I am revisiting this topic of watermelon varieties to grow out. I do dot grow that many at one time for I need to put them out in shorter rows and have enough land left over for changing the location of my patch. I have enough room to grow 14- 16 melon vines in 5 different locations which is still a bit short of room since I grow 2 crops a year. My goal is to not touch the same soil till the 4th year. I would like to hear different viewpoints and especially Southern growers who grow in extreme humidity and heat like myself, which is zone 10b in Southwest Florida. Anyone in the South of Florida usually gives up growing melons. lol Florida is #1 in Watermelon production in the Country so we have no excuses and need to understand timing is the key. I have had successful crops but have been away from the game for a few short years and am getting back to planting Watermelon again . I started about 2 weeks late getting my seeds out in the beginning of Sept. Vines are getting big quickly and I feel it will be a successful Fall, which is not easy here due to the winter is coming fast. Our Spring crop is usually much better but I was game to get some in. Here is my list for my grow out. I use a wide row method of growing so my row is 6 ft wide and plants spread out 3 ft apart in both directions and are 2 deep in the row. Soil is amended to a sandy loam and I use a triple 14 Polyon coated fertilizer and run a ph of about 6 - 6.5. I top dress every 2 weeks with a triple 20 water base fertilizer and Calcium nitrate, both at half strength or slightly above. 1. 2 Orangeglo 2. 2 Crimson Sweet 3. 2 Golden Honey 4. 1 Bush Sugar Baby 5. 1 Sugar Baby 6. 2 Leelanau 7. 1 Legacy 8. 1 Jubilee 9. 1 Legendary 10. 1 Yellow Baby Doll 11. 2 Orange Crisp In the winter into Spring will be trialing a few more to the list and they are Starbrite, Summer Flavor #720, Grandeur, Royalty, Golden Gem. I would be growing Gold Strike but the seed is not being sold any more. That is the best yielding watermelon I have ever grown and it kills me not to have it any more. I do like the hybrid vigor for watermelon production but am keeping some of the better OP types in my trials to see if any shine. Actually I am growing more OP's with this fall crop.

I used to grow Early Canada (the regular one, not the "improved" one... it was about 30 years ago) when I lived near Ottawa, ON (zone 5). It was an iffy crop there -- if it was a long hot summer I would get quite a few to ripen but if it was a cold summer I would get few, maybe none to ripen. And if they weren't ripe by early September, they were never going to ripen (as fruitnut points out about ripening temperature). They never got to 10-15 lbs. Five or 6 lbs was probably average. I don't know if the improved ones are bigger, earlier, or both. Try to make it as warm as possible for them, and good luck.

idaho mountain, thanks, now I KNOW I need to get them into the warmest possible spot and give them more water, maybe more food, next year. It looks like my watermelons are going to finish at about 3-5" in diameter. I don't suppose they'll ripen. This is my first year growing veggies and fruits, although I'm an experienced gardener otherwise (I've decorative-gardened in two different climates for about 15 years, and grew and sold cutting flowers for eight years but quit last fall), so my learning curve is pretty steep. Floriculture is quite different from veggie-culture, as I'm finding out! Veggie-culture is actually quite a bit easier in many ways, but there's NO source that tells you how all the different plants grow in this climate. With flowers, I learned it by experience. Now I'm trying to learn from all you folks' experience! Jeanne

Sheri, I agree with the others. Okra and melons like and, in fact, need really warm soil and warm air temps. I don't even have mine in the ground yet. Watermelon seed (or transplants) shouldn't be sown/transplanted into the ground until the soil temperature at planting depth is 70 degrees. I don't plant until it has been at 70 degrees for 3 to 5 days because, just like our weather, the soil temps can swing drastically from one extreme to another in spring. You can check your soil temp with a pricey soil thermometer, but I just use a $5 meat thermometer from Wal-Mart. Okra seed (or transplants) can be sown/transplanted into the ground once soil temps are consistently staying above 68 degrees. If you don't want to check your own soil temperature, you can use the soil temperature charts from the OK Mesonet. Your soil temps might not be the same as the ones at the mesonet station nearest you, but there shouldn't be a big difference between the two. I've linked one soil temperature map from the OK Mesonet below. It shows the three-day average of soil temperatures at 2" beneath bare soil. As you'll see, soils are still fairly cool at this point. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: 3-Day Ave. of Soil Temps 2