I am confused, am I growing cucumbers or watermelons

[monroele]

Every year I try to grow wildflowers from store bought seeds and every year the result is no wildflowers, but some cucumber-like plants growing in locations where there is not enough room or good soil for them. And they usually die before the fruits are ripe.
This year the annual cucumber-like plant grew in a newly created raised bed and grew and grew and grew. It developed very long vines and many small yellow flowers and I decided that it must be a cucumber plant after reading about it on the Internet. I learned that cucumber do better growing on trellises and bought one. The vines suffered a little bit when I attached them to the trellis but now the first fruit or vegetable is developing. Until a few days ago I still thought that it is a cucumber though it looked a little bit more like an avocado in shape. Now it is getting rounder and rounder every day and I doubt that it is a cucumber.

Could it be a watermelon? Should I lower everything back on the floor? I live in the desert, so it is hot enough for watermelons. How can I determine what it is? Unfortunately I also cannot figure out how to post a pic here to show you what it looks like.

 

[digitS']

Lobed leaves, Monroele . . . a little like oak leaves?

If so, maybe it is a watermelon. Lemon cucumbers are round. The leaves are a little different but much like the leaves of other cucumbers.

I'm not very familiar with vining weeds in the desert. (It might help others to know which desert. TEG has a few gardeners who live in desert areas . Doesn't it seem surprising that you are getting melon or cucumber seeds in your package of wildflowers each year?

Scroll down to Figure 3 on this webpage to see the difference between watermelon and muskmelon leaves: Melon and Watermelon

Here are typical cucumber leaves: Cucumber - Leaf

Steve

 

[monroele]

thank you, Steve. Actually the plant looks like the third picture under figure 3 in the watermelon link you send me. Not so lobed like the first one and not quite like the second one, but the leaves and the flowers of the bigger picture below the two look right. But it does not say what plant that is.

After looking up lemon cucumber it could be a lemon cucumber, but it is dark green so far and from the pictures I found on the Internet of lemon cucumbers, they seem to be smaller, mine is already approaching the size of a small melon, but it is not perfectly round .
I am in the mojave desert.
As to the plants I am getting from the seed packets I have to say that I am very disappointed. Only the sunflower seeds seem to produce sunflowers, the rest I am getting is mostly weeds and maybe one or two plants. It is cheaper to buy plants at the nursery.

 

[monroele]

mg]

I am working on learning how to post pictures. This is my mysterious cucumber-melon

 

[NwMtGardener]

Well, whatever it is, it's kinda cute! welcome!

 

[monroele]

Thank you for the welcome, NwMtGardener. I tried to look at your page, but I am only getting a blank?

Now, that I figured out how to upload pics, I wanted to create a page and was looking for some inspiration.

 

[digitS']

I think, it may be a squash . . .

 

[NwMtGardener]

Um, HAH, this is how unobservant i can be. Since you pointed it out, monroele, i have just noticed the link that says View My Page. What the heck, and how DO you do that?! Now i'm checking everyone else's out for the first time!!!

 

[vfem]

I'm going with a kind of melon... something like cantaloupe. Those look just like mine, and they stay green until the skin becomes the beige webbing. I say it's pretty neat to find something new like that!

 

[monroele]

vfem, thank you, I will let you know what it finally is going to be....
So far I have not ventured into growing vegetables. I have a small yard and when I bought the house twenty years ago I was most concerned about getting shade and planted too many trees. Now I have all the shade I want and now I want to grow flowers and maybe berries. I am very impressed with you growing everything from seeds, because my attempts to grow from seeds end up in melon-cucumbers while I expected poppies, yarrow and other wildflowers. I just do not understand how I get cucumber plants every year from my wildflower seed packets?? Where do you buy your seeds?

That cucumber plant took over all the space in my new raised bed and I had to buy a trellis to prevent it from killing all the other plants. I would be happy with cucumbers, which I like to eat and I like melons, so I hope you are right and that thing develops into an eatable melon.