I was interested in how close to the 30 to 40 days that literature says from pollination to fruit maturity under ideal conditions.
I don’t think many melons will ripen 30 days from pollination. But I’ve never kept track.
I have kept track but only of Crimson Sweet and Charleston Gray. From the day it sets fruit to ripen is about 55 days (between 50-60 days.) I put a popsicle stick with a date on each watermelon so I know.
To count days from putting plants in ground or from seed sprouting to ripening seems odd to me. This is because a plant can set several watermelons at different time. They can be 10-14 days apart. If I count days from planting to picking, I could pick one perfectly ripened melon but the rest could be underripe as they are 10 -14 days younger than the first one.
Counting days from fruit setting to ripening is very accurate for me. I don’t think you could do that in a large scale. I have only 7 plants. I can do it.
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I ran across a Chinese study using Cream of Saskatchewan and a popular red fleshed one LSW 177. After 42 days brix was declining indicating overripe. Field grown, hand pollinated and I assume only one fruit per vine. Pic attached.
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I posted earlier that watermelons have a 3 day window for best flavor. I’d rather know the indicators of ripeness and pick them at the right stage vs timing it on a calendar. I used to pick watermelons for local farmers (when I was 16 to 19 years old) growing up to 20 acres of watermelons. With a bit of practice, it is fairly easy to hit that window 99% of the time.
What a great experience…well looking back at least…maybe it was tough while you were doing it.
Since this is my first year really growing a few different melon varieties, I’d be happy just to learn these particular ones on their ripening time.
And agreed it makes little sense to count days in a vacuum. The amount of rain, light, temps, etc all will change any particular locations maturation time.
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I love Crimson Sweet, not only because it tastes very good, it has a long picking window.
I stops growing Orangeglo because the picking window is very narrow. Underripe and overripe in a matter of a week. Not for me.
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So what do folks use to cover your melons to protect against sunburn?
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Sometimes the vines. Mostly nothing. Even in 100 heat mine have been OK.
I’ve never experienced sunburn on melons and watermelons; not even last year when we were hitting over a 100 for multiple days. Since I plant them close, the leaves overlap and shade the fruit.
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My first one didn’t make it.
This is a pic of another from last week though. It’s continued to get larger since and there’s a couple small ones. About as far along as the first one was. Is that just how they abort, or did skipping watering a day when it was pretty hot do it in?
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If it aborts the fruit it could be a pollination issue. Try to hand pollinate with multiple male flowers early in the morning. Last year I could hear the bees from the patio doing their work in the patch; however, I would hand pollinate a few for practice.
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If you’re going to hand pollinate I recommend using a kids watercolor brush and you’ll have great success. You can see how much pollen you’re getting on your brush and very easy to see if you’re applying it thick enough. I do this every year from the first female flower on and get large early setting crops.
The bees have been pollinating mine. I now have 8 melons. I better give them some mulch. Otherwise I have too many tiny melons, maybe a bit of blood meal for leaf production.
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This year I am growing seedless watermelons for the first time. Growing orange crisp, triple crown, and harvest moon from park seed along with ultra cool from ferry Morse. Also have many seeded varieties growing- red moon and stars, strawberry, Janosik, Georgia rattlesnake, and Sangria. Here’s how 1 of 2 patches looked a week ago.
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How you be certain that each plant get enough water (even rain water)?
Those plastic does not look like it allows water to go through to the soil.
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I have a large cut out at the base of the plants and small slits in the plastic.
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Georgia Rattlesnake and a Blacktail Mountain have set fruit in the garden (seeds from @Matt_in_Pennsylvania ), Lilly and Crimson Sweet have not set, yet. Don’t know if I can ripen these this far north, but it’s fun to try.
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Ive found that in my climate, a tarp will keep the soil moist rather than dry it out. For melons, I make an x-shaped pair of slits and fold the flaps under. When theyre young (or in a drought) Ill water the crowns. I wind up with some pillows and cradles in the tarp due to slight contours in the soil. While the plants are still small, I look to see where the water pools up and make some small slits so that the water drains down. My melons grown this way have all been big for their variety. I picked a 14 lb. Blacktail Mt. yesterday. Most sources seem to indicate ~ 8-10 lbs. being typical.
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You seem to have a good system What is your preferred plastic @MNmelons ? Ive been using old tarps. Ive used lumber tarps- the big ones for units of 16’ lumber are ~ 12 x 20’ and are usually white one side/black on the other. Theyre free but can be a pain to patch together. This year I used a couple of 20x30 tarps I bought to do occultation of the site where I erected my high tunnel.
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