Wow this is the best water melon I have ever eaten. It is as sweet as sugar. The melon is about 20 lbs not very large by water melon standards but the flavor beats all grocery store melons and all melons I have grown in the past 40 years. The melon suddenly turned yellow on bottom 2 days ago, I left it one more day then picked it this morning and put it in the refrigerator to cool all day.
I collected seeds from a grocery store long striped melon last summer. I planted 3 seeds in a 12" circle and kept them watered all summer. I did not do anything special to the soil, I guess the melons have no trouble growing in this toxic 8 ph soil we have here in AZ. More stripped melons on the way, honey due and cantaloupe too.
Farmers grow water melons in Arizona so maybe hot weather and 15 hours of sunlight every day and the sandy soil is what the melons like best. Full sun in AZ is not equal to full sun back East. We have no clouds to block the sun and not trees so when the sun comes up at 5 am the garden is getting full sun minutes later all day until 8 pm. Back east nothing in my garden got full sun until the sun was up high enough in the sky to clear the 50 foot tall trees about 9 am until 6 pm and scattered clouds can reduce full sun by 50%. Over cast days no full sun at all.
The only improvement I can think of next time is to dig a 2 foot hole then fill it with compost, manure mix with some AZ soil. The loose fertile soil should promote better root growth.
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TheWaterbug
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Gary350
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3 more water melons are ready to pick. The honey dew melons are ripe and very good too. 9 cantaloupes will be ready to pick very soon. Now that they are getting ripe we are having trouble eating all these melons our self just the 2 of us. The Spanish people here in AZ make melon drinks it is very good. I ran a whole melon through my juicer it makes a very good cold drink with lunch on a hot summer day.
Lucky you though. I only have 3 watermelon plants left, I gave to many of my seedlings away in early spring and I had frost wipe out the rest of what I had.-
TheWaterbug
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Gary350
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TheWaterbug wrote:Pictures?
It is a good thing I went to check the melons today several were ripe today that were not ripe yesterday. It is amazing how they are green one day and yellow the very next day. Melon patch is small about 10 feet wide 25 ft long. I keep moving the vines so they grow back and forth across the patch other wise it would be 50 feet diameter. Lots of melons hiding under the leaves. 2 cantaloupes, 1 watermelon and 1 honey dew all ready to eat.
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TheWaterbug
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Box and ship?Gary350 wrote:Now that they are getting ripe we are having trouble eating all these melons our self just the 2 of us.
That's an awesome looking patch; I wish mine were doing half as well as yours.
What's your typical time from sowing to harvest?
I have a little bit of space that might work for another few melons, if I have time before it cools off here.
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TheWaterbug
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Hmmm. Looks like Charleston Gray is only 85 days.TheWaterbug wrote:What's your typical time from sowing to harvest?
85 days from today is Sep 28., and September is still pretty warm here in 90274 (average high of 78).
Hmmm. What should I do this weekend?
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Gary350
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I planted them all on April 1st. I have no idea what type melons they are, I bought melons at the grocery store and harvested the seeds from those melons. I wanted the long strip melons I remember that type growing up as a kid they were always good sweet melons. I harvested my first melons a few days ago about July 1st or 2nd that is about 90 day growing season. I planted 3 kinds of seeds 1 foot apart in a row but they did not all come up. I think there are 2 water melon plants, 1 honey dew plant, 2 cantaloupe plants. I am surprised the melons are doing this good considering Arizona soil has basically no food value for plants and 8ph. I did give the plants about 2 tablespoons of 12/6/6 fertilizer about a month after the plants came up but nothing else. I use a soaker hose to water my garden I turn it on every day for about 10 minutes. It has not rained here since November so if I don't water nothing will grow.
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Gary350
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I harvested 3 cantaloupe today. It has been so long since I grew good cantaloupes I forgot the stem comes off of the cantaloupes on its own sometimes when they are ripe. If the stem is not already off just pick up the cantaloupe and the stem falls off almost by itself if it is ripe. Cool way to know cantaloupe are ripe.
The dead give away cantaloupe is ripe, it is green one day then almost like magic next day cantaloupe is yellow. When you notice the cantaloupe yellow, if the stem falls off when you pick it up there is no question, it is ripe.
The dead give away cantaloupe is ripe, it is green one day then almost like magic next day cantaloupe is yellow. When you notice the cantaloupe yellow, if the stem falls off when you pick it up there is no question, it is ripe.
