Volunteer winter squash success

Well, my idea from last fall looks like it has some merit.  I broadcasted hundreds of OP winter squash seeds (mostly Maxima, but some Moschata as well) on the surface of my garden plot, then covered them with the halved pumpkins/squash skin side up to essentially simulate a rotting pumpkin with seeds inside.  Over winter, everything decomposed beautifully, enriching the soil & protecting the seeds from excessive cold & snow.  I knew there was going to be a high number of seeds eaten by rodents, & there was.  However, after hoeing the weeds & loosening the top layer of soil a bit, I now have a number of seedlings/volunteers to continue my locally adapted "survivor" stock.  This may come as no surprise to some, as I've heard about squash growing from compost bins, but I wanted to test this idea for myself & perpetuate what survived the rodents, birds, decomposition, & winter elements.  I don't know yet what they'll yield, but I think they should still give me good eating squash for winter storage.  I'm certain that if I simply planted seeds now, they'd grow just as well as the volunteers, but maybe there's something special about these survivors that makes them hardy and worth saving seed from (if the flesh is good)?  We've all heard about "survival of the fittest", but there's also a theory of "Survival of the luckiest".  Either way, I have squash plants that endured more than the seeds stored safely indoors did, so I suppose that's something...

Have you ever had volunteer squash?  

Well congrats!!
I have lots of volunteer local squash (orange flesh, the internet tells me the closest comparison is striped cushaw? we just call it pumpkin). The neighbors used to farm my lot before I bought my house and I really think the seeds just keep coming back. Every year I let a few go and harvest the squash. They're not super tasty compared to kabocha (which don't do well here, too cool), but I have two dogs who regularly need to eat low-cal-high-fiber and so I store the squash for them or for things like muffins where intense flavor isn't really required.
I do keep an eye on weather trends, and in the years that are drier they seem to do better and I let more of them run, although the pests ignore them entirely. Recently we've had a few La Niña years in which squash and roses seemed to go gangbusters. This year it looks like it will be a Super El Niño and I'm not going to let more than a few grow (since when the weather is wet they do offer great habitat for stinkbugs that eat other things in my garden).
But the rabbits eat the skins/innards and a few seeds usually slip by them and go into the compost, and I will have squash going for a long time, hopefully.
I hope yours also turn out to be resilient and a well-adapted landrace for you!!

Well I've never had volunteer squash. I do count on random heads of lettuce popping up all over my garden in the spring.

Good stuff!

I get volunteer squash in my compost piles all the time. Trouble is, our favourite varieties are hybrids so we have no idea what we'll get from the volunteers. If I have space I replant them for laughs. If not, chop chop chop.

So, I'm up to 10 volunteer squash seedlings so far.  I'm theorizing at least one is a Moschata since it has the silver veining on the leaves, one pepo (most likely sugar pie pumpkin since it's a smaller seedling), and the others are most likely Maxima.  Time will tell of course, but they are looking strong despite the drought with no rain in the 10 day forecast.  I haven't watered at all yet, and there's no drooping leaves.  Also of note, they are doing better than the ones I started indoors & transplanted.  This is more than likely due to having to repot a couple times.  We'll see how this develops, but as of now the only difference is the transplants being older, are blossoming daily, while the volunteers are just taking off.  I suspect they'll have more vigorous vines in the long run, but so long as I get good food to put up, and strong seed stock, I'll be happy.  

Mid-season update: The 10 volunteer winter squash are surviving the onslaught of drought & pests, & have hit their stride with some fruit & more female flowers each week.  So far, here's what I'm seeing...

The small squash plant that I originally thought would be a pepo, most likely an ornamental gourd or pie pumpkin, appears to actually be a hybrid melon of honeydew/cantaloupe origin (Sugar Kiss/Honey Kiss, something like that) (I did compost all of my melon rinds & such in the garden last year).  These were delicious melons, so I'm hoping for a good surprise in flavor.  There's currently two melons on the vine that are smooth & pale like a honeydew, but do have a bit of netting as well.  As there are no other melons in this family for some distance, there's a strong chance it was self pollinated.

2 of the 9 remaining plants turned out to be bush types of Pepo pumpkins.  One is a tiger striped orange & yellow ornamental & has produced 5 pumpkins.  The other one is sugar pie pumpkin & produced 3 fruits before I stopped new fruits from forming to focus growth on the 3.  These 2 plants are right next to each other, so cross pollination has most certainly occurred.  I will make pies for gifts with the sugar pie pumpkins & gift the orange/yellow tiger striped ones as fall decor.  

The remaining 7 are a mix of Maxima & Moschata, and exhibit a wide variance in fruit shape so far.  One early producing Moschata is already tan & has a good medium/large cheese type on it.  Another Maxima has a bright yellow long immature fruit that I can't wait to see what it matures into.  Another looks to have a triamble shape to it, with another crown shaped, and another half-dozen that are growing large fast, but still too immature & green to tell yet.

The one stand out plant with the most beautiful variegated green/white leaves was hit by pests pretty hard early on, but has rebounded on its own.  I'm not sure what it will produce, but I did notice it finally has female flowers now after being setback earlier.  I'm excited & hopeful to get something off it.  I did have 2 large green/white cushaws in the pile, but I've not seen anything with a neck yet.

Great update Cy!  Sound like you have a good mix of squashes.

I've had mixed results with volunteers in the past. Some volunteers produced straight up ready-for-the-grocery-aisle acorn squashes. Some were colorful ornamental type pepos. Some just produced masses and masses of foiliage and and few weird dry zuchini-type squashes that were not worth the space the plants took up.

I get volunteer squash, tomatoes and peppers all the time in the compost and garden...this year I planted two sickly rock melon plants and the garden one fizzled away and the one I planted right next to the compost is thriving...I thought that might happen

You got a nice combination of squashes there.

My volunteer winter squashes grow better than those I intentionally planted. I have several piles of them and the best ones have only a handful of strongest squash seedlings that made it through the elements.  In the pile that the condition was too favorable hundreds of seeds all sprouted and got too crowded and weak.