Friday, September 10, 2010

A canteloupe seed does not a pumpkin make.


After much head scratching and Google research, I have come to realize that the pumpkins I planted back in July are really canteloupes. Yes, it's true.... and as embarrassing as this is to post, I think there is a good lesson here... not sure what it is yet, except maybe that labeling the bag would have helped.

I know what your saying: "Canteloupe seeds look nothing like pumpkin seeds!" Yet, in the heat of excitedly planting my rows with the kids, I my eyes (and brain, I suppose) failed me.

In my defense, I have never grown canteloupes or pumpkins, so I had no idea what they would look like on the vines. My suspicion arose when the canteloupe seeds in the compost sprouted. And when the "pumpkins" started to crack like canteloupes, that is when the real head scratching began (I thought maybe the pumpkins were splitting due to too much water (like tomatoes do sometimes)).

The more I thought about, it the more I do remember saving canteloupe (not pumpkin) seeds.

Oh well, good thing we all like cantaloupe in this family.

Fellow blogger, Carol, recently organized all of her seeds. Visit her blog to read about it.

2 comments:

Carol@KeepingUpWith said...

I think you got extremely lucky. Seems to me that cantaloupe vines produce far more than pumpkins, so good for you! Do tell if they are yummers! In years past, we had standing water issues and had to watch our poor 'lopes float and rot and rot and float!

Tom Barrett said...

Well, this photo shows the best one out of about 10. It may be the best I get this year, as the seed was from a store bought melon (like my watermelon). I was unaware of the unviability of saved seeds from store bought foods. However, I have learned a lot in the past 2 months thru this garden, and will be getting open pollinated varieties of everything for spring.