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Gary350
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Ok......lets analyze what we know to see what melons really like.
I have not grown good melons in about 40 years. I lived in Southern Illinois 60 miles East of Evansville Indiana 8 miles from town. There were corn fields in all directions for 100s of miles and no trees for 1/2 mile except for 3 shade trees near the house. Garden was 200 ft form the house it got full sun from 6 am to 8:30 pm every day that = about 14.5 hours of full sun, minus thunder storms, minus days with scattered clouds, the melons got about 13 to 14 hours of sun every day. The top soil in the garden was 2 ft deep naturally with 6ph soil and tons of organic material in the soil. I was growing large 30 lb water melons that were all ripe. Mother nature provided the water.
60 miles East of where I lived in Illinois near Evansville Indiana were melon fields along the Wabash and Ohio river. Soil was a very very light color extremely fine sand about like Florida Beach sand. The surface of the fields were 6 to 10 ft above the water level of the river. The fields got about 14 hours of full sun every day and they grew 35 lb water melons that were ripe. Mother nature provided the water and maybe the high water table produced larger melons.
My TN garden was in town with lots of trees in the neighborhood. Garden got full sun from about 9:30 am to 6 pm that = about 8.5 hours of full sun. With 300 days of rain per year days were often over cast all day and if it was not raining there were scattered clouds that probably blocked 50% of the full sun. Total full sun for the day was less than 1 hour 9 months of the year. June 15th to Sept full sun was probably about 7 hours a day. Soil was hard clay with no organic material. I added lots of organic material, sand, lime stone, fertilizer. My water melons were never larger than a small cantaloupe and never ripe. One year I dug a 3 ft hole filled it with sand and planted melons they grew about 2 times larger than before but were never ripe. Water melons were maybe 8 lbs and never ripe. Mother nature provided the water.
My AZ garden sun rise to sun set 5 am to 8 pm full sun is about 14 hrs per day. No clouds, no rain, nothing to block the sun. Sandy soil is 8 ph many garden plants do not like this toxic soil and will not grow but melons do not seem to care. No rain so I need to irrigate every day plants get water for 10 minutes every evening. Soil has no organic material and no food value for plants. Melons grow large and they are all ripe. Water melons are a bit small 20 lbs maybe more water will produce larger melons.
It appears melons need a lot of full sun to get ripe, 13 hours a day is good.
Sandy soil seems to promote larger vines growth and larger melons.
Soil 6 to 8 ph is good for melons.
Organic material in the soil is not required.
The amount of water the plants receive many determine the size of the melons.
How many people on the forum grow good ripe melons? What are your garden conditions like?
I have not grown good melons in about 40 years. I lived in Southern Illinois 60 miles East of Evansville Indiana 8 miles from town. There were corn fields in all directions for 100s of miles and no trees for 1/2 mile except for 3 shade trees near the house. Garden was 200 ft form the house it got full sun from 6 am to 8:30 pm every day that = about 14.5 hours of full sun, minus thunder storms, minus days with scattered clouds, the melons got about 13 to 14 hours of sun every day. The top soil in the garden was 2 ft deep naturally with 6ph soil and tons of organic material in the soil. I was growing large 30 lb water melons that were all ripe. Mother nature provided the water.
60 miles East of where I lived in Illinois near Evansville Indiana were melon fields along the Wabash and Ohio river. Soil was a very very light color extremely fine sand about like Florida Beach sand. The surface of the fields were 6 to 10 ft above the water level of the river. The fields got about 14 hours of full sun every day and they grew 35 lb water melons that were ripe. Mother nature provided the water and maybe the high water table produced larger melons.
My TN garden was in town with lots of trees in the neighborhood. Garden got full sun from about 9:30 am to 6 pm that = about 8.5 hours of full sun. With 300 days of rain per year days were often over cast all day and if it was not raining there were scattered clouds that probably blocked 50% of the full sun. Total full sun for the day was less than 1 hour 9 months of the year. June 15th to Sept full sun was probably about 7 hours a day. Soil was hard clay with no organic material. I added lots of organic material, sand, lime stone, fertilizer. My water melons were never larger than a small cantaloupe and never ripe. One year I dug a 3 ft hole filled it with sand and planted melons they grew about 2 times larger than before but were never ripe. Water melons were maybe 8 lbs and never ripe. Mother nature provided the water.
