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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