Watermelon Growing

Adorable children!

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Fence, tall fence.

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Yep, I’m staring off thinking 6’ fence.

Dax

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Excuss me, but thats 2 sugarbabies!!

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Almost ready to pick this one…Crimson Sweet grown in a 15 gallon pot. There is one more after this about the same size. Feels heavy. I’ll weigh it when i pick it…and I’ll add up the total weight of the melons grown in a pot. I also have to see if the melon rooted into the ground at all since the pot is sitting on dirt. So far much success.

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I was going to say that! “Nice sugar babies, but what’s the melon?”

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First of all, thanks for your comments. I’ve been repeatedly referring back to your advice and that of @thecityman on various watermelon posts all summer.

Just picked three of these four, albeit one by accident. I had picked it up to check the bottom when I broke the stem.

[quote=“rayrose, post:836, topic:6222”]
They’ll keep in the refrigerator for a long time, and should be placed there after picking. If you don’t already have one, you’ll find it necessary to have one designated just for melons. [/quote]
…and here’s where they ended up–the melon/apple fridge.

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We picked a bunch tonight only ate a few

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Son!

How big is your garden plot, @Mpigg? How many varieties are you growing?

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That’s a mighty big refrigerator. Is it all refrigerator and no freezer? I tried buying
one like that, but couldn’t find one that I liked.
You’re going to be eating watermelon for a while. Enjoy !!

7 varieties. We have about a 100x100 feet. Not real big but more than I can keep up with.

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I did taste another one, which was the largest of the bunch. It started to get lighter in color, so some stripes became visible. But they are not noticeable in the picture.


I think it was fully ripe. The taste was a little better than before but not very good anyway. The middle was mildly sweet and the sides were not sweet at all. So it was quite disappointing variety. It grows so easily and it looks nice, I wish it would be sweeter.

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Most likely an established pair of coyotes have been raiding your patch and have now taught it to their latest litter so instead of one or two you have a pack of thieving coyotes after your melons.

Anthony

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The picture is deceiving due to the field of view as captured by my cellphone camera. It’s a standard-sized refrigerator., but I wish it were bigger! The watermelons are not as big as they appear in the pic, nor is the cantaloupe. The cantaloupe in reality is smaller than, say, a volleyball, but it appears larger in the pic.

Same applies for the watermelon patch pic.

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That WM looks perfectly ripe to me.

I harvested my last Janosik and again it isn’t as good as the first fruit which also was the smallest one.

As you say it is rather mildly sweet but crisp and very juicy. I still enjoy eating it :slight_smile:.

How has your weather been? Our summer is none to speak of, quite cold with only some hot days and a lot of rain. So I don’t want to judge this variety by only one season. Maybe they improve with more heat and sun. I will grow them again next year.

I am still very suprised how easy it was to grow my own WM. Never looked into it before cause I considered WM a fruit for long and hot summer.

Janosik grew in my greenhouse, which worked like a charme. Only real drawback was the difficult pollination. I hand pollinated, but still got only 3 fruit out of 3 plants.

I also grew some Blacktail Mountain outdoor. I lost 2 of 3 plants to high winds (used landscape fabric without some structure to hold on for the plants). The last plant did set a lot of fruit but did so very late. Pollination outdoors worked much better. I did not hand pollinate. The one harvested fruit was quite small (2 kg) but very very good. Maybe the other fruit won’t make it to ripeness, cause the plant already looks like drying back. They don’t seem to be very long lived…

I will definately grow Blacktail Mountain again next year.

My father is growing some sweet siberian in his greenhouse. He had the same pollination issues as I. It took him until end of juli to get some sets. Now we are waiting for his fruit to ripen.

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Have to be getting close? Should I rotate them or anything or just wait patiently?

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Did you look at the bottom to see if what is white is turning yellow over the white? That’s what I’d look at if the nearest tendril is gone. If the nearest tendril is brown and not green anymore it should be ready. You’re supposed to look at the tendril nearest the fruit. Of course I would still say it’s a good idea to carefully lift it to see the color on the bottom.

Dax

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Definitely seems to be turning from white to yellow. However, nearest tendril still solid green. :+1: I will continue to engage, monitor and report. Thanks Bark.

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Sure thing.

Dax

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I picked my Crimson Sweet… :frowning: not fully ripened. I’m running out of time up here and next week looks coo (its in the 60Fs right now)l. I have one more growing but i’ll just leave it for another few weeks…need fruit setting by about the 4th of July around here it would seem.

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