I planted the Blacktail and Moon & Stars in March. None of the standard tests worked for identifying when the watermelon was ready. They all seem to have stopped growing and I now see new ones growing, very odd... Some of them have dried out tendrils but no yellow bottom, they are all very small compared to what they should be, etc. I will take some more pictures tonight and I might pick the blacktail as it has been stagnant for a while now.

I have some cilantro and dill if you are interested in a trade for your moon and stars watermelon. I also have the regular spearmint I can add a cutting or root. Let me know if you are interested. Karen

Probably. I've never found the tendril thing very reliable, and frankly, I've never been good at judging when a watermelon is ripe. I've picked way more than my fair share of them far too early, and a few too late. I wish they came with a built-in glass viewport or some device that was the equivalent of the pop-up turkey timer.

I have been known to grow veggies simply for their looks. This is one of them. I grew them for the first time last year. I only got two plants to grow and finally got 2 melons. The first I picked wasn't ripe, or I thought it wasn't, and it sure wasn't sweet. I waited and waited for one to fully mature... made sure all the signs were there - yellow belly, dry tendrils and 'plunk' not 'plink' - but the flesh still didn't look ripe. It was very light pink, but the seeds (and there were LOTS OF HUGE things) were dark brown. So, I dunno if I did something wrong, or they just don't taste that good. They are still the loveliest melons I have seen. Maybe you'll have better luck than I. Lisa