*SOLVED* UPDATED PICTURES. What Plant Is This?

[feathermaid]

Whoa! Look what I just found! I can't believe I didn't see this yesterday.

Still not sure what it is exactly but looks hopeful toward the melon category. It's about 4" long and pretty heavy. I should have let it trail on the ground but at the time I first spotted it I thought it was a cucumber... and I like those to climb so the cucs hang down and stay clean and straight. There's no way I can get the vines off the trellis now. Hope the fruits don't fall off before they're ripe.

@BreanneRN thanks for all your helpful insight!
Any more thoughts now?
I could cut it open... or just wait a while...

 

[feathermaid]

When I was a kid, we decided to move part of our garden to a creek bottom field. It was watermelons, cucumbers, muskmelons and cantaloupes.
We got great fruit but was none of the above.
They all cross pollinated.
We got cucaloupes and watercumbers.
They tasted interesting. It was kind of like eating new fruits in Thailand or Costa Rica.

Interesting! I wonder if something like that's happening here??

 

[BreanneRN]

Oh, you should wait awhile... How far off the ground is it? Maybe put a box or an overturned pot underneath it to support it as it grows? Definitely has a watermelon shape to it, but the leaves more like pumpkin? May be it is a Pumpkimelon or a Waterkin? This is so much fun! It is definitely coming on at melon time, there are watermelon fields ripening here now... Let's see, you planted mini-pumpkins, what size were those watermelons you planted? Oh they were sugar babies, those are not too big..Maybe we can estimate when it might be big enough to be ripe? Gee, if it really is a pumpkimelon instead of cucumelon, it could get really, really big! But since both the varieties you planted were small varieties, maybe it will just reach about cantalope size... But then again, it is a hybrid and those tend to be larger than the parent plants... At any rate, whatever it is, you are going to have a bumper crop by the looks of it...

 

[lazy gardener]

Whoa! Look what I just found! I can't believe I didn't see this yesterday.
View attachment 1475734
Still not sure what it is exactly but looks hopeful toward the melon category. It's about 4" long and pretty heavy. I should have let it trail on the ground but at the time I first spotted it I thought it was a cucumber... and I like those to climb so the cucs hang down and stay clean and straight. There's no way I can get the vines off the trellis now. Hope the fruits don't fall off before they're ripe.

@BreanneRN thanks for all your helpful insight!
Any more thoughts now?
I could cut it open... or just wait a while...

Can you make a sling for it out of a pair of pantyhose? I would wait for it to ripen before sacrificing it. The tendril closest to the fruit should dry up.

 

[feathermaid]

At any rate, whatever it is, you are going to have a bumper crop by the looks of it...

Yeah... can't wait! I just started out a little curious now everyone on here has me all totally excited to see what it is!

Can you make a sling for it out of a pair of pantyhose? I would wait for it to ripen before sacrificing it. The tendril closest to the fruit should dry up.

Oh, right! I saw something like that on pinterest one time. I don't ever wear pantyhose... might take a trip to the dollar store...

My 7 year old daughter really wants it to be cantaloupe or Tuscan melon. She's absolutely certain that's what it is. I kinda hope she's right

 

[BreanneRN]

Yeah... can't wait! I just started out a little curious now everyone on here has me all totally excited to see what it is!


Oh, right! I saw something like that on pinterest one time. I don't ever wear pantyhose... might take a trip to the dollar store...

My 7 year old daughter really wants it to be cantaloupe or Tuscan melon. She's absolutely certain that's what it is. I kinda hope she's right

Well, that would be nice, but those varieties tend to show that white, webbed skin pretty early on, don't want to be Debbie Downer, but.... not optimistic about it... looks like a watermelon, so far... But, it might be orange inside! You just never know....

 

[GreatGranny]

The plant looks exactly like the hybrid cucumbers I am growing off my back deck! They are called salad cucumbers or minis! They are crossed with a type of Mexican cucumber that has a bitter lime flavor to it! Mine has not produced any fruit as of yet but it could be any day now!

 

[Thyme4Chickens]

A garden mystery!

I've seen pics where folks have used mesh produce bags (like for onions or oranges) as slings. Not sure how well that works compared to panty hose, but it might be something you have in the house already.

 

[lazy gardener]

Really, anything that has a bit of sling property to it, but doesn't hold water would work, I think a strip of T shirt material might tend to stay damp too long. Woudn't want it to get mildew on it's bottom.

 

[BreanneRN]

There is a hybrid plant called a kavbuz that appears to resemble this plant... It is a pumpkin/watermelon hybrid grown in the Ukraine area... You can actually buy seeds! Don't know if that is what this is, although even if it is, hybrids, due to mixed genetic features, can have tons of individual variation, so no 2 plants would necessarily have the same fruit or leaves, etc. If that is what this is, though, when it sets more fruit, it is going to bring the trellis down, I'm thinking... In the meantime, maybe make a sling out of a potato bag? http://semenaopt.com/en/Pumpkin/Kavbuz/6434/ Eating the Kavbuz apparently has health benefits and can be used for animal fodder. I know my horse loves watermelon and will eat pumpkin. If this plant is easy to grow, maybe I will grow some for my sheep, horse, and poultry! When you think about all the nutrition in a pumpkin packed into a watermelon type inside, that is a lot of feed... And apparently this grows to quite good size. Sounds like a great plant to keep around, especially since easy to grow!