We have a plant growing in our vegie patch. It looks like a pumpkin plant but I have no idea how it came to be there- the bed was made using compost and we don’t eat pumpkin. However, Google tells me that it could also be honeydew melon as the leaves and flowers look very similar to pumpkins. This is a more likely story as there were definitely melon seeds in the compost.
Looks just like a pumpkin to me. Could be courgette ( zuchini)
Well that was easy, thanks pj. Definitely zucchini.
pommiejohn said:
Looks just like a pumpkin to me. Could be courgette ( zuchini)
yar, it looks more pumpkin than anything.. The size of the leaves is important consideration when asking is it a melon or a pumpkin.
Divine Angel said:
Well that was easy, thanks pj. Definitely zucchini.
Zucchini have whitish patches on the leaves
If it’s anything like my garden you’ll be wanting to go out each day with a fine paintbrush ( artist’s type) and pollinate the fresh female flowers.
If I don’t do that, I get hardly any fruit. Maybe we have a bee shortage, I don’t know.
roughbarked said:
yar, it looks more pumpkin than anything.. The size of the leaves is important consideration when asking is it a melon or a pumpkin.
I’ll go out and get another pic of the leaf with my hand on it… although I do kinda have small hands :)
Zucchini was definitely in the compost though, so I like that suggestion.
pommiejohn said:
If it’s anything like my garden you’ll be wanting to go out each day with a fine paintbrush ( artist’s type) and pollinate the fresh female flowers.
If I don’t do that, I get hardly any fruit. Maybe we have a bee shortage, I don’t know.
Divine Angel said:
roughbarked said:yar, it looks more pumpkin than anything.. The size of the leaves is important consideration when asking is it a melon or a pumpkin.
I’ll go out and get another pic of the leaf with my hand on it… although I do kinda have small hands :)
Zucchini was definitely in the compost though, so I like that suggestion.
Sometimes I’m quite surprised as to what happens to pop up in my garden from my compost. One does get to know which is which by constantly observing. Each cucurbit has slight differences or vast ones but they can all be discerned easily if one is used to seeing all of them.
That’s the thing. I only know the basic things like tomatoes, corn etc. There doesn’t seem to be any open female flowers yet, only male ones. Also, the stems are a bit prickly, if that helps with ID. I couldn’t get a good enough pic of them.
The shape of the calyx on the female flower indicates it is not a zucchini.
That’s a female flower in the bottom pic and it may have already opened then closed. It’s a bit droopy.
It’s hard to say, certainly not zucchini. The fruit is spherical.
Michael V said:
The shape of the calyx on the female flower indicates it is not a zucchini.
Calyx? Now you’re just showing off :)
If it’s pumpkin, how it got there is a complete mystery. OK then, could it be a melon?
And the spherical whats-it doesn’t elongate to become zucchini?
Michael V said:
The shape of the calyx on the female flower indicates it is not a zucchini.
coughs
the enlarging inferior ovary ya mean – which is the fruit and is round and not hairy and suggestive of a pumpkin (rockmelons are hellaova hairy and have subtle stripes on ‘em)
- the calyx are the little, green fringy things just under the corolla (the yellow petals)
Divine Angel said:
If it’s pumpkin, how it got there is a complete mystery. OK then, could it be a melon?
Divine Angel said:
And the spherical whats-it doesn’t elongate to become zucchini?
Nah, they just get bigger.
neomyrtus_ said:
Yeah, buggered that up.
Michael V said:
The shape of the calyx on the female flower indicates it is not a zucchini.
coughs
the enlarging inferior ovary ya mean – which is the fruit and is round and not hairy and suggestive of a pumpkin (rockmelons are hellaova hairy and have subtle stripes on ‘em)
- the calyx are the little, green fringy things just under the corolla (the yellow petals)
keep an eye on it for a week (no hurry, eh?) and watch out for powdery mildews or bacterial spots…. you have the luxury that you can watch it…
Divine Angel said:
And the spherical whats-it doesn’t elongate to become zucchini?
the ovary – which becomes the fruit (a berry)
neomyrtus_ said:
keep an eye on it for a week (no hurry, eh?) and watch out for powdery mildews or bacterial spots…. you have the luxury that you can watch it…
I haven’t seen anything like that yet but will keep an eye out. One website recommended spraying 1 part milk to 9 parts water to prevent mildews and bacteria. I suppose it can’t hurt to do that.
there’s a cb88 holiday gardening forum abouts..
Oh yeah… forgot about that.
I’m having such an awesome week :p
>>the enlarging inferior ovary ya mean – which is the fruit and is round and not hairy and suggestive of a pumpkin (rockmelons are hellaova hairy and have subtle stripes on ‘em)
That’s right.
http://gardendoctor.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/punkin-disorderly/
http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/library/webb/BOT410/Angiosperm/fruits3.htm
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-031.htm
stuff on links
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artoct06/bj-Cucurbit.html
someone with a fancy microscope
That’s very helpful, neo.
I’m going to go help my plant have sex with itself.
Wait a minute…..you don’t eat pumpkin?
:O
What’s wrong with you?
Yeah, I know. I’ve never liked pumpkin.
..and another thing….don’t you have a ruler to use instead of your tiny hand?
The mystery of how it got there isn’t too hard. Seeds can blow in thewind, even if you didn’t plant them.. Animals can leave them laying about as well.
There is also the fact that cucurbits hybridise easily so they are usually grown separately. However wild things always happen.
Divine Angel said:
Yeah, I know. I’ve never liked pumpkin.
That is so sad on so many levels. I was craving mashed pumpkin while I was in hospital on a ice-chips only diet.
A what now?
I suppose I could have used match boxes since Sydney Harbours are a unit too big…
I have a couple of female buds so I shall keep an eye on those, ready to pounce on them with a male flower when they’re ready. I’ll cue up the Barry White CD and buy dinner for them first, of course.
Divine Angel said:
I have a couple of female buds so I shall keep an eye on those, ready to pounce on them with a male flower when they’re ready. I’ll cue up the Barry White CD and buy dinner for them first, of course.
shall I call you Cheech or Chong?
kii said:
..and another thing….don’t you have a ruler to use instead of your tiny hand?
The hand easily indicates that it is not a rockmelon. The immature fruit easily suggests that it isn’t a courgette. The leaves the prickles the flowers and teh fruit, all resemble a pumpkin more than anything else unless you have had the ronde type of zucchini in your compost.
Divine Angel said:
Don’t worry about the CD and food. Apply alcohol, and it’ll happen all by itself.
I have a couple of female buds so I shall keep an eye on those, ready to pounce on them with a male flower when they’re ready. I’ll cue up the Barry White CD and buy dinner for them first, of course.
The hand easily indicates that it is not a rockmelon.
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You give in too easily. We want proper photos with a ruler or tape measure for accurate record keeping.
A female flower opened this morning and I have pollinated it with a nearby male flower :) Also found a baby cane toad among the tomato plants but the little blighter was too quick for me to catch it. Grrr.
Keep us updated on the fruit. I grow all sorts of weird hybrids. One was clearly a cross between golden nugget and queensland blue. Grew hundreds of small orange pumpkins of the blocky Qld blue shape. A very nice pumpkin which I grew for about four seasons but has since disappeared because the frosts got the plant before I got seed one year.