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New Jersey

I walked outside my house one day to notice about 5-6 little 'weeds' popping up near the side of my house. One was pretty large so I decided to see what it would turn into. It eventually grew some classic pumpkin leaves. I isolated it on the corner of my house and blocked it off. It started out a little thing about a month or so ago and is now about 7-8 feet long and being trained so it doesn't over grow a second transplanted pumpkin that popped up a week or so after the main one. The little one is well, still little, but is shooting off male flowers, most of the baby leaves have wilted and died, mainly because i was careless and broke a few roots off when i transplanted it.
The larger pumpkin is healthy, only a few leaves have yellowed out, mainly because of the fact they are being crushed by the other larger leaves. Only a small amount of powdery mildew on the older leaves. It is growing and competing with a small area of crab grass which is slowly dieing, I'll be pulling it out tomorrow morning so I can lay down some 10-10-10 fertilizer.
It has already started growing fruit, on which is about the size of a fist. Another the size of a quarter.
What is bothering me is, last year my mom had bought a few gourds and a couple pumpkins. So, the plant could be growing either a gourd or a pumpkin. What makes it harder is the mjority of the gourds she bought resembled the jack-be-little's but where, well, more gourdish like.
The largest fruit shows the typical shape of a pumkin but in each crease of the 'folds' there are lighter green stripes. The leaves of the plant are about 7" wide and maybe 10-12" long. The have 3 points and resemble that of a t-rex foot print. It's a single vine that is now shooting out a couple 'branches' of newer vines at random places on the main vine.

So my main question is, what the heck am I growing? I've searched and found nothing that resembles my plant.

8/24/2005 12:07:25 AM

New Jersey

My girlfriend definetly has a pumpkin growing, her's is growing right in front of her mailbox at the curb where we left a decent 18" diameter pumpkin to rot.
Hers though is going through infestation from vine burrowers, we cut two out today and covered the areas with soil in hopes of root growth.
She has one in her backyard which isn't doing so great, i accidently bent part of the main vine, and it is also under small infestation.
I added fertilizer, 10-10-10 and some insecticide to the front plant as it is the largest, at 4-5' in length.
I removed a second vine that was being cut off by a VB and burried it in some soil and fertilized it and watered it, looks droopy, don't care as long as the larger one starts to shoot some female flowers, only been shooting males.
I'm training it to climb the mailbox.

8/24/2005 12:07:55 AM