I enjoyed Yellow Doll the most along with Blacktail Mountain and August Ambrosia. All three tasted great and I have poor success with most melons - others could probably grow them even better 
Try Yellow Doll and August Ambrosia, if you can succeed with Blacktail Mountain these are just as good and reliable.
For cantaloupe last year I just planted what I bought at the local nursery, Athena, and they were truly coveted by my friends as the best melon they ever had.
It is a fruity smell combined with a slight odor of overripe bananas for me. Under ripe smells kind of tart and not fruity.
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Yes. Diana 76 is the same Diana melon offered by Fedco and other suppliers. 76 is the estimated number of days to a ripe melon post germination.
Thanks for your comments on Diana. I almost tried it this year, but decided instead to attempt Mini Love based on @ztom ās success with it in northern Ohio, and other factors.
Blacktail Mountain was a disappointment for me last year. It created beautiful crisp juicy little melons, but they never sweetened up for me.
Interesting: Your find on August Ambrosia. Maybe Iāll try that one. It sounds like a super early ripener; maybe 65 days post germination? The folks at FruitionSeeds say they are eating them at the beginning of August and throughout the entire month of Augustā¦ in upstate New York. That sounds incredible. When did you plant yours? When did they germinate? When did they ripen?
Edit: Now I see that FruitionSeeds lists August Ambrosia at 80 days. Thatās early but not super early. I wonder if they start theirās early in a greenhouse, and transplant them later to jumpstart their season.
Consider trying Georgia Rattlesnake. Put manure into a raised hill. Direct sow the seeds mid to late May - after all threat of cold is gone - right before a rainstorm and the summer heat are expected to arrive. Fertilize with dilluted MiracleGro several times (after rainstorms) throughout the season. Thin down to the strongest two vines. Last year, three melons matured for me- each one about 20 pounds. The largest was 24 pounds. The first one to ripen was picked on Sept 3rd. Kept in the fridge- They ate well all the way through September. They were a whopping success for me in northern Pennsylvania. Truly crisp, sweet, and juicy. They are cylindrical and cut into nice thick triangular wedges. Fat black seeds are easy to spit, clean, and save. Here I am with last yearās Georgia Rattlesnakes:
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I started seeds in flats just the other day and did make one four pack of this variety. You know Iāve never tried direct seedling, I always thought our season wasnāt long enough. I do the manure hills though, itās the only method that has worked for me. But my problem is the tendrils die off of every melon later than Sugar Baby, and without them I just canāt pick a proper melon lol Most of my late ones went overripe and had to give to the chickens. Do your spray your melons? I find the foliage dies due to some disease so by the end of the season it spreads throughout the patch. Spotted brown leaves until the vine just dies completely. Any idea how to prevent this? It happens every year. The early melons work because they ripen before this disease takes over the patch. I really wonāt want to spray chemicals on watermelonsā¦
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Tried melons here 4b Canada (3b USDA). Found they were not better than what I could buy and took up a lot of space. Swapped out for black currants and gooseberry that can not be purchased locally.
When I did plant them though I seeded indoors to get an extra 4-6 weeks of growth before temps drop/frost in Sept. I would think you would get better results with your attempts by seeding inside and transplanting than direct seeding outside.
Let us know how it goes!
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Over fertilizing is a thing with watermelon. Too much nitrogen will cause watery melons that donāt sweeten up and have white spots through the flesh. The standard recommendation is to use 8-24-24 fertilizer with approximately 2 tablespoons per hill of melons. Definitely do the manure compost in the hill too. Just donāt use too much nitrogen.
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I dunno. Google photos of fusarium wilt and anthracnose. They are the two principal diseases of watermelons.
Iām trying again one called Cal Sweet Bush watermelon. Container growing hopefully 2 of themā¦ .see what happens. Last year the seedlings died on me.
Iām sorry I didnāt see your question about Ali Baba in time, but Iām glad it isnāt on your final list. I am well aware that some people give it very high marks, but my experience was just about average. It was a good tasting melon with average crispness- which seems important to you. For me, it had a very low yield per plant compared with other melons. I also am 100% sure that the part about it making just one row of seeds is not true. There was nothing about the seeds that made them any easier to remove or lower in quantity from any other melon (except for heavy seeded melons like sugar baby and BTM).
Unfortunately I have only grown one melon on your list so I cant offer much more help. The one I have grown is Georgia Rattlesnake and I absolutely love it and it is sweet and crisp so you will like it too Iām sure. Good luck.
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@thecityman,
Could you please compare crispness of G.Rattlesnake with Charleston Gray and Crimson Sweet?
I like charleston gray pretty well because for me it is usually one of my first ripening melons- not so much because it has an especially short seed-to-ripe time (there are many with shorter maturity days) but because I grow a lot that have longer maturity windows. That being said, CG does consistently ripen faster for me than what is stated on the seed packets for them. Another thing I like about CG is that it is a highly productive melon in terms of fruits per vine. I also like the size - sort of a nice medium sized melon. I am not too crazy about the color. It has sort of a pale pink color so if you donāt know it it is easy to think they are under or over ripe. I like melons with bright red color. But you know all this because youāve grown CG! I donāt consider CG an especially crisp melon. Its not soft or mushy or anything, but also doesnāt have that crisp āsnapā when you bite into it.
You know from our past discussions that Crimson Sweet is one of my all time favorite watermelons. Its probably the most common watermelon in America and that is no accident- people gravitate toward what is good. You seemed to like it, when you picked it right, yourself as I recall. It is bright red and VERY sweet and yes, I think it IS a crispy melon
If there was a gun to my head and I had to pick whether CS or G Rattlesnake is more crispy, Iād probably pick GR as the most crispy of the 2 and certainly more than CG. But it is VERY VERY close. And if either one is picked just a day or two past peak ripeness (when they are still perfectly good to eat) then it would be the deciding factor. Otherwise, if both picked at the perfect point, they would either be a tie or GR would win. In fact, I think GR and CS have a very similar taste all the way around (sweetness, flavor, crispness, etc) even though they are very different shape (GR is a long melon, CS a round one).
Hope that helps a little.
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Where can I find Ledmon watermelons