I thought i would try the Carolina Cross for the kids. See if we get a big one and give it a try at the fair . Hopefully with any luck we can get a pretty good size one. :) Just a fun project for the kids. :)
Melon suggestions?
Good luck, they are relatively easy to grow here where we have sand and a long season. If standard types size up, they should also. It is a pretty melon. It takes room, don't crowd them. A single vine needs at least 10 feet in all directions.
Thanks for the info Farmer. I googled but could not find suppliers. Happened to go to our new Home Depot and found a large Burpee seed pack display and low and behold they had "Bush Sugar Baby" for $1.07 pkg. It is nice to see new types becoming available to gardeners. I'll go look for the rest.
I got my Willhite catalog yesterday and it has 3 or 4 new varieties of watermelons. I was especially pleased to see Diablo offered as it had tested well in size and taste...course you can't rely totally on one trial nor on one group of tasters.
Anyway, I want to add it to my favorites...Raspa, Sangria, Summer Flavor #420, Gold Strike, Orangeglo, Au Sweet Scarlet, and Sweet Dakota Rose. Yeah, I really love superb watermelon. As far as hybrids go, unfortunately I agree with farmerdill on cantaloupes. I digress partially on watermelons as probably ¾ of mine are hybrids.
Farmer dill isn't just whistling D.... or flapping his jaws when he says that watermelons sulk in clay. In my locale the soil is a clay/loam which is better and can be amended well with 40% sand.......organic matter really helps.
I remember my dad raising melons along with the hired hand's knowledge of raising transplants.....very helpful here to get earlier melons. Still, it was rare to pop melons in our soil and get beauties. Hey, I got a really nice Kleckley Sweet in '53. Why that was ,memorable is that it took many, many, many years to get another beauty...ala Glen Drowns in his early years!!
Any way I am partial to larger watermelons. IMO they are for the most part endowed with better texture, taste, and sweetness....sure I have had some nice Yellow Dolls and one nice 15½ pound Tiger Baby and that only because it raised only one fruit on the first set. So limit large ones to 1 or 2 at a set. Small ones are better off with 3 or 4.......sometimes more and sometimes less than that.
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/2006watermelontrials/2006StatewideWatermelonTrials.html
I was told i couln't add sand to the soil due to it would make it cement ? or is it more to it.
If i add organic matter with sand ? does that help ?
I got lots of leaves to add to the soil and pine needles. I was also going to add compost (of course ) get a big trruck load
saw a sign for mushroom compost . ?
thanks
sue
Taynors:
I've read that sand warning only in conjunction to adding it to heavy clay soils. Is that what you have?
BB
I m told that here in Ohio we have clay, but i guess i should go to the county extension office and really ask. I would n't think we have heavy clay, but we have some.
I think as long as it is ammended properly melons should work out . I see others growing them in there farms and in farmers markets here locally.
I guess i should have to go and visit the soil and compost forums? lol :)
thanks
sue
I have clay and my watermelons are usually duds, but I'm not giving up on the attempt.
Still, I've ordered more seeds of non-watermelons this year.
Wow! So many melons so little space and yes, clay soil. Though it is a garden plot that I previously tilled the soil is still loose and friable, though covered with bermuda grass. Farmerdill, wow, ten foot for one plant. Is that for a particular cultivar?
I guess I can always add some sandy potting soil and compost to the place where I want the mound.
That is for the show melons like Carolina Cross, Kolb's Gem/State Fair, White Seeded Watson. Normal size melons dont take up as much space. I still plant at 10 foot intervals but leave two plants in a hill.
White Seeded Watson- These only get to to a little over 100 lbs.
Thanks Farmerdill!
Bermuda grass does not like clay either, so watermelons should do fine where bermuda grass grows.
Well, I'll give it a go!
Farmerdill--There may be hope for my blackland prarie after all....The Bermuda Grass is thick and happy around (formerly on) my garden spot. I'm at least going to try the experiment.
David
Have a question concerning compatablility...would like to grow pumpkins, water mellon and cantalopes all in the same area...any problems with compatability here?
None of them like to be crowded, but if you allow adequate space per plant, no problems. Pumpkins especially are space hogs. Thier large vines and leaves will completely smother watermelons and cantaloupes wherever the vines intertwine.