There’s a grafted version of those seeds. $1.59 inc tax.
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This one claims to be sweetest variety on record at 17.7 Brix. Named something like “golden silky king”.
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That’s so cool! What other seed varieties do they have of watermelon and melon? Have you ever sent any to other countries because I would be interested if so! By the way, are these seeds hybrids or open pollinated? Google translate wasn’t too helpful.
I’m not sure what pollination type of seeds they were. I just took these pictures yesterday at the local garden center.
About 3 weeks in since sowing these starts. I have them in the sun all day now if it’s warm and clear, and I’m bringing them in at sundown to stay warm and get a few extra hrs under the grow lights. It’ll be time to plant some of these out soon.
The surprise winner of the get up and go competition is the muskmelon Petite Gris de Renne. I’m guessing the appellation refers only to the fruit! I’ve not grown many types of muskmelons but those I have grown have never held a candle to the watermelons vigor-wise. These may be a horse of a different color.
The other muskmelon, ‘Model’, is just about at the point where I need to split them (I sow 2 seeds per cell) and pot them up. Ditto the Cream of Saskatchewan. That seed was from 2015, so it took a while to come up. I DID have surprisingly good germination on it though.
Blacktail Mt. And Leelanau Sweetglo are sizing up well. They’re about on their 5th sets of leaves. They’re still standing up on their own, not quite ready to sprawl.
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A few of my watermelons are on the verge of starting runners. Another week should have them sprawling. I will till the middles and weed between hills in the next 2 or 3 days. With proper preparation, weeds will be limited in the watermelons and cantaloupes.
I just noticed this thread, didn’t read all of it, so my questions may be redundant.
We’re trying watermelons for the first time this year, just a Jubilee and Charleston Gray, nothing special. I’m not a big fan of them but my wife loves them. Are they deer magnets, meaning will deer get after them like peas or beans? I ask this because we have 3 plots and one is far from the house below our barn, so it’s not as protected as our other plots.
Crows, deer, and sometimes coyotes will go after watermelons. It is not as bad as cowpeas, but bad enough they need to be watched. Put them close to your house if possible.
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my melon starts are a week in the ground and about six inches high, one is starting to run out in vine.
I’ve got them in hilled compost in a patch of thick straw with landscape fabric underneath to warm it up.
what should I feed em? N, first, then later some P/K? anything that is specific good for melons?
I’ve got early gold, midget melon, and cantaloupe. two of each so far, and a Charleston grey.
Fun and games. A hail came up and I had to run out and cover what I could. There are 10-12 fruits up to several lbs forming. Any hail damage ruins a watermelon. The skin cracks open before it ripens and the fruit spoils. Maybe I saved a bit of damage.
You can see the size difference between my early started watermelons (approx 8-10ft spread) and the cantaloupe planted at a normal date.
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I set up the ground tarps today and planted the first of the watermelons. So far I have a 30x40 ft area tarped and I’ve laid it out for 25 plants in that space. I may add another 20x30 section. I planted all of the Blacktail Mt. and most of the Leelanau Sweetglo, since they were the furthest along. I’ll probably wait until the Cream of Saskatchewan size up a bit more to set them out. Not sure if I’ll do yellow baby again, but probably. Won’t be able to get starts for a bit I imagine.
This is the earliest I’ve set out my watermelons, and they’re sized up nicely too, IMO. If they ever were leggy, they’re not now. The roots have filed the 4” pots but no overly so. Good timing, I feel. And none of the plants are suffering for having been grown 2 to a cell and split when they had 2 or 3 true leaves.
I did ~5’ in the row and ~7’ between rows. I was going to put drip tubing down, but didnt and I probably won’t. The tarps moderate the soil moisture quite a bit, IME, and also make it easy to hand water. Each plant got 2 gallons of well aged composted manure, and the whole area they’re planted in got about 80 yards of pond muck spread and power harrowed in over about 8000 sq. ft or so. Looking forward to August!
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Anyone growing Red N Sweet? I got 4 plants just starting to run and 3 more sprouts in pots planted last week as backup. Hope all the hype about it is true. I got Evangeline Sweet Potato growing nearby. Another Louisiana release noted for its sweetness.
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That looks like a male flower. Watermelons tend to produce 5 or 6 male flowers before the first female flower is set.
My Ledmon watermelons have runners 6 feet long and have just started heavy blooming. I need to make one more run through with the tiller to keep weeds down and then let them grow.
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I have a row of watermelons planted in my flat garden this year… they have not run off the hill I planted them on yet… but will soon.
I have 12 ft x 12 ft… of space on both sides of the hill (borderless raised bed) they are planted on that they can sprawl out on and fruit.
I was thinking of covering that space with some old hay … or perhaps some type of low growing cover crop that the watermelon vines would get along with. I would like to improve the soil in those areas… letting old hay rot on it should work… and watermelon vines would love to run all over that…
But is there a cover crop that might even be more beneficial ?
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Yes, all the other unopened buds (7 or 8 in total) so far also look like male flowers.
Do watermelons grow sideshoots that turn into a second vine/growing tip?
Watermelons produce numerous side shoots from the main vine. Usually there are 2 or 3 shoots from the plant which branch into 100 or more smaller shoots as the plant gets larger. Some of the watermelons I grow produce shoots 30 to 40 feet long and may have several hundred side shoots. It is not a second vine as watermelons do not normally root along the length of a growing shoot. However, the additional shoots are very important in producing fruit, especially when it comes to sugar content. More foliage generally means sweeter watermelons.
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I just harvested my first Starbrite watermelon. It was only half normal size but ripe at most 40 days from pollination. I didn’t start pollinating until May 10. Planted ~ March 8. So 90 days from planting which is probably about the book value. And we had 5 inches of snow ~ March 18. My snow melons…!!
It’s not the best Starbrite I’ve had by a long shot. But it’s as good or better than the $8-10 melons I’ve been buying in the store. Most of those have been over or under ripe. This one was just right.
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starting to sprawl now. i set out the last of the melons today-,’model’ muskmelons ive been sotting on while weather became more melon friendly. i lost a few muskmelons to rot or wilt since we had a few weeks of cool damp weather. cucumber beetles have been bas this year. ive been sucking them up with a cordless shop vac. theyre hard to catch otherwise.
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