Haven’t heard of a lot of these varieties so thank you for sharing, I’m always looking to collect new seed varieties. What’s your growing climate like (do you deal with a lot of humidity?)? Excited to see how your winter squash and watermelon trials go!
I am going to grow pole bean,asparagus bean, lufa, winter squash. If I have enough space left, I am going to grow wax corns. Of course, some peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and leafy veggies. This year, I am trying to grow roselle in pots
Seminole Pumpkin was the hands-down winner for winter squash here last year… I had a near-total failure of weed control, but despite the bottom half of the garden being a forest of higher-than-my head Johnsongrass and pigweed, I still ended up with nearly 100 winter squash fruits, most of which were Seminole. South Anna (SeminoleXWaltham butternut) was #2.
Had a great crop of Roselle. It’s ‘cousin’, ‘Cranberry Hibiscus’ was a MONSTER… plants got to be 10 ft tall, sprawling, and eventually collapsed; never got around to flowering.
I got what I ordered, thanks. I’m not too ambitious but at the same time what I have will capture most of the area I’ve slotted for it.
I’m going the easy route this summer for veg/melon. 3 watermelon (orange crisp, monkey lee, moon and stars), Israeli cantelope, Jenny Lin melon, black futsu, king Ka ae zuchinni.
started my futsu and melons among other winter squashes this week. I like to start them in white disposable coffee cups that I save from work; they seem big enough to keep the plant happy until may when I can plant them out. just enough dirt that I don’t disturb the roots too much when moving them
we had futsu last year and they are lovely. medium, or small plants, lots of squashes from each. they look like little pumpkins almost, and have a really nice nutty taste. some kept well up until a month ago when we ate the last one, I store my winter squash in crates in the basement.
I am planting more candy roaster this year as we ran out early, everyone loves them and they keep really well. also more latah squash. not planting blue Hubbard for the first time, we still have 2 here that may not get eaten. planting the candy roaster replaced them in our diet, and the plants produced more, so I’m switching to those.
I’m going to try artichoke this year too though I’ve rarely had any success as our season is so short. I’m planting into the fabric pots and will bring in to the greenhouse at end of season, hope they will finish in there.
I have orange glow, farthest north, canary, collective woman and midget melon just starting too. thanks to the big melon thread here I was able to get some to produce last year, a first. having the short, very hot dry season makes some things more difficult to grow
edit: my Seminole made one pumpkin last year but the plant was enormous. I ended up using the flowers in stir fry as time got too late. I’ll try them again as it made really good ground cover in front of the house at least
I may still do some bell peppers and maybe, maybe, a paste tomato or two…but tomatoes are such pest magnets. Persian cucumbers.
And I promised myself to do a proper herb garden for cooking.
I do have a question: For the melons (musk and watermelon), is there any benefit / detriment to planting straight in the beds or small pots first?
No issue with late cold here. My only thought is it will be easier to keep the soil moist until a few leaves if it’s in a smaller container. I don’t know if there is an issue with transplanting on the vines early growth.
All curcurbits can be started in large containers meaning roughly a pint to a quart of soil. Do not leave them in the containers more than 16 days, they get rootbound if left longer. Very bright light and a small amount of fertilizer are needed as well as regular watering.
I am in Texas and it is good for melons and heat loving crops. Like watermelons be for the life of me cannot determine perfect ripeness. If anyone knows a variety that takes high heat and has some very obvious change like color that tells you it is ripe let me know. Also some of the watermelons have not been hugely productive so quite growing them. Used to do Honey Dews and they work fine it is just I had to wait to the end of the season and I get them all at once. Did that for a few years while exploring others. Did some asian melons and I think they are better in somewhat coolers temps as we are 100+F for 3 months. None produced a lot, some were not very sweet, and the one or two that were sweet didn’t produce a whole lot. So I explored some others like Kajiri (sp?) grew fine, taste was fine not spectacular, production modest.
Then finally hit the melon that fires on all cylinders and then some. Bought one called Model from Baker Creak. This is the one and am growing this exclusively. It produces smaller mellons in the baseball to softball size range, turn yellow on the outside and slip off the vine when ripe. These start producing fast and even did so in the cooler spring months since I happened to plant some very early, like around late march april 1 or so. To my surprise it was churning out melons by late may. I worried that the coming super heat would slow their production but no, they kept on going and going churning out these melons through the hot summer into the fall as it cooled again. It tastes mostly like a Honey Dew, with the occasional one having some hints of cantaloupe but that was rare. Very sweet. Green flesh inside, no issues with determining ripeness, and was fast at production and kept going. I was eating melons from late spring into the fall. So while the melons are smaller, they just kept on pumping them out. The only exception was when temps hit 110 range and the production slowed a lot, but 100 was no problem. Now I grow this one exclusively.
I can’t find the history of this melon because the name “Model” brings up so much other stuff unrelated to melons and could only find possible hits of what this is. It may be some time of Gallia cross but I am not certain. I believe it originated in Poland or thereabouts. If anyone has insights let me know as I am curious. These were open pollinated seeds for Baker Creak so they are not likely a pure type but they are all coming out the same with the only difference being a few show less yellowing at ripening. Taste is otherwise the same.
Tried Ha’Ogen the same year which was ok, not nearly so productive.
If anyone knows of other melons out there that little is known about that have unique but sweet taste and take high heat summers let me know. Not a big fan of cantaloupe (U.S.) flavored melons. Always up for trying something exotic but would like to get a greater diversity of flavor and ideally very sweet. Anyway, highly recommend the Model melons. I assume Baker Creak is still selling them but have not checked this year.
The other interesting things I am growing will be more Becca’s Purple Sweet potatoes. Very good one that takes the Texas heat in the summer well. Also trying a new leaf vegetable for the 100F summer called Jewels of Opar. Never done that one before so giving it a shot as it supposedly does well in high heat and tastes good not bitter. I can grow the regular chard etc. in the spring.
