round cucumbers -- what is going on???????

[sidandspencersmom]

I have a cucumber growing up into a bamboo. They cukes are round! the biggest is the size of a quarter- i cut it open and it definately smells like a cucumber, and has the right "meat"--- they are dark green on the outside and light green on the inside, just like a regular cuke.

Any suggestions as to what happened or what this is? I am almost sure the seed came from a store bought seed packet- but don't remember planting in this location, right under a bamboo. I tend to give my kids seeds and let them plant wherever they want- so maybe one of them did---- then I was thinking some type of cross bred volunteer from the compost bin, but don't remember putting compost in this area.

[Liquesce]

Do they look like this? Outside / Inside

[sidandspencersmom]

not really, seeds were really tiny-- and outside is solid green.

ETA- oh, and the leaves are "normal" cucumber sized leaves.

quite a mystery!

[cschick]

Originally Posted by sidandspencersmom

Any suggestions as to what happened or what this is? I am almost sure the seed came from a store bought seed packet- but don't remember planting in this location, right under a bamboo. I tend to give my kids seeds and let them plant wherever they want- so maybe one of them did---- then I was thinking some type of cross bred volunteer from the compost bin, but don't remember putting compost in this area.

Cucumbers can cross-bred with various grouds, and the seeds the next time around will do strange things like produce round fruit.

It's entirely possible it came from a store-bought package of seeds; I have recently heard quite a few stories from gardeners in my area that their grouds, squash, and melon-types from store-bought seeds this year are turning out to be various odd hybrids. I myself bought what was supposed to be your basic green zucchini seeds and this forum helped me id what the plants are producing as a zucchini variant not often grown in the US. (I kind of want to save the seeds to plant them again, but they're planted next to cantaloupe, so I'm figuring it's not the best idea).

All these oddities seem to be from Burpee seeds.

[sidandspencersmom]

I figured it out!

As i was attempting to unwind some of the vine off the bamboo branches, i saw it!!!

It's the size of a baseball.........and distinct skin telling me it is a cantalope!

[Tizzy]

I was just going to say, my MIL had a cantaloupe plant growing in her flower bed. When cut open before it was mature, it smelled and tasted like cucumber. I actually made sandwiches out of it
But once mature, the fruit was definitely a cantaloupe! It was a nice surprise, the seeds came from her compost that obviously wasn't composted enough.

[sidandspencersmom]

here is what it looks like now... this is the bigger one that told me it was a cantaloupe.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Frismani...oupeAndPapaya#

[greengirl_]

Originally Posted by Tizzy

I was just going to say, my MIL had a cantaloupe plant growing in her flower bed. When cut open before it was mature, it smelled and tasted like cucumber. I actually made sandwiches out of it
But once mature, the fruit was definitely a cantaloupe! It was a nice surprise, the seeds came from her compost that obviously wasn't composted enough.

I had the same thing happen this year. I had a mystery squash presumably from my compost that turned out to be a cantaloupe. And it produced the best cantaloupe I've ever tasted! :

[limette]

I have round cucumbers. But they are supposed to be that way.

http://images.google.ca/images?q=lemon+cucumbers&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi