Watermelon recommendations
5 years ago
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Small vined Watermelon varieties
Comments (6)Dean, here's the description from the packet... I haven't tasted any yet... "Space-saving bush-type vines grow only 3-3 1/2' long; usually bear 2 fruits each. Melons are round-oval, 8 1/2-10'' long. Rind is dark green, flesh is bright scarlet, juicy and sweet, with excellent flavor. Ready to pick about 80 days after sowing seed." The website description is similar but just slightly different: "Watermelon Bush Sugar Baby Customer Favorite Sweet, scarlet (icebox) melons grow on space-saving vines only 3-1/2' long. 80 days. Sweet, scarlet "icebox" melons grow on space-saving vines only 3-1/2' long. Each one bears two 12 lb. melons. Burpee bred. After all danger of frost, sow 5 or 6 seeds in groups 6-8' apart . 25 seeds per packet. Sun." Their website actually had a customer review: 4 out of 5 (Overall Rating) Bush Sugar Baby, July 18, 2006 Submitted by KBTexas from Sugar Land, TX (read all my reviews) Plant performance: 3 out of 5 Taste: 4 out of 5 Yield: 2 out of 5 "Vines are very pretty & melons are very sweet. I planted 15 seeds but only 7 came up." 5 of 5 people found this review helpful. Reviewer Information Would recommend: Yes Type of gardening: Small Garden Gardening skill: Moderately skilled State of residence: TX Types of plants: Vegetables Gardening experience: 10+ years ................................... Burpee also had a couple paragraphs on the same page on growing watermelons, this one sounded interesting: "If you don't have room in the garden for watermelon vines, think about growing them in the middle of the lawn. Yes, in the middle of the lawn. Simply dump two 40-pound bags of composted cow manure and one 40-pound bag of topsoil into a heap on the lawn. Mix and mound with a trowel or by hand to integrate all materials. Water well and plant 6 to 8 seeds and later thin to three plants. The vines will ramble all over the lawn, and you will have to mow around them. But, the watermelon foliage will shade most of the grass underneath it and slow growth. After harvest, pull up vines; rake the nutrient-rich manure mix over the lawn for fertilizer and water well. Within a week, the grass will be growing vigorously again, and it will be a healthy dark green." Also a few general watermelon tips from Burpee: "...Watermelon plants have moderately deep roots and waterin g is seldom necessary unless the weather turns dry for a prolonged period. When vines begin to ramble, side dress plants with ½ cup of balanced fertilizer (5-10-5). A third application of fertilizer should be made when melons are set. Withhold water as melons start to mature to intensify sweetness." and "When vines begin to ramble, give plants a dose of boron to help them produce sweeter fruits. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of household borax in 1 gallon of water and spray foliage and the base of the plants." Mark...See Morewatermelon recommendation
Comments (21)Mickeylee is a very good one and I know I've mentioned it here before, Quailhunter, although I don't remember specifically if I recommended it to you. I would have, though, if you'd asked if I thought it was a great one, because it is. Willhite Seed is my favorite melon seed supplier because they have bred so many wonderful varieties over the years, although they carry a lot of great melon varieties, and not only their own. Carol, lol lol lol Somehow it just figures that while you were at Baker Creek, I was at a wildfire. This one was close to home--on the ranch formerly owned by Tim's best friend, Ken, and his wife and on another ranch that adjoins it. I was astonished at how quickly this fire spread in a very low-wind situation. I know that if our place caught fire right now, everything likely would burn just as quickly, except for my garden which still has a fair amount of green....and it might burn anyay because the mulch certainly isn't green and it isn't very moist. We are having a great melon year here. We have tons of melons on our muskmelon plants and watermelons plants. I know I planted Blacktail Mountain and think it likely I planted Sugar Baby or Bush Sugar Baby, although I don't remember for sure. You can tent your melons with paper if you can make it stay in place. It helps prevent sunscald. Usually the vines are dense enough to shade melons adequately, unless you're having issues with some of the vines dying back. Mo and Carol, Black Diamond was my dad's favorite and I like it a lot, but I don't grow big huge melons like that because the vines just run forever. This year I am growing my melons in a raised bed as a 'groundcover' plant underneath Stewart's Zeebest okra plants that are 4'-5' apart and it has worked pretty well. As the okra plants continue to spread out, I'm starting to worry they're going to shade out the watermelon plants. At first the watermelon plants just filled the bed with the okra plants sticking up out of them. Now the okra plants loom over them like Godzilla rising up out of an ocean (albeit, an ocean of melon plants). Fred grew Black Diamonds as long as he was still growing a big old garden on the old home place down on the river, but I don't think he's had a garden there since 2008 or 2009. That last year he had to fight the coyotes for every melon. I always could tell when Fred dropped by to visit while we were away because I'd find a big Black Diamond melon sitting on a lawn chair or on the screened-in porch. He turns 89 this fall and now only has his big (I'm guessing 1/2 to 3/4 acre in size) garden at his house just up the road from us, and he may not grow melons there because he has red clay there, not sandy soil like he has at the old home place. I hope I am still growing watermelons (and other stuff) when I'm 89, should I be lucky enough to live so long. If y'all order Mickeylee from Willhite, you should order Raspa. You won't regret it. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite's Melons...See Morewatermelon volunteers
Comments (3)The difference between melon seedlings, squash seedlings, and cucumber seedlings is kind of subtle. They're all cucurbits. Vining cucurbits can have vines 15 feet long. Count on rootballs at least a yard across, so if you want to go whole hog, you should dig up and amend a bed that size. Not sure that watermelons that you pick to eat will have grow-able seeds, as the seeds may have to mature in an overripe fruit. But other melons and squash can do it. That's pretty funny that a nursery-bought tomato plant is loaded with hitchhikers. Did they actually come from the nursery, or did the cucurbits perhaps come from compost you added to the pot?...See Morehow do I know my watermelon is ripe?
Comments (2)This is a very common question and often discussed here. Check out some of these previous discussions for more details. They should answer all your questions. When to pick watermelon discussions Dave...See More- 5 years ago
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana