Hi Christie,

That is one strange looking melon. It looks like it got its wires crossed somewhere. Only time will tell if it is diseased, malformed, or a unique sport. Diseased fruits tend to have either a greasy area or rotten spot somewhere.

I have a watermelon plant that was saved from a volunteer last year. The first fruit was 28 pounds and has a unique coloring....darker striping than usual. I haven't eaten it yet so I don't know how good it will taste

Christie

I agree. I haven't ever seen a melon with such markings. If it's good, I want a few seeds!

I think you should name it Godzilla for its scale-like markings...

And look at the distorted leaves.

Either weed killer damage or virus. I vote for virus.

The leaves by the stem in the picture do look sort of curled. I didn't notice that before. The leaves on the rest of the vine are normal looking though. It's been several days since I took that photo. I checked it again today and there are no rotten spots and the foliage still looks healthy. It's growing but not very fast.

This is just a guess, but maybe it needs more silica.

If I were you, I would look into how you could go about submitting a tissue sample to your closest land grant universities plant pathology diagnosis lab. I also suspect viral, or herbicide injury, but most likely viral (nothing close to most common viruses seen though)

Since this thread is almost 6.5 years old I think it's a little late to submit a tissue sample.

Rodney

Hi, it looks to me like it has either been cross polinated with another member of the melon family, or it wasn't sure if it wanted to grow a fruit or a leaf. As in roses, which aren't related. Sometimes they will grow thorns on the flower petals as the petals and thorns are also considered leaves. Just a thought.

Watermelons will only cross with citron and other watermelons. And if the OP's melon is the result of cross pollination, which seems unlikely, then the crossing would had to have happened to the parent plant that produced the seeds this plant was grown from.

Rodney

Looks like it may be related to "The Hulk"...don't get it angry.

How did it turn out after all?