Yes, some kind of squash. What you have there at the moment are male flowers. Look out for females they'll come along soon. They will have a swelling behind the flower which will become the baby squash once its fertilised by a male flower. It's an annual. The pot is quite small so make sure you feed your plant if you want to get any edibles from it.

Good grief squash? Boy that IS a surprise for mommy. Thank you for your help. I have little experience with edibles, usually just grow ornamentals.

Please advise what to do to support this plant. I've gone this far, might as well try to enjoy some fruits of my labors.

I would plant it outside in the ground after hardening it off (start in the shade and give it a bit more sun each day.) I really think that pot is too small. Otherwise, go for a large pot, like a 5 gallon bucket with holes in the bottom or a whiskey barrel. Mine just sprawl on the ground or sometimes I grow them up a fence panel that is attached to supports planted at least a foot in the ground. If they are large squash, you may need to support them with slings while they grow so they don't break the vine if you grow them up a trellis.

I think it has got past the point where it can be transplanted into the ground. There are tendrils which appear to be already clinging to the trellis and it looks as if it is outdoors already. It might be possible to just slip it out of that container and into a larger one.

I was up late last night trying to figure out how to get this into the ground. It is already quite tall and attached to the tomato cage.

I can probably repot it successfully if I am careful. Can I keep it a certain size and still get squash or does it have to be allowed to get very large to produce? It's currently getting only morning sun. I can move it to full sun if it needs that.

Even if I don't have squash I am enjoying it as an ornamental at the moment! Very pretty and I love the yellow flowers.

No one but me would eat any of it! :(

No one but me would eat any of it! :(

I don't have kids, but DH doesn't like squash. So I grate it and add it to beef stew, spaghetti sauce, zucchini or squash bread, and he never complains or notices it. ;>)

In a big pot, I think it will be fine, especially if you put it in sun. I am not sure how planting in the ground, cage and all, is any harder than repotting, and for me it would be easier as long as I had the hole already dug. I enjoy the sort of dinosaur era looking leaves and the large flowers, too.

I would actually be happy to put it in the ground if I thought it would be successful. As you said, plant cage and all! I'm digging all the time lately so what's another hole? Space is limited but I have one vacancy left at the moment.

Do you think I should buy a large teepee style trellis for it or will it make do as is with the cage? Just prefer to not go back and correct it later.

I love your idea to grate it and add to other dishes! Does it make the meal extra moist? In the past I used to do a little of that myself to get healthy food into my children. Jerry Seinfeld's wife wrote a cookbook with similar ideas.

Now they actually like some veggies so I don't incorporate them anymore but my DH still dislikes everything but potatoes and green beans.

Thanks!

Well, if you do attempt to transplant it, remember to absolutely soak it. I really am not sanguine about the chances of such a large squash plant with such an amount of watery leafage being movable. I transplant squash at the first or second set of true leaves. And many vegetable growers don't like to transplant them at all. I did think it was attached to fixed trellis by its tendrils, not a tomato cage, so that does make is more feasible.

I bought a sawhorse type trellis to put over it and plan to put it in the ground in the next day or so.

What kind of fertilizer do you like to use?

I just use compost.

Me too.

Got the mystery veggie in the ground (including the tomato cage) but some of its upper foliage broke in the process. I had watered it the day before and the root ball came out of the pot perfectly intact so hopefully it can forgive me for the slightly rough ride to its new bed. I added the wooden trellis over that for extra support. It looks happy in the sun. It has a new flower about to open. Can't wait to see if I get some actual food out of this!

".....black seeds shaped like small balls...."

Are you sure that you're remembering that accurately?

Yes positive. Why?

Typical squash seeds look like pumpkin seeds, though they vary in size; tan to brown in color, flat teardrop in shape. Any chance a pumpkin seed or squash seed could have snuck into the pot in compost or courtesy of one of your kids?

