Starting to think a (what I assume is a volunteer) watermelon vine is going to be the biggest one I've ever had. I know it's boring to have to wait until later to see a pic, but I'm @ work & figured I'd start yakking about it while I had a minute & was thinking about it. Yesterday I was noticing a couple of the leaves are around 2 ft across. It could be something else, in a spot where I put kitchen scraps to compost. Y'all can tell me later.

I have much better luck with the volunteer mutts than trying to grow bought or saved seeds. Tell me about your big watermelon leaves! Pics? Please!

The basic watermelon entry here could use some more pics too to augment the excellent closeups already there. I guess most people end up with shaggy grass & other rogue plants around watermelon vines, so that's probably why there aren't any mature vine pics... or most people know their watermelons' names?:
The "mutt" (parent) watermelon database entry:
Watermelons (Citrullus lanatus)

Defimitely not watermelon. Hand size at best and not a whole lot of variation among varieties.

TY so much! I'm glad I asked. When I get home later & take some pics, hopefully somebody will let me know what's growing out there! Has giant orangish yellow flowers... rough leaves with almost prickly petioles. I've never paid much attention to the actual vines before, just the part where one checks to see if melons are ripe. Growing noticeably bigger daily...

You sure the squash/melons haven't somehow crossed with your elephant ears, Tiffany? (just kidding)

Trouble with mutts is you really never know what you're going to get until you wait (months?) for the fruit/veg to mature. Might be fantastic or it might be a dud.

My guess would be a squash or pumpkin of some sort. They all have pretty similar flowers I think. Once you have a fruit started that will be a big hint. But the first flowers are usually male so you may have to wait a few more weeks . . . Look forward to seeing it.

LOL! And I think you're onto something when you mentioned pumpkin. DH & son said they threw the debris in that spot after obligatorily and ceremoniously smashing pumpkins last Halloween. TY so much, I think this is probably solved.

Just for information. a pumpkin is a type of winter squash.

TYVM, Dill! Veggies aren't my milieu at all.

Guessing this looks like a pumpkin vine?

Looks like you're growing next fall's jack o'lanterns, Tiffany. Those are all male flowers, but the female flower will have the little pumpkin or squash under the flower where the stem is.

TY so much! Do both male and female blooms occur on a single vine?

Sure do. The female blooms just take a bit longer.

TY so much! I really appreciate it.

I had a winter squash volunteer - and I never grew them. But I did scoop some rotten ones out of a fruit stand dumpster and feed them to my compost heap. And one neighbor grew something that looked squash-like from a distance.

I guess some industrious squirrel helped it volunteer. I saved them and cooked them - pretty good!

I think I saw a fruit starting to form yesterday.


(The debris in the background is from trimming some trees. I laid the branches in a spot covered with cardboard that I hope to use next year. The leaves will fall off and start decomposing in that spot. Whenever the leaves have fallen off, I'll pull the branches out & use them for bonfire wood.)