Do they have any stripes on them? It may be too early to tell, but if they don't have stripes when they mature they might be Sugar Babies.

Abby

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:101425}}

Thank you for that, here's a link to what it looks like now, I also have pix of the leaves and blossom, LMK if I should post those too.

Those are way different than what mine looks like now.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have no idea who supplies plants to Lowes in your area. In the Southeast and Mid Atlantic the supplier is Bonnie Plant Farms. They usually only supply open pollinated popular watermelon cultivars like Sugar Baby, Crimson Sweet, Charleston Grey, and Jubilee. Your melon has the markings of a Crimson Sweet. Unfortunately there are dozens of Crimson Sweet derivatives with similar markings.

I checked Bonnie Plant Farms and they do supply Lowes in Massachusetts. They offer two cultivars with Crimson Sweet markings, The Crimson Sweet and a smaller seedless melon named SuperSeedless

Wow, farmerdilla, thank you so much for your input, I appreciate your checking that for me :-) I guess I'll just have to cut one open when it's looking ripe and I am going to do some research on figuring out when that is.

So, I googled to find out about the crimson sweet and when to harvest ... and I found this:

Harvest: Like other watermelons, these are ready to pick when the tendrils near the stem dry up and turn brown, when the bottom of the melon turns green, the skin hardens and the fruit sounds hollow when you thump it. According to eHow.com, watermelons should be ripe 35 days after full flowering. Some people say that if your fingernail can easily scratch the skin, the fruit is ripe.

So, if this is true, then it really doesn't matter the actual type of melon, but that when that tendril dries up and turns brown, etc., then it's ripe for the picking? Of course I did want to find out what it is ... I'm not expecting these to be 20-25 lb melons, as I thought they were a smaller variety, but maybe they were listed more as "compact", which means small-ish, and I guess regular watermelons do get HUGE, lol. First year w/melons, can you tell??

"when the bottom of the melon turns green"

You may have meant "turn buff yellow" from white. Be careful not to pick too soon as it's better to pick overripe than underripe. I'm also betting on it being a Crimson Sweet variety. If there are tiny black specks within the buff yellow bottom then it's probably ripened ok. These tiny black specks are this small ..... and are usually bunched up together within a nickle sized area. It's just a form of mildew that means it's been sitting on the ground long enough. It takes years (it took me) of "thumping" to get the sound right. Happy Harvest!

locate the tendril. that is the key. wait for it to completely dry up. Let us know what the tendril looks like now today. Can you identify the tendril ??

The tendril is much more important than the spot on the bottom.

Do a google search on each of the 2 melons to help you positively identify it.

vgkg:

I think you have it more right than most.

Tendril turns brown? Easily several more weeks before it is ripe. Thumping? Not very reliable. If it sounds really hollow, it is probably overripe.

I have only been growing them four years now, so I am not expert in telling when a watermelon is ripe.

The first one we harvested this year, the nearest tendril had been brown for a week, it "thumped" good, and the end (my crimson sweets seem to sit on the blossom end rather than a side) was just yellow, rather than white. Wasn't quite ripe. Edible, but not really good. I think the tendril thing is not the best indicator.

The next one I was willing to harvest after putting off "nurse" for 10-15 days weighed 35#. Way obese for a crimson sweet. Was the sweetest, juciest watermelon I ever tasted in all my years. I could not eat my share of it (temperature and sweetness sensitive teeth). Before it went bad in our refrigerator, "nurse" took some to the old ladies home. They loved it!

We have since harvested several good ones. With crimson sweets (all I grow now, since it was developed here in Kansas, and have not had good results with others), I wait until the ground-spot is tan, and it is near the top of the weight range for the species. The seed companies say 20-25# is the range for a crimson sweet.

In my experience, I think the best method of determing watermellon ripeness is, when it reaches somewhere near the upper range of growing size, and the ground contact spot is TAN, pick it and hope for the best.

Tom

dangould: the tendril is what connects the melon to the vine, correct? It's totally green.

tdscpa: thank you, I will keep my eye on the largest one and try to harvest (if the signs are right) when it's near the 25 lb marker.

Everybody: thank you for the useful input, this place is great.

My neighbor is an old watermelon hand and I just wait until he starts stealing them and then I know they are ripe. LOL

1eyedJack and the Dawg

The tendril is a slim appendage that has the appearance of a pigstail. The one that counts is next to the stem that attaches the watermelon to the vine. There are tendrils all over the vine. They are what the vine uses to pull itself up on competitors. The one next to the stem is the best single indicator that I know and I have not pulled an unripe melon in over fifty years. The other three common indicators are good but take a great deal of experience to judge. Size is not a good indicator, even the hybrid melons are not that uniform.

I like my watermelons fully ripe. I let the melon ripen about 7 to 10 days after the tendril FIRST turns brown. It only takes 3 or 4 days to go from green to brown in hot weather. Of course the yellowing on bottom and a more hollow sound when thumping [only larger melons] are good signs and also some melons lighten a bit in color and dull a bit and some develop ribs when ripe.
As much as anything...if you have been watching the melon grow and then stop growing and are watching the tendril...you know where things are on melons...especially larger ones.

vgkg...I did have one melon with the little freckles on the bottom but most of them here in Indiana don't seem to have them.

It seems that some people worry about watermelons rotting on damp soil. I have never seen a healthy watermelon rot like that...unless it layed there for weeks after ripening!
Cantaloupes...You better worry about them going bad on the bottom and help them out...yesiree!

farmerdilla, thank you for that information. I had conflicting reports when I 'googled' things like tendrils, stems, etc., wilting, brown, ripening, etc., etc.,

I will check out what's going on around my most senior ripening melon.

So, my first/largest melon's tendril is just starting to brown. I noticed this morning that a couple of my other melons had some rot on them, so I plucked 'em and hucked 'em. Then, hopefully, to prevent that from happening to any others, I put little bits of my weed mat under them, as I noticed the ones that were having an issue were directly on the dirt.

I have one plant that is not really looking so good, black/brown spots on the leaves - I treated w/an all around fungicide last week and now must do it again. It was very difficult to determine which black/brown spot fungus that the plant may have (if it IS a fungus) based on pix on the internet, they all kinda look the same to me.

Unfortunately Saturday will be the first day that I actually have a shot at DOING something in the garden, as it's getting dark earlier now! Darn!

Oh, forgot to mention that the nearest thing as far as fungus goes, seems to be Anthracnose.

and, based on a google search, I may have an issue w/blossom end rot on the melons that I hucked. There is one left that I couldn't get to this morning, but I will look more closely at it later today. If it is blossom end rot, is there a way to recover from it, or should I just get rid of the melon?

thanks again

Mostly you get rid of the melon though one time or two I was able to cut off the bad end at harvest as it was small.