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This came up unexpectedly and I’m waiting to see what it’ll be. I didn’t plant any squash or pumpkins this year. In fact I’ve never planted either in this garden bed. We affectionately call it our “pumquash” while we wait.
I have it under a greenhouse because we had our first frost warning this weekend, and I’d really like at least one fruit to mature so we can solve the mystery. This is the furthest along.
I put it into the PictureThis app which is spookily accurate, and it says summer squash.
I don't know what magic it uses, but it's accurately identified plants just from a seedling that looks to me exactly like every other seedling.
I like summer squash! That would be really weird though, I’ve never planted summer squash or zucchini in the 10+ years we’ve lived here. Squirrels must be stealing from the neighbors
Compost? We've had a few things come up that way in the past.
The species is Cucurbita pepo .
Since the species is quite large it could be anything from a summer squash, Halloween pumpkin, to a hard shelled gourd type.
To me it looks like a zucchini or squash. If it lengthens it could be a zucchini “Magda,” the color seems right. But I really think it’s a particular variety of squash (or a mutant) that is globular, called “cue ball.” I don’t know how to share a picture, so this link will have to do.
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/squash/summer-squash/cue-ball-f1-squash-seed-3359.html
The seed catalog I am looking at shows a light green, yellow, and dark green version. The dark green one is sometimes called “Eight Ball zucchini.” Light green is called “Cue Ball” and yellow is called “One Ball.” Curcubits cross pollinate routinely, so it could also be some sort of mutant - congrats on your cross breeding program! :)
I found another pic from Osborne Seed showing the color variations - will be exciting to see what color you’ve got! Sorry I can’t upload photos, it may be my instance or app bugging out.
https://www.osborneseed.com/products/cue-ball-f1-untreated-squash-seeds
Looks like a squash to me. Was the flower a big-ass yellow flower?