It looks like someone had a similar mystery squash thread last year, but I didn’t want to hijack that thread with a slightly different question – When should I expect to harvest this thing?
So, as is probably not all that uncommon, I’ve got a volunteer squash that came up after I spread some of our worm compost from last year. Last year I grew sugar pie pumpkins, delicata, and beit alpha cucumbers. This new guy’s massive compared to those-- 15"+ leaves, with one big fruit that grows noticeably every day!
My intuition tells me to treat this like a winter squash, but any tips on ways to verify that ahead of time? It almost looks like a watermelon, though the foliage looks more squash-like. Fun experiment either way!
Looks like a pumpkin. I would let it ripen.
Nice nasturtiums in there. I have not seen that color pattern on nasturtiums. There are some growing among my squash too.
Sugar pie and delicata are both Cucurbita pepo, so can cross. If there are zucchinis around, those can cross with that too.
I had volunteer squashes that I saved seeds from multiple generations. They were not good so wound up as chicken food.
I had a vine sprout and grow like crazy last year in my compost pile… I was thinking pumpkin at first… but it turned out to be spagetti squash… and we harvested 5 nice fruit from it.
So always remember to be careful when eating curcubita’s of uncertain origin. Especially if they taste bitter. The toxic compound is called Cucurbitacin. i would teste taste a piece, before mixing it in a dish while cooking.
Yikes, good to know! On the plus side, the way it’s growing it may be destined for Halloween carving, but I’ll keep this in mind in case we decide to try it.
