Watermelon Growing

Harvested two Orangeglo. I don’t have a lot of experience growing watermelons, so hard to say where this fell on the ripeness spectrum. Pretty tasty, though.

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Looked really good.

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Here’s my entry!

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That is a good one

what were the brix on that thing?

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-32

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not many can get into the negative range

Wow! How many melons did you harvest from all of this?

Anyone grow this variety this year?

From Rareseeds,Com-

Navajo Winter Watermelon

85 days. Thick light green to striped rind; medium pink to red crisp, sweet flesh. Fruits have been known to keep for up to four months. Expect unusual drought tolerance from this eminent variety from the American Southwest.

Curious how did it taste? Really interested in how you can keep a watermelon for four months. If I could figure that out I would grow a whole field of them …

That was two years ago and I’ve long forgotten.

I know I’m almost 2 months late in saying this, but somehow I missed your above photos of your watermelons. Just wanted to say how nice they looked. As I told you quite a while back, almost every time I have a melon that has a point on it like one if yours did, it ends up rotting at that point and spreading to the rest of the melon. Boy, did you prove me wrong when I said I was afraid yours might do the same thing. It looks awesome!

As I recall this is your first time growing watermelons, is that right? If so, I hope lots of people take note. As Ray and I both say, watermelons are actually (usually) pretty easy to grow (if you don’t have freaking COYOTES!!!). Even with my awful experience this year with the coyotes, I still maintain that watermelons can be one of the most fun fruits to grow because you get so much yield for very little input and it doesn’t take nearly the expertise that tree fruits do (at least IMHO). I also think you grew one of the best melons there are out there.

Anyway, just wanted to offer a belated congratulations. I suspect you’ll be growing more next year? :slight_smile:

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That’s correct! First time and fairly painless as this was planted close to the south side of my house on post Fort Campbell and not out in my orchard. If I would have planted out in my orchard I am sure Coyotes or something would have pestered them. I will certainly go another round of growing them next year. :slight_smile: Thanks! Hope you have your coyote problem figured out next year. BTW how did your Spring Satin do this year? I think that late frost may of got them but can’t remember.

Do you mind me asking if you are active duty military? I knew you lived in Clarksville and you’ve probably talked about it, but for some reason I didn’t know you lived at or near the Ft Campbell base.
Spring Satin is probably my very favorite fruit I grow (though if you’ve been following my persimmon thread then you know that just this fall I’ve decided that Saijo Persimmon might have passed it or at least tied it.
But yes, I lost almost all my plums and peaches due to that late frost this year, including Spring Satin. I must admit that as much as I love Spring Satin, my tree has never been a really good one. I struggle a bit when it comes to pruning plum trees and I haven’t done a good job with Spring Satin tree at all. I don’t know about everyone else, but I think plums (and hybrids like spring satin) are much harder than peaches to prune correctly. Peaches seem to have a natural tendency to spread outward if you keep inward growing limbs cut. Plums don’t seem to do that- they tend to grow more upward and to some degree inward. They also don’t neatly lend themselves to a few main, large limbs the way peaches will if you prune them right. Again, this may all just be me, but none of my plum trees look as good as my peach trees.

Because my 3 year old Spring Satin doesn’t look great and because I love those fruit so much, I actually bought and planted a second one this spring! Do you ask about SS because you have one?

Yeah. I noticed same thing about Plum trees. They grow any which way it seems.
I think I’ll most likely get a Spring Satin soon. Although I still reside on Fort Campbell I am no longer active duty. I completed 25 years of active duty 2 years ago and retired from the Army. Having said that I still work with Soldiers everyday on post. :+1:

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Already prepping for next year.

Short-season watermelon seeds were received today from Fedco. Diana (76) and Blacktail Mountain (71).

Two ($2) bucks a pack. Shipping and handling out of Maine, only five ($5) bucks.

Their deadline to order is this Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017.

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Order Deadline for the seeds going in the ground next year is October this year? I’ll probably change my mind about what to plant thousand times between now and April next yr. I always order in spring of planting year.

Their seeds division takes a break for several weeks beginning in November as sales from their trees division picks up in earnest.

That makes sense. They are probably very busy with trees in the fall.

I ordered from Fedco sometimes in April this year. The seeds arrived promptly. I intend to order different wm seeds from it again next spring.

They have different divisions handling different things.

When do we start the Watermelon Growing 2018 thread? :relaxed:

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