What plant is this?

[ohsuzannah]

In the spring I emptied the contents of my composter into my small vegetable garden. Several of these plants are growing between the vegetables! Those are parsnips next to them.
Anyone know what they are?

Nasturtium?

Courgette/squash??

Looks like a courgette to me too.

Looks like a broccoli plant

without knowing anything much about vegetables - I thought courgette/marrow etc
😆

Or squash or courgette according to google image

Not nasturtium, I’m an expert on those :)

I just thought it looked similar to the ones that have self seeded all round my raised bed 🤦‍♀️ but the seed leaves are completely different.
Which are your favourite nasturtium?

Courgette/squash. Not broccoli, wrong shaped cotyledons (seed leaves), far too big. I can see why you were misled be the veining on the leaves.

It's a guest vegetable, as host you must ensure it flourishes.

Looks like squash/courgette… careful though, some weird breeds of squash can can make you ill. maybe if you didn’t plant it, don’t eat it.

Definitely squash or courgette but I wouldn't eat the squash as curcubits (squash family) can be mildly toxic if you grow them from saved seeds. Ask me how I know!! Only grow them from bought seed.

Yes, could be courgette, we eat a lot lol! I'm going to transplant them and see what the develop into 😌

@Eyelashesoffire how do you know? 😉

@Eyelashesoffire rather strange, I get seeds from the farmer that grows and sells them. How are his untreated seeds worse than packaged?

@TheOhGodOfHangovers i plant about 50-70 in a retaining wall bed in the full sun. i end up with all sorts of color combinations but always buy dwarf jewel mix. the cheaper the better ;)

6 inches tall but looking strong and healthy

I bet that looks great when they’re in full bloom! I put in one Troika Spotty Dotty last year and it trailed the full length of a nine foot bed.

i'll have to be on the look out for that one!! spotty dotty sounds fun :)

I grew some squash from saved seeds and the resulting squash wasn't like the parent plant and eating it gave me an upset stomach. I then found out that the 'mother' plant flowers are pollinated with pollen from any plant (father) and the resulting 'baby' seed can be a random mix, this is particularly true for squash as they cross pollinate very readily. The problem with a random mix is that you could get a great mix of genes from the parent plants something beautiful and delicious or something not so great. I definitely got something that looked ok but tasted bland and gave me an upset stomach. There have been cases of dodgy courgette seeds sold a few years ago that made people ill.

I'm guessing farmers have a large field of squash and so each mother plant is pollinated by the same variety. On an allotment or garden it could be pollinated by anything.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/problems/courgette-marrow-pumpkin-and-squash

Scroll down to bitter tasting fruit section. So if the fruit doesn't taste good, don't eat it!

They interbreed happily, and some of the resulting hybrids are problematic. Hopefully your farmer is taking measures to avoid cross pollination, even if by growing only one variety