Who said I couldn't get a ripe melon?

19 years ago

Ta dah... Moon & Stars watermelon.

{{gwi:2115538}}

From go to yum in ...

Rats! I was going to tell you how many days but I've forgotten the password to my journal software. I think I'm having one of *those* moments. :(

Um, how do I save the seeds?

Amanda

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Comments (9)

Raymondo
19 years ago
Looks great Amanda. Was it sweet and luscious? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know.
Saving seed - clean them thoroughly removing all traces of flesh and any sugary residue (rub between fingers in water), let them dry to the point where they snap when you bend them, then store in a nice dry place till next spring.
adamus
19 years ago
I think the American expression is WAY TO GO!!. That is a beautiful colour. A champagne melon ??.
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The suggestions all of you posted pretty much covers what we do here. Check to see if the tendril nearest the stem is dead, AND the two tendrils directly left and right of the stem. Check the bottom of the melon for yellowness. Push on the melon a bit to hear it crack inside. This is hard to do but when you actually do hear it crack it is a sure sign. Thumping on the melon I found it to be mainly a sign of how crisp the melon is - how fresh. Not much of an indicator of when ripe, but if it is overripe. Another good thing to check ripeness AFTER the melon is picked is to check for syrup coming out of the stem. If you see this dark sticky substance oozing out, you have a real yummy one there! We have also found that certain varieties do not work well with the tendril technique. If you are having problems I'd just wait a week or so after the tendril dies and then pick the finicky watermelon. However, we have never gotten those hard to tell melons again just because of that. We stick to the best all around: Crimson Sweet! Wow, what a winner! As for musk melons we always look for the overall tan/ yellow color of the outer rind, the more corky it looks the better, and how easy it is for the stem to be pulled off.
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Gardenweed, you're welcome, let us know how they do. I've been sowing the willow gentian that way most recently, oddly, from a pure deep blue flowered plant long established in my garden, I've gotten quite a few pure white flowering seedlings. Tiffy, willow gentian, happier than bottle gentian in my clay based soil with constant winter wet germinates great with the warm/cold/cool too, and the suggestions for g. lutea are similar, but then never say never. My own army of unexpected seedlings this year....Scrophularia nodosa aka figwort. The instructions from Chilterns with the seeds suggested very slow, try warm/cold/cool, weeks of all three. The Clothiers database said 41F, germ. irregular, often several months. I decided to give them a brief warm moist period indoors first (after all, what could it hurt) and then put them outside.... and the darned seeds germinated in about 8 DAYS under a skylight in my guest room. Now I'm stuck with caring for them until they can be hardened off when I hadn't planned on it :)
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sarah_may
19 years ago
Great stuff Amanda, I was soooo excited when I picked mine.
I've saved seeds just as Ray described. My vine has started growing again so I'm hoping to get another (not too hopeful though!)
Enjoy it!
amanda_wa
Original Author
19 years ago
Enjoying it, we are! Very sweet. Yum...

I just remembered who it was who reckoned I was too late for melons. Better go put a link in his thread and make sure this gets seen. :)

I've sorted out the password issue too. The seeds were planted on the 2/12/05 so I think that makes it 118 days.

The Chilean Black Seeded watermelon looks ripe too - I'll pick one in a few days - when we've finished eating this one!

Amanda
boulder_boy
19 years ago
Well done Amanda. Hope there's more to come. My Butternuts are really powering at the moment. Didn't think I was going to get many but heaps have set in the last month. There's not much better than a fully ripe homegrown watermelon.
Cheers Colin
Raymondo
19 years ago
Just a cautionary word Amanda. If you didn't hand pollinate the melons, or grow them a respectable distance apart, the chances of a cross will be very high. I wouldn't let that bother me though. In fact it may lead to something really interesting.
Rose_Qld
19 years ago
What fun. The colour is so different from the one we had at Christmas; it was a bright pinky/red. It's all in the eating :)
Rose
amanda_wa
Original Author
19 years ago
Oh! How far away? The next nearest melon is about 20m away...
Raymondo
19 years ago
Isolation distances for ensuring pure melon seeds varies from 200m to 900m, depending on which "authority" you read. Commercial seed producers use the longer end. So at 20m, I'd say there's every chance of some crossed seed. But as I said, it might yield something really interesting, though not necessarily next year. It's in the 2nd generation after a cross that all the variability starts to show up.
You can reduce isolation distances considerably by planting lots of other things in between, especially flowers and herbs that flower at the same time as the melons. The pollinators then have a chance to "clean up" before moving on to the other melons.

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Who said I couldn't get a ripe melon?

Comments (9)

Raymondo

adamus

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Who said I couldn't get a ripe melon?

Comments (9)

Raymondo

adamus

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