NPR had this the other day…
All the more interesting since it’s something good coming out of SC.
I don’t understand why he’d be trying to breed a “cold hardy peach that can survive the winters in South Carolina”, though. It’s our humid summers that are tough on the soft fruit. The Sumter area where he lives barely gets minor freezes. If he wants to breed something cold hardy for the area, I think it should be limes, or some tasty banana other than Cavendish.
12 seeds for only $10 is MIGHTY generous.
Yeah I wondered that too Muddy. Up here peaches get knocked back/sometimes killed when we have a really tough winter but they shouldn’t in Sumter! Sounds like he is doing some good breeding with the watermelon though, which is great. Breeding for drought tolerance and disease resistance instead of just spraying and watering and putting craptons of fertilizer down. I took the plunge and ordered some seeds. I’ll report on how they do here. We shall see if they can out-hardy the mystery melons!
when i was a kid we had a small farm where we grew wheat , corn silage and alfalfa. One day a felow stopped and was visiting with my grandpa, he had been down in texas and stopped at a road side stand and bought a watermelon. When the got back to missouri they cut it open and were surprised to find out it was a yellow watermellon and the best they had ever had. He gave my grandpa an envelope of seeds from it. the next summer we planted about a half acre in the corner of an odd shaped corn field in the watermellons. They were soooo good , about thirty or fourty pounds and super sweet. The rind was not striped , just light green. He grew them for two or three years and gave them to family and friends. The last year he planted them I kept a mason jar full of seeds but i waited too many years to plant them and they werent viable. I have never been able to find what i thougt was a match. I guess that is how it goes, sometimes the memories are sweeter than the fruit.
Kate how did that Bradshaw Watermelon turn out? Has any one else tried the Bradshaw Watermelon and can give us an opinion?
The Bradshaw watermelon is all hype. The flavor and sweetness are at best average. They are soft fleshed watermelons. They do not have crisp flesh. They have a very short picking window. They’re only at peak ripeness for a few days. The flesh deteriorates very quickly after they reach peak ripeness. I love watermelons, but this is one of the worst varieties I have grown. I would not recommend them to anyone.
Like Castanea, I wasnt impressed. They are OK but nothing that special imho. I much prefer Orangeglo.
Thanks for the reply’s I’m going to put out Orangeglo this year for watermelons as I’ve heard such good reports on it.