Favorite small watermelons?

15 years ago

What are your favorite small watermelons? I love the big ones, but I have trouble eating an entire 40 or 50 pound melon so I'd like to concentrate on the icebox types.

I've had success with SugarBaby, Black Tail Mountain and New Queen, but would like to try a couple more.

Taste is the most important factor, then come "weirdness".....yellow flesh, spotted skin, etc.

So, what are your favorite small watermelons?

Thanks!

Bart

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Comments (10)

farmerdilla
15 years ago
Best of the bunch, red:
Micky Lee, Fordhook, Sugar Baby, Stone Mountain (Wetzels)Wilson Sweet
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Yellow: Yellow Doll, Golden Honey
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White: Cream of Saskatchewan
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
15 years ago
Yellow Doll is delicious if it gets to be 7 pounds or more.
Tiger Baby [red] is delicious if it gets over 10 pounds.

Generally, I prefer the full sized ones as I think they tend to have more full flavor. 40 or 50 pound?? I haven't so far been tormented by too many that size range!!
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fusion_power
15 years ago
Try Ledmon from Sandhill Preservation. It is pink interior, about 10 pounds max, and perfect for the icebos. One warning, it has the explosive gene. The melons are NOT shippable. Grow them for your own use only.

DarJones
denninmi
15 years ago
Yellow Pony is another good, small yellow-fleshed melon.

DarJones -- what do you mean by the "explosive gene" -- is this in reference to those melons that seem to be so crisp that they sort of split in half the second the knife pierces the rind?
staticx
15 years ago
i think dar means that they split when there is pressure on the outside rind.thus being the reason of them not being able to be shipped.
fusion_power
15 years ago
The explosive gene causes a watermelon to build up so much water pressure inside that the instant you puncture the rind with a knife, the entire melon explodes. This can be extreme if the melon did not get watered in the last 3 weeks before it matured. I have grown a local yellow meated melon that was so extreme it would blow pieces of watermelon 20 feet away when I stuck a knife in it.

Cream of Saskatchewan and Ledmon are two that are available and carry the explosive gene. You can find others by searching on the web. As you may guess, this gene is what makes these melons unshippable. The least bit of pressure and they pop.

DarJones
bart1
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone!
hamiltongardener
15 years ago
I'm planning to do Sugar Babies this year. Never done watermelons before because of the shorter growing season.

I have one of my raised beds to the south of a brick wall which seems to radiate a lot of heat. Right now the rest of my beds are still frozen a couple cm down but the bed along the wall is already workable (I was just out there turning and raking it.)

Besides heat and a good amount of water, is there anything else I should know about growing Sugar Baby watermelons?
wildlifeman
15 years ago
farmerdilla,

your pics just made my mouth water ! and then i looked out the window and pert near started to cry as the snow keeps on flying.

i'm gonna try and grow a melon this year. i have yellow dolls,congo and tendergold.

if i can grow melons like you do ,i'm gonna build a shed that locks from the inside only so i can scarf them in peace.

not to mention if i had a pile of melons like in your pics i'd dig a hole and bury them so noone else knew i had'em.

thanks for the pics,

wildlifeman
naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
15 years ago
Fusion_power: I may have to try some of the "explosive" varieties just to see how that works. Sounds fascinating! Definitely melon varieties I'd want to cut up outside, maybe while in a swimsuit with a lake or sprinkler nearby :)