What's this growing in my compost?

[MotJuste]

I went out to the compost bin the other day and found this growing. Whatever it is, it sprouted up fast. Can anyone tell me if this is a weed or maybe something that grew from my kitchen scraps?

Here's the whole plant:


a closeup:


and another:


Thanks,

--Bill

[Tricky Grama]

Bill-
Was just curious if the vine in your compost was setting fruit? We had this happen a couple yrs ago & it was a honeydew vine, produced the best honeydew melon I'd ever eaten!
Plano Patty

[MotJuste]

Here's what the plant looks like a little over one month later. There's no fruit yet that I can see, but there are little yellow flowers. The thing's grown quite a bit, taking over the whole compost bucket and the one next to it. Now it's growing up the walls of my fence.



Here's a closeup of the flower.



Is this what your honeydew looked like? How big will the vine get before it is finished?

--Bill

[Tricky Grama]

I think my honeydew vine was bigger-larger leaves-but it did look like cantalope vine & so does this, to me. I'm sure everyone is waiting for fruit to set!
Plano Patty

[gjhood]

It looks like Cantelope, but it could be Pumpkin. The seeds at the bottom of the plant appear to be Pumpkin. Vines can grow to 8'. The only problem I see is 1: you will need to turn the compost eventually, and 2: The weight of the melons or whatever may pull down the lattice.

[Gar]

The vines look just like my cantalope. Did you throw some cantalope seeds into your bin? Since my compost never completely finishes, before I till it into the garden, each spring I have cantalopes come up all over the garden. This year I had 14 plants come and pretty much take over the garden. I would let the vines grow and see what it is.

[MotJuste]

I think the heat finally got to it. This last week or two the leaves have been wilting and turning brown. Its as if the whole plant just shrunk into itself.