Can you ID what's growing in my compost?

[MotJuste]

Hello,

I found this growing in my compost pile the other day. I posted on the weed forum to see if they knew what it was, but on the off chance that this grew out of something in my kitchen scraps, I thought I'd ask you guys. Do you know what this is?

Here's the whole plant:


a closeup:


and another:


Thanks,

--Bill

[sandih]

Just look at the seeds that are all around it on the last photo. Before I saw that I thought it was probably one of the following; squash, cucumbers or some kind of melon.

[sandih]

I'm leaning more towards the squash....

[unklmike]

squash seeds tend to be rounder. i'd say cucumber or cantalope. let it grow and see what you get! it may turn out to be a VERY oleasant surprise! :P

[hamelcd]

I'm betting everything, including the kids and the house, on muskmelon. I throw seeds of all kinds into my compost, and the two most prolific volunteer plants are cantaloupes and pumpkins. I'm pretty sure this isn't a pumpkin.

By the way, volunteer cantaloupes are wonderful... but I hope you have a lot of room for them to grow!

[drchelo]

That looks a little like the "Chayote" squash vine my neighbor had growing in her compost pile last season. I don't know the English term for this fruit/vegetable, but it made a beautiful vine...unfortunately, the vine did not start flowering and setting fruit until too close to the first frost. The flowers will give you a better idea of what that is.
How do you post pictures on this board?

[sandih]

DrChelo -

Here's a link to a thread I posted about attaching images to your post:

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3539

[BuckEskew]

Those look like Cucumber seeds. Also, the plants look very similar to the cucumber plants that I just planted a few weeks ago.

[MotJuste]

Here are updated pictures a little more than a month later. It's completedly taken over the compost bucket, plus the spare one I started using next to it.



Here's a closeup of the little flowers.



What do you think? Melon? Cucumber? Squash? Something else?

--Bill

[dragonfly]

Out of the cucurbits, I have grown cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, acorn squash, watermelons, and cantelopes. The leaves on your plants don't look to me like any of the plants I listed. The flowers definitely look like they are in the family, but I am curious as to what kind of plant you have. Are any of your flowers female? If so, what does the base of the flower look like as far as shape and color?

[sandih]

Isn't that funny! Just yesterday I was going to ask you if you got anything off those vines and to give us an update.

[unklmike]

I am anxious to know what this turned out to be. Please let us know i'm sure i'm not the only one.
unklmike

[MotJuste]

Mystery solved. It was cantelope. Last year I only saw one fruit which was already eaten up, but this year the cantelope came back again and I actually got one melon out of it! The taste was just ok, but the price was right!

--Bill