Wow....that's what I was afraid of. SO this big bag of seeds I so carefully cleaned and dried and saved are worthless....unless I want to roll the dice. This makes me wonder about all watermelon seeds, though. I mean, does each seed company really grow all the different varieties of watermelon in complete isolation, as much as 1/2 mile from any other watermelon? The company I get my seeds from has about 40 different kinds of watermelons. That's 40 isolated growing spots! How do they assure/maintain a varieties purity? And for heirloom varieties that claim to be a hundred years old or more, how do we know they were always grown in isolation? I am sure I'm the first one to ever wonder about this, so if there is some obvious answer please forgive me, but I'd love to know it. Just curious. Thanks for the responses! kevin

This is for Itzy.... Carnivorous plants are very interesting and easy to grow if you just follow some easy tips. 1. Don't ever fertilize them. 2. Use soil that has no nutrients or minerals in it like peat moss (not the miracle grow kind, it has fertilizer in it.) 3. Full sun is best. They like light and lots of it. 4. Keep the soil wet at all times, use the tray method and keep it filled at all times 5. Use distilled or rain water, tap water is very bad for em. Other than that, you're good to go! If you need any additional info, this is a good site: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/ Good luck!

melons (all kinds) need warm long season. If the season is short and cold fruits may not get big and ripen. The starter said that he did not get any melons. One reply was "did they ever flower?". Good question. If they don't flower there would be zero chane but if they did, there could be some chance butnot automatic. Melons family plants has two different flowers, male and female. The female has to get male's pollin in order to grow fruit. The insects, mostly bees do the job of polinating. There are other flying and non-flying insects which also become a pollinators. The chaces are you might not get any of those. In such cases you will not get any fruit, UNLESS YOU DO IT YOURSELF. Ther are other reasons fo melons not to fruit: (1) too much nitrogen, (2) Too much shade not enough sun. You can do a few things to improve the chances: Feed them fertilizers rich in phosphorus, poor in nitrogen, after they begin growing vine. Pinch the main, when it is about 4 ft long, to encourage latteral vines growth. Most female flower will appear on the latteral branches. Also, plant them in a location that they will get a minimum of 5 hours direct sun.

The specific variety is "orange crisp hybrid". According to the packet they get 16-20 pounds, although I don't always trust the packets. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there are more than 10 seeds, and some are smaller than others, I'm assuming these are the plants that will produce a seedless orange watermelon, and the big seeds are the pollinator? Correct me if I'm wrong as I have no experience with melons...If I plant one mound with small seeds and one mound with the large seeds I can thin them to one plant/mound and will end up with two plants. One will produce my seedless orange crisp and the other will produce some mystery type of watermelon plant? Will the pollinator plant also produce edible fruit? According to the local agricultural college I can direct sow, which I would prefer, I have a poor history with transplant attempts, but maybe since this is a hybrid I need to try to start indoors? I blame my MIL and the book "rainbow garden" for my current confusion! Thankfully the purple beans were a bit more self explanatory, and next year I'm going to check out some of the other varieties you mentioned. The ice box sized melons sound intriguing, and hopefully we won't be needing yellow next summer?