My AZ garden sun rise to sun set 5 am to 8 pm full sun is about 14 hrs per day. No clouds, no rain, nothing to block the sun. Sandy soil is 8 ph many garden plants do not like this toxic soil and will not grow but melons do not seem to care. No rain so I need to irrigate every day plants get water for 10 minutes every evening. Soil has no organic material and no food value for plants. Melons grow large and they are all ripe. Water melons are a bit small 20 lbs maybe more water will produce larger melons.
It appears melons need a lot of full sun to get ripe, 13 hours a day is good.
Sandy soil seems to promote larger vines growth and larger melons.
Soil 6 to 8 ph is good for melons.
Organic material in the soil is not required.
The amount of water the plants receive many determine the size of the melons.
How many people on the forum grow good ripe melons? What are your garden conditions like?
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Gary350
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I was lazy for a few days the water melon vines grew over to an orange tree where there is irrigation when I tried to move the vines they won't move. After CSI investigation I see the vines have grown roots and are attached to the ground. LOL.
I learned something today I did not know about melons. The vines grow roots any place they touch the soil just like sweet potatoes do. That is cool.
Zig Zagging my vines back and forth across each other is the wrong thing too do vines can not touch the soil and can not grow new roots. The extra roots add extra water and nutrients to sweet potato plants helps make more and larger potatoes, I bet it does the same thing for melons.
I bet if you cover the vines with soil in several place it would produce much larger melons. I wonder if that is how people grown those record breaking 100 lbs melons and 800 lb pumpkins I see at the country fair.
I wonder what size does to the flavor? I would rather have a 20 lb good flavor melon than a 100 lb melon with poor flavor.
I learned something today I did not know about melons. The vines grow roots any place they touch the soil just like sweet potatoes do. That is cool.
Zig Zagging my vines back and forth across each other is the wrong thing too do vines can not touch the soil and can not grow new roots. The extra roots add extra water and nutrients to sweet potato plants helps make more and larger potatoes, I bet it does the same thing for melons.
I bet if you cover the vines with soil in several place it would produce much larger melons. I wonder if that is how people grown those record breaking 100 lbs melons and 800 lb pumpkins I see at the country fair.
I wonder what size does to the flavor? I would rather have a 20 lb good flavor melon than a 100 lb melon with poor flavor.
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jal_ut
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Very nice! I love watermelon, yet have a hard time getting any here.
Quote: "Hmmm. Looks like Charleston Gray is only 85 days. "
I discovered Charleston Gray several years back and it is the only melon that
ever did good here. It doesn't come in 85 days though. Maybe it would in Gary's sunny Arizona. I believe it takes so many heat units to make the melon not necessarily x number of days.
I have been saving seeds from my best and earliest melons for several years, and it seems they are getting better adjusted to this locale. I have offered before, and the offer still stands, you can have some seed for an SASE.
Here is an interesting read on Watermelon Roots
Quote: "Hmmm. Looks like Charleston Gray is only 85 days. "
I discovered Charleston Gray several years back and it is the only melon that
ever did good here. It doesn't come in 85 days though. Maybe it would in Gary's sunny Arizona. I believe it takes so many heat units to make the melon not necessarily x number of days.
I have been saving seeds from my best and earliest melons for several years, and it seems they are getting better adjusted to this locale. I have offered before, and the offer still stands, you can have some seed for an SASE.
Here is an interesting read on Watermelon Roots
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TheWaterbug
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Well I never did end up planting any more watermelons, but I did save some seeds from a Hami melon my parents brought over. They're in the cantaloupe/muskmelon family, but they're crisper than a cantaloupe. I sowed seeds about two weeks ago, and they nearly all germinated, and I've got ~2-3 true leaves on each right now.TheWaterbug wrote:Hmmm. What should I do this weekend?
I'll probably have to cull down to 2-3 plants per hill, soon.
For my older plants, the watermelon is vining well, with lots of male flowers, but no females yet.
My two cantaloupes are doing similarly, and I just spotted my first fruit:
I've got a cage over it, so the peacocks shouldn't be able to eat it like they ate all my cantaloupes last year.
We don't really get our heat in Los Angeles until August and September.