All I ever saw were the two round seeds and nothing else. It was a tiny pot the teacher handed out to them like a starter kit has so it would have been hard to hide anything else in it. Then I transferred it to my own potting soil and remember holding the two round seeds and admiring them but having no clue what they were. I was trying to be a good sport and go along with the "mystery plant" fun.

It has done well since being put in the ground, but is definitely in start-over mode. Several new leaves appeared at the base and I saw a few tendrils this morning but haven't seen a flower since I planted it. That was 2 weeks ago.

Any other ideas what this could be? My bafflement goes on!

It is a squash plant, but it just might not have grown from the seeds you planted. Perhaps a critter added some from a compost pile or something similar. Can you ask other parents what sprouted in theirs?

That seems unlikely because I actually had the two round seeds in my hand and then planted them into a small started kit size pot using MiracleGro potting soil. Unless you think that squash seeds could occur in the potting soil bag. I am truly baffled about the origin of the squash seeds and what those round seeds could have been. My daughter confirmed to me what I saw but school is out now for summer break and we aren't in touch with anyone from that class.

I took a couple of new pix this morning to post. The plant is pretty content where it is. The flowers were open at the time I took the pix and there were bees inside them visiting and doing their tasks.

These flowers look just like the ones that appeared before I transplanted it. Are they the male or female flowers?

To tell male from female, look at the back of the flower where the stem attaches. If it is male it has straight stem into flower. If female there is a swelling between the straight stem and the flower.

Ok great thanks they have the swelling so must be female. Are little baby veggies on their way? What fun. :)

If they get fertilized, you do have baby veggies on the way. Enjoy! And so lovely that your kids are experiencing this also.

I agree. I try to get them involved whenever possible.

Do you think I need to apply fertilizer in addition to the mushroom compost I added to the planting hole when I moved it?

Sorry I was unclear. I meant pollen transferred to the flower, pollinated by the bugs when I said fertilized, not adding fertilizer. I would expect that compost should be enough for the season as long as you have reasonable soil. Occasionally when the weather is bad, such as too cool or too hot or too wet, pollination doesn't happen, and then the squash will just drop off or start rotting. But more flowers will bloom, so you should get squash.

Yeah its a squash of some type. All male flowers ,so far. I don't see a single female one on it. if this was some guy, brought in by the school to show the kids 'unusual' plants, to try and grow at home...maybe it is like a horn melon ? I dont know what its seeds are like, except they are roundish and in a jelly like flesh. It is a yellow 'melon' with spikes all over the fruit. Thus the name, 'Horn Melon'. I think it has both male and female flowers on the same plant.BUT it could be single sex vines. Anyone know? The chances of squash seeds turning up in packaged soil,and not sprouting before you buy it is almost 0%. They grow SO fast. IF you do have a female fruit showing on a flower now...post it. We might be able to tell you what it is.

It continues to do fine though no signs of any veggies on it at all, only the same yellows flowers. Not sure what the guest speaker had in mind in regards to "unusual" things but my daughter said that he just handed out the seeds and would not tell them what it was.

I did see the swelling mentioned on the stem so I thought it was female but you say all male?

When do you suppose I should be seeing it produce a squash? Do they arrive in fall?

Squash vines aren't single sex.

Please see the pix! Do I have something edible at last? It has tiny, fine hairs on it at present. I am adding a better pic of the flower for identification purposes as to the sex of it. Male or female?

I'm also hoping the bunnies don't find this because I imagine they might munch it to pieces.

The lower pic is a male blossom. No baby squash behind the flower. The squash is not edible yet.

Sorry for wording it wrong. What I should have asked is if I am seeing a squash. I call anything you can eat edible versus ornamental

I would have to wait somewhat longer to tell if the top photo is something edible or not.

Whew, my veggie is growing fast! It is 3 inches long now and about the same width. I made a sling for it as it seemed like it would break the stem. Thanks for suggesting that, NHBabs. I am wondering if I would have been better off letting it ramble on the ground rather than try to support them on a trellis. I honestly can't imagine getting too many of these to make slings for. But nevermind that I only have one at the moment.

