Thank you.
Tippy,
Itās been cold overnight here, too, but I think weāre out of the woods now.
I scattered my watermelon seeds all over the place. I planted dozens and dozens- in my city backyard as well as up in the mountain clearing. Many of them were co-located in raised beds with blueberry bushes and fruit trees. I planted lots of seeds in a large pot with an excellent soil mixture, too.
Not much germination activity yet.
I may or may not have done this right, but I planted so many seeds, I imagine Iāll get some robust volunteers. Only time will tell.
1 Like
Mine have been under heat lamp. That may be why they have all germinated because every wm expert says seeds need heat, warm soil. Yours probably will come up after this cold spell has passed.
Or seeds from Fedco are better than those from Whilhite 
My seeds are mostly from Baker Creek, not Willhite.
I was looking to buy Orangeglo watermelon per all the good reviews above. Couldnāt find it at the nursery today. So I got a 4 pack of Sangria watermelon. Anybody has any experience growing Sangria? Hope itās a tasty one. My first year growing watermelon.
Susu,
I have a few Orangeglo seeds left. I can send them to you. I put them under glow light. They germinated in 3 days, maybe, too soon!!!
PM me if you want a few seeds to try.
Thanks I will pm you.
Hi susu. Iāve grown sangria a few times and it is a very good watermelon. It looks a lot like jubilee but the stripes are little less defined. The flesh is a deep red, which I like better than the pink color of many red watermelons. Sangria is really sweet, so most people really like it. One thing to think about, though, is that it is a really large watermelonā¦so its fairly hard to get into the fridge if your fridge is as crowded as mine! ha. Anyway, mine has always been good, and I think you will be happy with that selection. Just remember to leave lots of space in your garden- most watermelons (including that one) take a lot of space for vines and melons! Good luck.
1 Like
Thanks! If my biggest problem is finding room in the fridge, Iāll be happy!
1 Like
I solve the room issue by cutting out the best of a 30 lb melon. Cut it all out at once. Put in a tuperware container and cut the space needed by 50% or more. I can eat that in 2-3 days. It stores fine until eaten and itās so nice to get rid of all the rind at once.
7 Likes
Sangria is a very good melon, very elongated, very tasty!!
2 Likes
Itās a good day to be aliveā¦!! Motherās day, two months from planting my first melons, two weeks since it was 28F, and I have new melons emerging, fruit set on all the first planted melons, and sweetcorn on the wayā¦!!
6 Likes
Nice going Steve. I am going to grow some Watermelons this Spring too. We will see how it goes.
Tony
1 Like
Germination!
In this pot, I planted a mix of Blacktail Mountain, Crimson Sweet, Jubilee, and Moon-and-Stars.
1 Like
Will you transplanted them later? I thought I read somewhere that Kevin @thecityman said wm seedlings do not transplant well. Maybe, I āmisrememberā it.
Mine was under light so they have grown well. We just moved them out in the garage and hope to plant them out next week.
Direct seeded them into a large pot.
I probably just wasnāt clear. Certainly lots of people transplant watermelons without any problems and I have bought those plants they sell in walmart and set them out and done fine. But watermelon plants are far far more delicate than many plants-like tomatoes, for example. You can handle a tomatoe plant pretty roughly. You can even handle tomato plants ābear rootā and theyāll usually be ok. But watermelon plants are a lot more fragile. Doesnāt mean you canāt transplant them, just that they need extra care. They are also pretty brittle and will break easily. And transplanting them stuns them longer than other plants that get ātransplant shockā. Its usually several days before they start to grow. So yes, Tippy, I did give the impression that they are hard to transplant but I should have just said āhardERā. Iām sure Mattās will be fine. Sorry for confusion.
2 Likes
Is anyone growing Crimson Sweet watermelon this year? How good is it? I bought 6 vines from Home Depot today.
Tony
Iāve grown crimson sweet every single year for 31 years-including this year. It is one of my 4-5 āstandardsā that I grow each year no matter what else I plant. CS is definately one of the most common watermelons grown in USA (before seedless became so popular anyway) I know opinions and favorites vary, but this is a classic watermelon for very good reason. Highly productive per vine, sweet flesh with bright red color, thick rind for durability, round shape makes it easier to store than elongated melons, seeds are quite small for its size (those there are plenty of them!) If I could only grow one watermelon it would probably be crimson sweet- even over my beloved Orangeglo. CS never crack or get hollow spots in the center.
Are you getting the idea? Iāve grown 53 or 54 varieties of watermelons and have grown them 31 or 32 years straight (even during college and grad school!) and Crimson Sweet is overall my first or second pick. I hope yours do well.
Give them full sun, donāt be shy with all purpose fertilize (I know some disagree with that) like 15-15-15, give lot of space, Enjoy!
1 Like
Kevin,
Thanks for clarification. It is good to know that more care is needed when transplanting wm seedlings.
Iāe grown them indoors first in individual peat pots. It should be easy to just put the whole thing in ground.