2018 Orangeglo

I’m glad you’re enjoying it. It looks great.

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Ahmad,
Absolutely beautiful melon! And my all-time favorite variety. Aren’t watermelons just so much fun to grow? Pound for pound, I think they are one of the easiest, and certainly the fastest, fruit to grown from seed to harvest. There is just something about picking a large, heavy watermelon and carrying it to the house or deck. Then there is that moment of excitement when you plunge the knife in and hold your breath with anticipation over whether it will be overripe, under ripe, or perfectly ripe! I always like it when I stick the knife in and the melon just sort of cracks itself open. This is usually a good sign in my experience (not always- can be a sign of overripe) so I love that sound. And as we have all said before, Orangeglo has a wonderfully unique taste. There is also just something fun about any orange/yellow watermelon. It is amazing to me in this day and age that there are still so many people who have never seen an orange or yellow watermelon. A couple years ago I was volunteering for a local non-profit organization and I worked a booth they had at a 4th of July festival in my town. We sold watermelon by the slice as a fundraiser and awareness campaign. We had mostly red watermelons but by luck we found about 20 Orange ones at the farmers market. I was just shocked at how many people would come up and be in awe over the orange ones and say they had never seen them. I also had SEVERAL people who would tell me matter-of-factually with a bit of smugness that the orange watermelons were orange because they had been grown too close to cantaloupes and had crossed with them!!! Seriously, I heard this probably 4-5 times that day from completely different people. I was too busy to explain ridiculousness of their claims so sadly those same people probably still believe orange watermelons are part cantaloupe! hahaha

But I digress. (who me? never!). My point was to tell you that you have a beautiful melon there and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, and you sure picked a good variety to grow, thanks in part to @rayrose it sounds like. Hope you have more to come!

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@thecityman You know Kevin, although watermelons are not as sweet or flavorful as stone fruits or many other fruit types, nothing quenches one’s thirst on a hot summer day like a sweet, cold watermelon and nothing competes with a watermelon on a picnic day… Because of that, watermelons hold their special place on my list of favorite fruits…

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@thecityman,
The sacrificial orangeglo was about 2 days overdue. Its taste and texture was fine. Brix was 12 which was high for watermelons.

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A lot of my OG’s were over ripe this year. Doesn’t usually
happen. This has been a strange year. Melons have all been
ripening faster than usual.

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Yours looks better than my first, which I opened up yesterday. Mine was yellow and didn’t crack open when the knife hit it, like the Crimson Sweet I opened a couple days prior did. Still, yellow orangeglo is better than any other watermelon I’ve had. I can see how the sweetness could have been more intense. Flavor wise it seems to be similar to the yellow vs red raspberry, just a different experience. I hope to be able to get one of my others at peak ripeness.

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I did count days to ripen. So far, with this method, the second OG worked out, too.

The first OG in the picture above was very sweet (brix 12). However, a few days later, we cut our first Charleston Gray. It was excellent. I like CG (that one) better that my OG if that’s possible :joy:

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I picked mine because the skin was getting a yellow hue. There was a small yellow spot on the bottom. It wasn’t as big as they are on the watermelons I look for in the grocery store but in the back of my mind I was thinking of the watermelons in previous years (mostly Crimson Sweet) that I let go too long. Some explode in the garden, many just get overripe so that the center is a bit mushy and the parts around that are excellent.

I tried Charleston Gray one year but had no luck growing it. I’m sure it was my fault.

For the past several years my garden has been unsupported raised beds that get leaves + manure in the spring, and grass clippings for mulch as the season progresses. My 70 year old neighbor, who rototills his garden and doesn’t believe in the raised bed thing, never seems to have as much luck as I’ve had with watermelon. His Crimson Sweet were barely any bigger than Sugar Baby watermelons.

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