I haven’t grown Black Diamond in at least 40 years. It is typically a very large long season watermelon with rather coarse flesh. I probably would not grow it now simply because there are so many excellent watermelons that I still want to grow. Jubilee, Ledmon, Wibb, Yellow Moon & Stars, and Luscious Golden are among the best I’ve grown in the past. The Bradford’s I’m growing this year are definitely among the sweetest and best flavored watermelons I’ve grown. They have a thick rind and some of them had white streaks in the flesh. None of them had poor flavor which is saying something as most varieties will throw a few off flavor melons.
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What I pointed out was that any BD that was under 20 lbs. would
never ripen, no matter what, and to successfully grow BD you have
to have lots of room, like a farm. The only BD that I grow successfully in a back yard situation is Yellow Belly BD. Try it next time. It’s a very good melon
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Man I want to try those janosik melons, I barely even have room for the ice box sizes since I’m growing in containers and trellis.
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First Strawberry of the season. 21 lbs. Very tasty! A little sweeter than the first Janosik, but not quite as crisp. Another couple of days and it would’ve been getting overripe. By the look of things, I won’t approach my personal record of 42 lbs for this cultivar—but as long as they eat okay, I can deal!
Picked another Janosik the day before yesterday. Just shy of 16 lbs. Best melon of the season so far! Sweet, ultra-crisp—melon heaven! Actually, I’m eating it right now. 
Kajari melons have been sort of slow this year, but if I can continue keeping the cucumber beetles from wilting them, I ought to have some shortly.
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My 2 littles, my dad, and I picked another load this morning to get ready for the farmers market. My girls are getting spoiled, they just want to eat the hearts out of them, I guess they have been watching me too much. Picked a few Sangrias, anxious to try them compared to the others. I was not super impressed with them last year
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Well darn, I was getting ready to check brix on 4 melons and figured out that the refractometer I use to test my honey for moisture will not work. It does not go low enough on brix, it starts at 58% and ends at 90%. Too late though for Sangria, I already had it cut open. This is a really crisp and sweet melon this year, excellent on sweetness! The only negative of this melon is that it appears to have more and smaller seeds than other varieties. It has one little spot along the edge that showed discoloration.
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Lives up to the name! Love the color
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How’s your Queen taste? She looked nice.
Not expecting anything for this year, started them way to late, but here is my practice run. transplanted into 10gal bags and wire shelf for a vertical trellis
I already read that I should cut the vine After the first fertilized melon, so it can focus on one melon per vine. Since I have a late start, and the trellis is on one side and not very wide, should I cut any vines that are growing in the wrong direction and have the plant focus on just a 2-3 vines and melons per plant?
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Tastes good. Not the best of the best but a solid B+. It is very crisp and juicy which makes up for the brix being just a tad under top tier.
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My first Charleston Gray of the year 33.7 lbs and my 5th Sivan F 1 charentai melon, 3.9 lb (a large one for its kind).
Charleston Gray was perfectly ripe. Brix was almost 13, the highest brix of any watermelons in my 4 years growing them. Forgot to take pic of cut up CG.
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Vines are looking a little down-at-the-heels, but the watermelons are still rolling in. Here are a 28-pound Strawberry, and a pair of Janosiks— at 18 and 23.5 pounds. (I finally broke 20 on Janosik!)
It’s been a pretty good watermelon year here; and this has made up a little for some disappointments in other lines. Have partaken of one Janosik and a couple of Strawberries that were so sweet that they seemed to have been injected with syrup! Oh heaven!
Strawberry has, once again, been an outstanding and consistent performer, and remains my all-time favorite watermelon. But Janosik is no slouch either.
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Anyone make watermelon syrup ?
I have an excess this year of watermelon .
Eating all I can, freezing juice , and drying some.
So just looking for other options
Anyone have tips , comments , about watermelon syrup ?
Or other ideas of what to do with excess.
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How is dried watermelon? I tried dehydrating muskmelon and was underwhelmed.
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Dried watermelon is very sweet, good. Like candy.
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