How long does it take a watermelon to mature? I hand-pollinated a mess of female flowers yesterday, and I think three, maybe four, took. They are about twice the size they were yesterday, and their stems have super-elongated.
One variety is the 14-pound Burpee Fordhook; the other, the 4-pound (guessing) Sugar Baby. I have about seven weeks before my average first frost date. What are the odds that I will actually get a watermelon this year?
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stella1751
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Different varieties take different times. On average, they ripen bt 60 and 90 days from planting. Keep them well watered and they should grow fast, especially the sugar babies. When ripe, a watermelon SHOULD have a creamy to yellow spot on the bottom, a dried curled tendril opposite where it attaches to the stem, have ridges on the rind, should lose it's shiny appearence and begin taking on a whitish cast, it should seperate easily from the vine when lifted, and should have a slightly hollow thud when thunked 
, of course a watermelon can have all of these signs and still not be fully ripe 
I've been growing them for years, and still occasionally pick an under ripe melon.
, of course a watermelon can have all of these signs and still not be fully ripe I've been growing them for years, and still occasionally pick an under ripe melon.
Last edited by MaryDel on Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TheWaterbug
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There was a time when I picked good watermelons at the market about 95% of the time.MaryDel wrote:I've been growing them for years, and still occasionally pick an under ripe melon.
Then something happened and I lost my mojo. I picked crummy melons about 75% of the time for a whole year. Over-ripe, under-ripe, or whatever; it's like I was overcompensating for my last bad melon and just oscillating between the two extremes.
Then I sorta got my mojo back, and I've been picking pretty good melons for the last few years. Not great ones, but acceptable ones.
If they could make an app for my iPhone that picks good watermelons, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
(there are apps out there, but I'm just not convinced that they actually work, because the iPhone's microphone doesn't have very good low-frequency response, which what I'd presume you'd need to measure this sort of thing)