I have one watermelon that decided to volunteer not all of the melons made it from vine to plate last year so I thought worms will eat them so I got the push mower out and puree them it came up in between my okra rows nearly got mistaken for a weed and almost step on daily when I am inspecting the okras growth hope it makes to get big enough to be seen better

Out of the 10 plants that I started from last year's Brandywine seeds I have 8 potato leaf and 2 regular leaf plants. They must have crossed with a nearby plant (I save seeds from several fruit), but I decided to grow them out to see what I get. They are very vigorous (hybrid vigor?) and are some of the biggest plants so far.

Also, I left two of the dozens of squash volunteers I had. Maybe a bad idea since they are each about 5 feet long now and threatening the garlic. I've been encouraging them to grow straight down the row and leave the other plants alone. We'll see what we get from them.

Mike

I'm growing out some unknown volunteers. They could be Roma, or some sort of grape tomato, or the children of some commercially purchased tomato whose seeds had gone into the compost.

The plants are strong, and are producing blossoms. Only time will tell...but I'm sure they'll be tomatoes!

I got lots of dill volunteers in the veggie garden this year, either because of the compost, or possibly because of the neighbor's garden just on the other side of the fence. Most of these have been given to new homes, but I kept a few for myself.

There's also a volunteer squash that hid itself amongst the turnips and broccoli raab for so long that it was pretty big before I noticed it. It's already blooming, and while I don't really have the space for it, I haven't quite had the heart to pull it.

I like volunteers- they're like a surprise gift from the garden! I have two tomato volunteers that I'm relatively certain are grape tomatoes from seeds that went in the compost! Or actually, they could be from the seeds of last year's volunteers... compost grandchildren? I like them! Tasty, good produceers, more vigorous than my planted babies. And this year, wonder of wonders, they both appeared at the end of a row so they actually look planned!

My arugala self seeds prolifically each year, as does my mache and there are volunteer marigolds all around the perimeter. Oh, and tomatillos- I now grow those almost solely from volunteers! The origianl may have been a hybrid because they were all uniform, but the next year's volunteers had some that were large and sweetish, but a small percent that were small and lemony. I'm hoping I have a couple of those lemony ones this year! They made superior sauces! Oh, and cilantro, and chervil... Did I mention I'm fond of volunteers? :)

Sunni