Watermelon 'Ledmon'

One of three varieties that I trialed this year. Controls (Madhuri and Orange Tendersweet) performed well. This was the only variety that...Read More was a complete dud. Finally set one eight inch melon. Pride of Iowa was superb, Halbert's Honey was poor but better than Ledmon.

Gleaned from rareseeds.com:

Development: South Carolina by J.E. Lednum in the early 20th Century.
Parentage: Stone ...Read MoreMountain crossed with Kleckley's Sweet.
Rind: Thin (not a shipping watermelon)
Weight: Up to at least 40lbs
Taste: Very sweet

In my personal experience, I grew it from a cutting in 2015. It got spider mites and maybe anthracnose. I got one small fruit (the size of a large grapefruit), which ripened early and burst open. Plenty of healthy-looking seeds. I assume it was small not because it was a cutting, but because of our climate and soil. The other large watermelon varieties that weren't cuttings were similar. It tasted good, but not really awesome (probably because I gave it nitrogen too late in the season). I plan to try to adapt it to our conditions in future years, although it'll likely have crossed with others. So, I plan to end up with some landraces.