the issues with moving squash, I have to give it a new home. Likeliest candidates for the parent are Lumina, cantaloupe, muskmelon, watermelon, butternut, and some other kind of unknown winter squash that was in the bird food. Past mystery cucurbits have turned out to be: Perfectly respectable golden crooknecks, Peculiar, small watermelon hardy enough to grow on a sand mound and ripen under plastic in October with pale, salmon-pink flesh of remarkable sweetness. A monster vine that grew 30 feet across the yard out of the compost heap and produced 3, medium-sized, bright orange, hubbard-like squash that kept very well but were disappointing in their dry, flavorless flesh. And a very ordinary, Connecticut Field-type pumpkin. I'd never trade in my predictable squash favorites for random cucurbits from saved seed, but I always enjoy finding out what the volunteers are when they grow up. Anyone else enjoy the mystery? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Volunteers are always fun if you have the space. Most of the options you listed are completely different species with completely different seed leaves. If you take a picture of the mystery plant I am sure I could eliminate a lot of your options. Though I imagine you enjoy the surprise. The mystery plants are always hit or miss with me. I have had some that far out perform the ones I intentionally plant and others that take up space and are just boring (like an all white nest-egg type gourd). |
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- Posted by iam3killerbs 7 (My Page) on Thu, May 14, 09 at 15:30
| Thanks. Its not very big yet and I'll get some clues in a few weeks. As I said, I enjoy the mystery. And figuring it out will probably be a good project to do with my 9yo garden helper. Waiting for it to grow up is part of the fun. :-D |
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- Posted by iam3killerbs 7 (My Page) on Thu, May 28, 09 at 12:45
| I moved my mystery cucurbits today. Both have a watermelon/cantaloupeish look to the leaves. If they live, it will be very interesting to see how they come out. |
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- Posted by cyrus_gardner (My Page) on Tue, Jun 2, 09 at 0:07
| Watermelon ine and leaves are distinctively differen from the rest. They(leaves) are much smaller, with pronounced lobes from early on and darker in color. Cantaloups/melons leaves are more round and smaller than squash's.Also squash grows much faster than cantaloups. If you post a picture it would be easy to identify them. |
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- Posted by iam3killerbs 7 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 2, 09 at 13:10
| I'm happy to wait for them to reveal themselves as they grow. :-) I always enjoy the unknown factor of my mystery cucurbits -- sort of like how we never wanted to know the sex of our babies until they were born. |
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