My family LOVES watermelon and so far I have only grown OP seeds while building my seed bank. :) This year though, I'd like to grow the best, sweetest watermelon available, which means hybrid seeds. I would love to know which varieties are your favorites! ....Makes my mouth water just thinking about it! ;-) I LOVE summertime!
What is your favorite variety of watermelon to grow?
The best, sweetest is open to debate. Hybrids are more uniform in size and shape, but sweetest ? Many will match the Crimson Sweet Allsweet sisters, but I have not found any that that will surpass them for eating. http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm92/farmerdill/Watermelon/
Glenda_Michigan ~ I won't make a recommendation but will suggest you look for those with a shorter growing season.
I grew up in MN and watermelon was not a crop we ever managed to grow and we kept two large gardens on the farm. Canteloupe were more feasible to grow.
I do know that in recent years, there have been some watermelon farms in the north so I am sure there are cultivars that will perform better in the shorter/cooler growing season. Good luck!
Here is a good resource:
http://agsyst.wsu.edu/WatermelonPhotos.html
It measures days to maturity, sweetness, and size.
I'm growing watermelon for the very first time this year. I'm starting with white wonder :)
Kalika22, thanks for the link! It was very informative but I could not find the varieties listed available for the general public. It did end up leading me to the watermelon I chose to grow this year though. :)
I ordered Crimson Sweet from Johnny's Seeds today. Some info on the web indicates that Crimson Sweet has a brix rating of 13, which is the highest I've been able to find for a red, seeded watermelon. This handy chart http://www.highbrixgardens.com/pdf/brix-chart.pdf shows the brix rating for watermelons to go as high as 16, but I have not been able to find a variety available that has a 16 brix rating.
I was told that Crimson Sweet is open pollinated; I hope that is accurate because I would love to save the seeds.