Mystery Plant Update!

brave!

More stupid than brave, I think. Somewhere in my mind I thought since it SMELLED like yummy watermelon then it might TASTE like yummy watermelon...lol. Not so much! :P

I thought you had decided it was one of those wild gourds that were pictured on that Web site....it still looks like one of those. I don't think the insides look much like a watermelon - the seeds are all centered in a bunch too much. Just my own 2 cents :)

I thought it was but now that I opened one I'm confused again, it smells sweet like watermelon. I also had someone else tell me that wild gourds usually have white flowers, whereas edible squash has the yellow ones like our plant. I may end up taking it down to the farmer's market to see if any of the farmers there know what I'm dealing with FOR SURE! LOL It is smaller than a tennis ball, btw, so maybe that's why the seeds haven't spread out yet.

Wow.soooo brave. I wouldn't do it, but it does look like a watermelon from the outside.

I have no idea, maybe the zucchini I started to grow (but inadvertently killed...lol) cross-polinated with something else I wasn't growing (watermelon from my kids spitting seeds?) and created something new. Not sure it's exactly edible whatever it is, though, right now it's way too bitter to even think about eating!

April, seeds don't "spread out" when a melon matures! Consider other melons that look ike what you have insisde. That inside looks like a honeydew. And what makes you think it is "immature"? Some melons are smallby definition.

I have never seen this one before, biut regularly run into new melons so who's to say.

I never claimed to know what I was talking about, that's why I used a lot of "mights", "maybes", and "I thinks"...lol. I have no idea what it is and I may never know, especially if it's the product of cross-polination. Oh well, I guess I'll just leave the others on the vine for awhile and see what happens! Worse case scenario I just use them in my fall decorating. :)

I still think you have some type of winter squash. The clue this time is that the seeds look like they will be about the size and shape of pumpkin seeds when fully matured. Unfortunately, I misjudged how mature they were from your previous pictures and can now see that they will weigh only 2 to 3 pounds when ripe.

Squash & pumpkins, melons, watermelons, and cucumbers are all closely related (not close enough to cross pollinate between species) and I think they taste and smell quite similar to each other when immature which might explain the melon-like odor. That should change as they grow and ripen.

Thank you for the information, Peter! So would it be normal for the fruit to be really bitter right now but still taste good when it's ripe? I'm not sure I want to go through the "taste-test" again...lol. The only thing is they don't look like they have grown at all in the past 2 1/2 weeks so I don't know if they are going to get any bigger at all.

I've never been curious enough to taste a winter squash before it was fully grown or held in storage for a while (immature ones will ripen a bit in storage, but will never develop full flavor), but I would guess that the bitterness is normal for your particular variety. Pretty much all of the vegetables in the Cucurbit family change quite a lot in flavor and texture as they grow through different maturity stages. Judging by the size of the seeds in your picture, I'm sure that they are nearly full-grown and won't get any bigger. As they ripen, the flesh will sweeten and turn orange, the flesh around the seeds will collapse, and the skin will harden to the point that you can't scratch it with your fingernail. If there is any bitterness remaining when they're ripe, it should go away when you cook them.

Thank you for the information Peter! :)