my first BIG watermelon

[garden5]

I remember reading that Carolina cross is the variety that was used to grow record-sized watermelons. Did you choose it for this reason or just get lucky by planting this variety?

[stella1751]

BP mentioned this thread in another one, and I had to come down and take a look. Wow! That is a serious watermelon! Good job!

Thanks, too, for taking the time to answer all of BP's questions. I learned from your answers.

What did the fellow at the newspaper have to say?

[applestar]

Did you eat it?

[Scarecrow]

WOW! That is a nice melon! You must have been feeding that plant water from the Tar river! Congrats!
Let us know If they put it in the Daily Southerner so we can look the article up on the web.

Tarboro. I've been by there many times along Rt. 64. There's alot of watermelons in that part of the country. I see them for sale everywhere.

I have made about a dozen business trips to Tarboro where the company I worked for had a facility over on Anaconda road.

Isn't the soil red clay with some sand? If so, that makes it even more impressive. Do you have squash vine borer problems over there?

I was about to ask the same thing. You should see Tarboro from the air where the farms look like large sand patches. There are lots of cotton being grown there as well.

[garden5]

Let us know how it tastes. I've always heard that the giant fruit of a plant is never all that great.

However, I've never had bad watermelon, regardless of size, so I'm eager to find out.

[franktank232]

Beverette-

Very nice. and good looking too!

I grew a 74lb Carolina Cross that i just picked today. I did some things wrong to really get a big one, but now i know.

[stella1751]

Beverette-

Very nice. and good looking too!

I grew a 74lb Carolina Cross that i just picked today. I did some things wrong to really get a big one, but now i know.

You couldn't have done MUCH wrong, franktank. Congrats!

[garden5]

Beverette-

Very nice. and good looking too!

I grew a 74lb Carolina Cross that i just picked today. I did some things wrong to really get a big one, but now i know.

What are you going to do with it? Eat it, enter it?

Also, do tell me the things you did wrong so I can do them wrong as well, next year . Seriously, though, Carolina Cross definitely looks like the variety for growing a giant.

[franktank232]

I ate it...well some of it! Texture wasn't great, and flavor was so so... I probably should have left it go another 2 weeks, but it developed a crack and was leaking a little! These things grow so fast! I just bought a packet of seeds at Walmart... I may try again next year. I want a 200lb, however

[garden5]

Did it still taste better than a store-bought one? That's too bad you had to pick it early , but what can you do? If there was an open crack, you made the right call, as bugs would have just gotten into it and made the whole thing inedible.

Good luck with next-year's melons .

[franktank232]

It was "ok"...a good store bought watermelon is/was better. It almost seemed like it could have used more water! Which amazes me because I had over 20 inches of rain fall between June 1st and Aug 31... I think the biggest thing was the rind... IT was SO thick.... and the seeds... full of seeds. If your growing this, i think its more for show then for food.

[stella1751]

I ate it...well some of it! Texture wasn't great, and flavor was so so... I probably should have left it go another 2 weeks, but it developed a crack and was leaking a little! These things grow so fast! I just bought a packet of seeds at Walmart... I may try again next year. I want a 200lb, however

Cute photo, Franktank. I'll bet your son thinks Dad can do anything!

[beverette]

Heres the link to the newspaper with it in it. http://dailysoutherner.com/local/x1772338669/ANOTHER-WHOPPER