It tasted rather bland but we have had so much rain. @thecityman said OG has a very narrow window of picking. It looked like it could stay a day or two on the vine but this was his first melon. Last year both of my OG were too late, with one being way too late.
Did I just mention rain. Here’s my Crimson Sweet. Serious crack it had.
You’re right. It should have stayed on the vine longer. Not totally ripe.
XPicked my Orange Glo yesterday. 35 days from fruit set. It was just right. Brix was 11, sweet and juicy. We had three guests over. They helped finished half the melon in no time. They raved about it, too.
That is just a shame about your Crimson Sweet cracking early like that. Rain often causes that and other times it just happens for no good reason. But it hurts.
What I’m puzzled by is the meat color. Usually by the time a melon bursts open like that it has already turned red. The size would also make me think it would have been red inside by now. Interesting.
I 100% agree with your (and @rayrose’s) assessment that your neighbor’s OG was a few days from peak ripeness, but if he was happy that is great.
Most of all, I’m glad you finally got a well ripened OG for yourself, and it sounds like you got to experience why they have such a good reputation!
OG is one beautiful melon!
Hurray!
Raspa has been the clear winner in our garden this summer. Its pink flesh has the best flavor of any red watermelon I’ve eaten. Of course, our OrangeGlo and Gold Strike have been delicious, but I had trouble picking the OrangeGlo at just the right time. The first was underripe. 10 days later, the second was overripe. The third was perfect. The fourth was overripe. The fifth was underripe.
We’ve picked probably 6-7 Raspas this year, and they have all been flat-out outstanding, so I’ll plant a lot of these next year. Here’s a shot of my son proudly using my pocket knife to cut one from the vine about 3 days ago.
As an aside, as we were hauling this melon and two others in, my son looked at the knife wistfully and said, “Dad, this knife is the perfect size for me!” – a subtle hint, no less.
Al,
I hear you regarding a guessing game of when OG ripens. In fact, guessing when to pick a watermelon, any watermelon, is quite challenging to me.
Yesterday, I picked an OG at 35 days. It was just right.
Today, I picked another OG at 36 days. It was a tad too early. For this one, picking it at 37 days would be just right.
With a big flat side.
Kevin,
The CS that cracked was far from ripening. It would have needed at least a week or more from what I could tell.
Glad you told me how narrow the window of ripening OG is. It is a tough one to get right.
I lost over half of my watermelon early this year where we were having 1-3 inches of rain literally every day. It was depressing to walk out on the weekend to get what would have been 20-25 lb. Watermelon and they were all split wide open crawling with bugs!
@mamuang, I guess I just got lucky with the OrangeGlo last year. Four out of five were perfect. The fifth was a bit overripe, but it was delicious.
This year, I knew better than to pick the first one when I picked it. Although it had most of the signs of ripeness, I knew that the plant had only germinated some 60-65 days earlier. I picked it anyway so as to make it the sacrificial melon while a much larger one from an older plant sat there untouched. Next time, I’ll heed my own judgment–I hope.
Today my son and I picked three Gold Strike watermelons. We weighed and then cut open one. It’s perfectly ripe, with the melon cracking open as soon as the knife punctured the rind. It weighed just over 14 lbs, with the other two each weighing just a bit less. I’ll sample it tomorrow after it sits in the fridge all night. Updates later!
Picked the first of two Orange Glos yesterday. I transplanted it around May 15, but didn’t make note of when the fruit formed. It probably could have ripened longer (brix was 10), but it was soft and mushy in the middle and that probably would have got worse if I left it hang on. The rest of the melon was very crisp and very tasty. If I can improve them even a little bit by using black plastic mulch next year, they should be excellent.
Another lucky pick one of OG. This one was 36 days from fruit set. So far, my OG have been about 35-36 days. Brix was 10
Thank you.
I have not pick the OG+WW correctly yet. Missed it twice already!!!
That looks great, @mamuang! Next year, I’m going to make an effort to count the days from fruit set.
@ztom, I feel your pain. I had one like that, as well as another more overripe than that. What I could salvage tasted great!
I just picked two more Gold Strike this evening, and they’re in the fridge now. We’ll see this weekend how they taste.