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Gary350
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Watermelon vines are every where in the garden getting out of control pretty bad but no melons in sight. I used a shovel handle to move the vines and found 6 large 30 lb melons that should be ripe any day now. There are 2 melons about 20 lbs not ripe yet. There appears to be about 15 melons 6" long that have several more weeks to go.
4 Ripe cantaloupes, 6 more large melons on the way soon. Plenty more where those all came from all hiding in the vines.
1 ripe Honey Dew melon and 6 more large ones that I can see. Might be more hiding in there some where.
WOW.
4 Ripe cantaloupes, 6 more large melons on the way soon. Plenty more where those all came from all hiding in the vines.
1 ripe Honey Dew melon and 6 more large ones that I can see. Might be more hiding in there some where.
WOW.
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TheWaterbug
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Gary350
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I have learned something else interesting about melons. If you water the vines you get larger melons.
The vines will grow roots any place they touched the soil, the extra roots take in water and food for the whole plant. I turn my vines to make them grow back and forth across the melon patch to keep the patch small. Many of the vines are several inches above the soil. If I water the vines they grow roots to no where several inches long. I think the roots are sucking up water each time I water the vines. The vines that I am not watering have melons about 1/3 smaller than the vines that get water.
I dumped a 5 gallon bucket of compost on one vine in 2 different places. I am hoping the compost will cause the moisture in the soil to come up to the surface so the vine will grow a good quantity of long roots in those spots. The vine has been covered up for 2 weeks with no bad effects to the vine. It is too soon to tell if this will produce larger melons.
I water all the melon plants every day but not all the vines.
The vines will grow roots any place they touched the soil, the extra roots take in water and food for the whole plant. I turn my vines to make them grow back and forth across the melon patch to keep the patch small. Many of the vines are several inches above the soil. If I water the vines they grow roots to no where several inches long. I think the roots are sucking up water each time I water the vines. The vines that I am not watering have melons about 1/3 smaller than the vines that get water.
I dumped a 5 gallon bucket of compost on one vine in 2 different places. I am hoping the compost will cause the moisture in the soil to come up to the surface so the vine will grow a good quantity of long roots in those spots. The vine has been covered up for 2 weeks with no bad effects to the vine. It is too soon to tell if this will produce larger melons.
I water all the melon plants every day but not all the vines.
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jal_ut
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My garden conditions: Soil about 2 feet deep, black silt about 20% clay.
Sunny. We have few cloudy days here at this high altitude.
Temperatures, from 55 low to to 95 high, most days through summer. It is rare to ever hit 100.
Water: This is desert country. If we are going to grow anything it needs irrigation. I water my garden deeply once a week. We have sprinkler irrigation, gravity fed. I use 4 inch field type lines with rain birds every 40 feet. I let each line run 12 hours per week. (It takes 3 lines to cover my lot) The irrigation system is a joint effort of many landowners. There is a reservoiur and canal system and the water comes from the canal to me in a pipe, gravity fed, no pump needed to get sprinkler pressures.
Over the years I have tried several types of watermelons. The Charleston Gray is the only one that has consistently made a melon for me. I have some coming on now, but none have ripened yet.
Picture of the reservoir.
Getting watered. (This is a past garden, not this years.)
So I am going to suggest that watermelons need lots of sunshine. A variety suited to the environment (Not all varieties have done well here) 120+ frost free days.
Over the hill in the next valley, the altitude is a bit lower and the temperatures a bit warmer and melons do very well there. Here at 5000 feet elevation, it seems borderline for melons.
It is kinda fun to grow melons and I like to eat them. If you have not tried them, perhaps you could do some experimenting.
Sunny. We have few cloudy days here at this high altitude.
Temperatures, from 55 low to to 95 high, most days through summer. It is rare to ever hit 100.
Water: This is desert country. If we are going to grow anything it needs irrigation. I water my garden deeply once a week. We have sprinkler irrigation, gravity fed. I use 4 inch field type lines with rain birds every 40 feet. I let each line run 12 hours per week. (It takes 3 lines to cover my lot) The irrigation system is a joint effort of many landowners. There is a reservoiur and canal system and the water comes from the canal to me in a pipe, gravity fed, no pump needed to get sprinkler pressures.
Over the years I have tried several types of watermelons. The Charleston Gray is the only one that has consistently made a melon for me. I have some coming on now, but none have ripened yet.
Picture of the reservoir.
Getting watered. (This is a past garden, not this years.)
