Melon Mania 2026

This kiwano rund hated the 100+ degree heat wave of the last 5 days. Pulled it today and planted more watermelon. If September is warm, should work out.

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Now THIS is melondramatic!

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i got a few yellow doll watermelon developing. patiently waiting my orange flesh honeydew to make a female flower.

Whats everyones experience with moon and star’s size? I avoided it because seed packets said they were 40+ lb melons, but at the store theyre icebox sized and round, 10 lbs max, which is what I prefer.

Online i definately see some are oblong and some are round, are there different strains floating around? which do you all prefer

Red moon & star is a relatively coarse flesh red meat watermelon in the 35 to 45 pound range. I have grown it in the past, but prefer others such as Ledmon.

Yellow Moon & Stars is a superb yellow flesh watermelon. While it averages 30 pounds, some are up to 40. I grow this variety about every other year.

There are some really good varieties of watermelon that are in the 10 pound range. Wibb for me usually averages about 15 pounds. It is arguably the best flavored small to medium size watermelon I’ve grown. Sandhill Preservation has it.

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Up here in the north i believe we have some trouble ripening longer season watermelon, but Wibb looks possible… next year i’ll have to place an order!

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Got a couple growing close together…Honeydew I think?

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My oranged flesh honeydew female flowers never open. Reallt confused. I check them daily and they just turn yellow snd fall off without ever actually opening

They could be aborting because of the heat?

possibly, if so not sure i will get any, its going to be hot again next week…

I have a limited amount of space so I planted a few watermelons in a recently set up blueberry bed thinking that they would provide a little ground cover. They have really started growing fast and putting on a few melons. According to my seed packet this is Red Rock seedless. The bed also has a couple of Black Diamond and Moon and Stars.


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Found some cantaloupes hidden in my grow bags after having mostly forgot I planted them.



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What is the secret to good healthy melon plants and good harvest? Anyone from the PNW with experience?
Thanks. :slight_smile:

They look amazing! do they taste as good as they look?

Petit Gris de Rennes about 6 inches diameter.

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Taste is subjective but I have very much enjoyed them. My wife and daughters very much prefer watermelon, however.

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as an update, it is now producing both the same sort of weird yellow female flowers, which i now suspect are aborting even when young, and a few larger, healthier looking female flowers. so maybe it was an age thing? maybe it was a temperature thing? i dont know

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Sneaky watermelon! It’s fun to find melons and I’m glad I’m finally finding them!

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I looked through my Kholodok watermelon vines a few minutes ago and found several 6 inches diameter. Kholodok is a storage watermelon which can be picked ripe and stored for several months.

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That sounds fascinating. I had no idea there were storage melons, thank you. Question though- is there a US seed source?

Glenn at Sandhill Preservation specifically requested that I grow them for him to retail next year. I first grew them in 2021 and sent Glenn a small amount of seed at that time. He has not been able to grow them since due to having too many varieties to keep up with. If you look through his list of varieties, you will see that he has 3 other storage melons. None of them can be stored as long as Kholodok.

Kholodok has a history of being developed from a watermelon/citron cross. The traits for long storage came from the citron.

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