I just got my watermelons, winter squash and cantaloupe planted 2-3 weeks ago. Very late, so I hope something ripens in time. Many said 85-90 days to harvest, so hopefully will be okay. I forgot some of the varieties, but I know there is Crimson Sweet watermelon, Hopi pale gray squash, and Hale’s Best Jumbo cantaloupe.
They were taking their sweet time germinating, so I went through my seeds to see what else I had. I found some watermelon seeds I got from my stepmother’s fridge in Alabama in 2012 after she passed. They were labeled Foy’s watermelon after my sister-in-law’s father, from whom my stepmother presumably got the seeds. She never bought a seed in her life! Who knows how long she had them before I got them. Anyway, I planted them but was not thinking they would sprout because they are at least 14 years old. Every darn seed came up in 7 days or so.
Now I am terrified at what kind of monsters these may turn out to be. My recollection of those old southern Alabama farmers and their huge watermelon patches is what looked like miles of huge vines with monster size melons that I probably will hardly be able to lift at my older age. But they were always sweet and cold on those scorching summer days. May not have time to ripen here, but it will be interesting to see. I also planted some of her cantaloupe seeds from at least 2012. They all came up in 7-8 days also.
I am so hoping for at least a few good melons this year!
Sandra
Orange Crisp F1 (seedless) on the left, seeds from a red seedless on the left.
I’m wondering if the seeds from the seedless one will be normal diploid from cross pollination gone slightly wrong to turn out right? Or the hexaploid meiosis mishap theory resulting in viable triploid seed? Or something else?
Whatever it is will probably turn out ok. Unless there’s something horribly wrong (i.e. rot or picked completely under/over ripe) a watermelon from the backyard will probably be pretty decent. I’m not that picky.
I would love seeds from your Alabama watermelons if you can get them to ripen
@sgld If any ripen, I will definitely be saving seeds. Just message me this fall and I will gladly send you some if the melons cooperate!
Sandra
Question- started noticing yellowing on all my melon leaves. My strung out brain went to nutrient deficiency instead of the obvious (fungal) until today when I started seeing brown spots as well. The majority of plants on my property have fungal issues right now from the near daily rain and humidity (we have to be breaking a record?!!). I’ve never noticed anything to this degree before on melons but this is also only the 3rd year growing melons. Do they manage with it? Should I be concerned and attempt to do anything about it? Lots of melons on every plant since they recovered from the birds. The ice box watermelons look the worst.
my melon patch is in disrepair this year. bindweed took over early and I never caught up. they are vining though and flowering well. Minnesota midget melon, orangeglo, and replanted seed from collective farm woman and Kazakh melons from last year. I planted blacktail mountain elsewhere, near my nectarine tree, and it’s just starting to make vines. I’ll keep seed this year from the best and earliest ripening fruits to plant next year.
I think next year will be sowing the melon patch and pumpkins in the front yard and aggressively neglecting them all to see what can survive here without help. a test year
Love this.
First time growing watermelons this year and have been having too much rain with lots of melons splitting. I have had some success though with the jubilee melon and ambrosia cantaloupes. Learning when to pick the watermelons has a steep learning curve, I get so excited to harvest a melon only to find it under ripe.
First time growing cantaloupes. This is an f5 cross between varieties Edisto 47 and Trifecta. Flavor is very good.
I don’t usually care for cantaloupe, but that cut picture looks reeeeeeal nice!
@teerusty1
That is what that tiny ladder stuff is called?! I have gone to a couple stores trying to find it for the same purpose you have there. Haven’t been able to find it and nobody knew what I was talking about! Finally took a picture and still… oi.
That ladder- is it braces against the sides of the raised bed? It looks like it’s just in the middle of a bed here and wondering what is keeping it in place. Looks like super handy stuff to have around.
@Tiirsys @Eme Here’s a better pic from earlier in spring before vines got rambunctious. The ladder mesh is up against the sides and cost me $4.97 apiece at Home Depot. I’m going to use them for hoops for insect netting for fall brassicas too.
Thanks for the picture. What an awesome cheap trellis. I’m also impressed with the free hanging melon. I let winter squash hang, but have made nylon slings for melons concerned because their stems are dinky and storms seem to blow through daily.
Message me next year for some seed.
I’ve some seed. Unfortunately it’s a mix of torpeda (a premier Uzbek variety, not the Korean one with a similar name) and kolkhoznitsa (not an Uzbek variety, but a decent Southern Russian/Ukrainian variety) aka Collective Farmer Women melon, and it’s a bit old, but it should still germinate.
Kajari melon
Nice little melon. Aromatic, sweet, and very cute.
It’s pretty quick to ripen and productive. The flavor is sweet and honeydew like with a touch of the flavor you get in melon flavor boba tea. Texture is soft and somewhat juicy. Very thin skin. A lot of seed for the amount of flesh but nothing bad.
Great personal melon overall.
Rich Sweetness is winning the productivity race right now in my gardens. Thanks @Melon for the bakers creek tip! This was sowed even later than the rest, so it avoided being mauled by the birds, and the cucumber beetles and squash bugs focused on the more developed plants. These vines are keeping most of their fruit and not aborting like everything else with bacterium wilt or rotting vines. It’s been quite the summer. I guess one positive takeaway being that it’s good to start my melons in waves. Every year seems to be a learning year!
Does anyone know what tiny bright red spots on developing galia melons are? Whatever it is caused one to rot before the birds got everything. Now, I have tons pollinated and growing again, and I just started to notice the tiny red dots again. I can scrape them off, but not easily. I can’t find anything comparable online. Apparently, there is a red spider mite, but they aren’t bright red. Wondering what it is so I can figure out what to spray- neem, soapy water…??? I tried to take a picture of a few but hard to capture because they are so tiny.