So I am going to suggest that watermelons need lots of sunshine. A variety suited to the environment (Not all varieties have done well here) 120+ frost free days.
Over the hill in the next valley, the altitude is a bit lower and the temperatures a bit warmer and melons do very well there. Here at 5000 feet elevation, it seems borderline for melons.
It is kinda fun to grow melons and I like to eat them. If you have not tried them, perhaps you could do some experimenting.
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greenstubbs
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I just picked my 4th & 5th Honeydews of the year and have a bunch more coming. Every year I have grown some type of melon, C-lope, H-dews, or H2O's and they always have had a really sweetness to them except for this year's crop. I can't figure why as I have done nothing different from the past? The weather here is just like the central valley of Ca., tons of sun and very warm to hot weather. I do know H20 melons like hot weather and you certainally have that in Az. My garden gets all day sun as well so I do get a good crop of everything each year. At times when it gets really hot I have to pitch some shade for the cukes and the like to cut down on the heat/sun stress with that some crops get in extreme weather.
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TheWaterbug
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Gary350
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That is a nice melon. I hope it tastes as good as it looks. Maybe when we stop having 110 degree weather I might have melons that size. I water my melons 15 minutes every day at sun down not sure that is enough.TheWaterbug wrote:We picked our first one today! This weighed in at 32.6 lbs on our bathroom scale.
It's chilling now, and we'll see how it tastes tonight.
Fingers crossed!!
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Gary350
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I have a dilemma, too many ripe melons all at the same time. It appears the water melon vine knows how old it is so all the melons on that vine are all ripe at the same time. It makes no different if melons are large or small they are all ripe. I picked 8 ripe melons this morning. Most are 20 to 18 lbs on the bathroom scale. I need to pick 6 more melons. How am I going to eat 250 lbs of melons before they go bad? Water melon eating party at my house tomorrow at 12 noon, everyone come. LOL
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TheWaterbug
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10 days later, and we're still eating it!!Gary350 wrote:That is a nice melon. I hope it tastes as good as it looks. Maybe when we stop having 110 degree weather I might have melons that size. I water my melons 15 minutes every day at sun down not sure that is enough.TheWaterbug wrote:We picked our first one today! This weighed in at 32.6 lbs on our bathroom scale.
It's chilling now, and we'll see how it tastes tonight.
Fingers crossed!!
It's a really good melon. The rind is pretty thick on this; I typically cut away a full inch of rind when I cut a "wagon wheel" slice into cubes, so that there's absolutely zero white stuff left*. But the melon is so darn big it doesn't matter--we still have lots of melon to eat.
It's crisp, sweet, and juicy. It has a fair amount of seeds, but I just swallow them.
As soon as we're done with this one there's another in the garden ready to go. And then another one following that one.
* I had other varieties where the innermost white portion isn't objectionable, but on this melon any whitish part tastes pretty horrible, so I trim aggressively.
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TheWaterbug
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Here's a picture of ours, cut:jal_ut wrote:I tried unsuccessfully for years. then discovered Charleston Gray melons. These have been making it here at 5000 feet elevation in our rather cool short season. I just picked one yesterday. It was sweet.
It looks like the thickish rind is a characteristic of this cultivar. That's OK if they keep growing big like this.
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TheWaterbug
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I thought melon #2 wasn't as big, but I guess that was two weeks ago. Here it is now:
It just barely fits.
I think the location in the garden made a huge difference. The last time I tried to grow watermelons I had them on the other side, where they'd get shaded in the afternoon, and I didn't get anything worth eating or photographing. In their present location they get full afternoon sun.
It just barely fits.
I think the location in the garden made a huge difference. The last time I tried to grow watermelons I had them on the other side, where they'd get shaded in the afternoon, and I didn't get anything worth eating or photographing. In their present location they get full afternoon sun.
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TheWaterbug
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Mmmmm. This one is even better than the first one. That one was very slightly under-ripe.
This one is either perfect, or perhaps very very slightly over-ripe. There's no mushiness to it at all, but it is very, very ripe, as you can see by the internal crack at the bottom right :
I'm eating half a wagon wheel at every meal, and it's still gonna take us forever to eat this!
This one is either perfect, or perhaps very very slightly over-ripe. There's no mushiness to it at all, but it is very, very ripe, as you can see by the internal crack at the bottom right :
I'm eating half a wagon wheel at every meal, and it's still gonna take us forever to eat this!