Any ideas on the specific variety? Still too soon to tell? Sorry the pic came out blurry. It's a very pretty shade of green.

Looking rather pumpkin-like to me.

Wow really? But the seeds did not look like pumpkin. It can't stay on a trellis if it's going to get that big. Is there any chance I can hope to salvage this? It's very well attached to the tomato cage and trellis. How would you proceed?

We may have solved the mystery veggie question. Actually it was something my daughter said as I was questioning how a pumpkin or squash could be growing when the seeds where clearly not pumpkin or squash seeds. And then she said, "Mom maybe he hid the seeds inside round shells that would disappear when you watered them and then the real seeds would grow."

Wow, I never thought of a decomposing hiding place but it was supposed to be a mystery and how could that work if we could clearly see the actual seeds?

Leave it to the kids to figure it out!

I still don't know exactly what it is yet but my daughter also gave me some pink sparkly tights and we plan to sling our might-be pumpkin with them to the trellis and let it hang!

My veggie plant is ailing. :(

It has suddenly started wilting and turning yellow and brown all along the bottom of the plant and some of its leaves have a white appearance. Is it powdery mildew? The veggie is fine inside its sling but seems to have slowed down putting on size. The upper leaves are still looking ok.

It is receiving adequate water and getting sun as before. I don't see any insects.

I also don't know when to harvest the veggie. It only has that one on the entire plant. How can I tell when it is ready to be picked? Should the wilted areas be removed?

(The yellowish spots on the first pic are just reflections of sunlight on the trees in our woods.)

Yes, it's powdery mildew. You can remove and put in trash (not compost) wilted leaves. IME a combination of genetics and weather cause powdery mildew and once started there isn't a lot you can do about it. If you want to try again next year, you can look for resistant varieties.

I don't grow pumpkins, but watch the color, and perhaps do a web search on how/when to harvest.

Don't know if the plant will make it. While removing the diseased parts I saw that the main stem at ground level is split open with some tan colored substance coming out. So maybe it is hanging on a thread at this point.

Our weather has been excessively swampy which is normal for us in mid to late July. I've a feeling that had a negative impact on it. We do have pumpkin growers in our region but I imagine their fields have better circulation than us. We are living at the edge of the woods and the air here is often quite still and humid. That doesn't help.

I'm keeping a close eye on it and hoping it can survive long enough to pick our veggie.

This made me think about the summer our neighbors gave us a tomato plant and it gave us one solitary tomato! Lol

Split open with tan stuff coming out sounds like you might have squash borers. I don't have them here so I can't make suggestions.

Yes that's a possibility. I checked but saw no borers in any life stages. The split area is dry looking with some of the telltale sawdust inside so I believe they were there at some time. I'm looking online for ways to help the plant cope although it can be fatal, sadly.

Quick update. I have a good suspicion that our veggie is a spaghetti squash. It stopped growing at about 4-5 inches and has slowly turned a beautiful shade of yellow. The skin is smooth. I inadvertently cut it away from the plant when I removed the leaves affected by mildrew but left it in the sling. The sun has warmed it and I think that keeping it off the ground was helpful. It kept it drier during some hard rains and away from the bugs.

I still have to figure out just when to harvest it. If I'm right about it being a spaghetti squash that seems perfectly right for a young girl to enjoy scooping out and eating!

Stay tuned!

So I am curious - was it a spaghetti squash?

Sadly after all my efforts I lost it!

It turned a nice warm yellow color and was solid but not knowing when to harvest I must have let it go a little too long. The day I tried to pull it off it was soft, fell to the ground and burst open. It was all mush inside. I have pix but have to upload to this desktop to post them.

Maybe you can provide some "post-mortem" feedback once I do!

Sounds like it got over ripe. You can set aside the seeds and try again next year. Just rinse them, dry them and tuck into a bag in a spot where they will stay cool and dry.