Back at the end of July I moved a lot of compost from the pile onto the home vegetable garden. I started noticing the odd “volunteer” plant appearing shortly thereafter, including this squash plant.
I was hoping it would be a jarrahdale pumpkin, which I did grow last year (seen in this photograph), but now that it has been pollinated and started to grow some fruit, it doesn’t look that way. As you can see from this photograph, I like to prop up my squash fruit on a flower pot to prevent bruising.
This squash doesn’t look like any kind I’ve grown (or eaten) lately, so I have no idea what it is!
Any ideas?
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I don’t know what kind it is, but it certainly is lovely.
I have no idea but a past co-worker of mine had an adventurous gardening habit of planting a variety of squash randomly arranged together. She always had fun seeing what sort of weird fruit, or ‘new squash varieties’ would appear by the end of the season -from all of the cross pollinating.
If I had the room I think I’d love to try it, too.
I also had lots of volunteer squash, and considered myself luck, let them live and thrive in my garden. Boy do they take up lots of space! to make a long story short… I have many LARGE squash plants with (1) no fruit or (b) tiny fruit that withers on the vine (like yours). Several friends who garden also had the same experience… wohoo, a windfall of free food. Not So! they are opportunistic garden space invaders. These are the children of some misbegotten squash affair from known plants I grew last year. Next year I will be RUTHLESS and yank all volunteers out of the ground as they appear.
SD
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