wayne,

You sure grew a LOT of melons! Wish I had that kind of room.

Burpee's Early Crenshaw is at the very top of my non-watermelon list, beating all muskmelons and even the charentais melons I grew. The charentais were delicious, but for a morning melon, I don't think the Crenshaw can be beaten. I saw crenshaws in the grocery store for $5.99 apiece. I'm probably going to plant all crenshaws next year and stagger the planting to have them through the summer.

That #420 sure sounds like a winner. What was the avg size of those melons? Did they seem to ripen up fast? I'd like to try something different then Sugar Baby...

Frank,

The first two 420s were the earliest of the ones I raised except Peace...a small yellow. These two were like peas in a pod and weighed close to 22# apiece. Then it started some more as the first were finishing up. I pruned one off and thought I had it down to three fruits [another one was starting way over yonder that I didn't see]. The last three weighed 22, 22½, and 25 pounds so they were just great in sweetness, size, texture, and flavor....comparable to my other best ones.

This variety stayed healthy a couple years ago in a spot where 6 other varieties faded out a little early and not only raised a second litter but was starting new ones when I pulled it up to plow!!

I know what i'm planting next year! I actually cut off a sugar baby melon yesterday that still had a green tendril because i was sick of waiting. It was red/sweet, but did have a little bit of softness in the middle and very few, small seeds. For having 20 inches of rain for June/July/Aug (rainiest in history), it didn't taste watered down.

I'm not as convinced as some are that dryness equals sweetness. It might mean dryness inside rather than that so good juiciness. If you grow a sweet variety to begin with and raise itunder good nutrition and such, I believe you will have sweet melons and very sweet if you wait a few extra days like I usually do.

Wayne -
Did you grow other varities that didn't even make the list? In other words, are these all the types you grew or just the best of the types you grew.

Thanks!
Bart

The ones above were the best for me this year. I have raised a lot of varieties in the past that did very well SOMETIMES but were not as reliable to produce good melons as my present select list.

This year I started two Athens. I gave the slow one to my neighbor and it produced 3 melons. My very healthy specimin suddenly died after vining so I haven't really gotten a good sample for myself on this one. I had one Carnival plant but gave the melons away. I had a Legacy that grew a huge vine, but declined early and didn't size up. I had one Ole that was ok. An old time Mountain Sweet red was in a poor spot and didn't do well. I had a couple of AU Sweet Scarlets. One died and the other raised a small melon and is now getting serious with a second set. Orangeglo does well about half the time for me.

I could go on and name some more that have excelled once or twice, but were not sweet enough or consistant enough or something...like Willhite's Tendergold, Pinata, Chubby Gray, Klondike Striped Blue Ribbon [a good grower], Fordhook, Kleckly Sweet, Dixie Lee, Mountain Hoosier, Black Diamond Fiesta, Royal Star Tiger Baby, Yellow Doll..............

In cantaloupes I also raised Star Headliner, Rocky Sweet, Hannah's Pride, and Eel River.

I like to trial new cantaloupes. I suspect that new watermelons in the seeded types will be few in the future as the seedless has taken over the commercial market. I think that I have found the best in watermelons already...for my area.

You may want to try piel de sapo (toad skin) melons next year, It's similar in apperance to the "santa clause" melons, but a more intense "melony" flavor (at least for us). We also grew lilly this year, and that was our second favorite.

Here in my zone I have raised St. Nick of the Santa Clause melons and it does very well. I don't know if the warm climate piel de sapo would do well here.

Sounds like a good year for you Wayne. Mine wasn't too shabby although the biggest disappointment was the seedless Honey Pot yellow melons that produced only vines (but they were definitely seedless ;o). Was very pleased with my Raspas & Yellow Dolls & M&S & OrangeGlo. The M&S are quite sweet but Raspa beat em'. I think I just like the M&S mainly for it unique look. Your Summer Flavor #420 sounds like a candidate for me next season, as well as Gold Strike. Just gotta write them down now to remember, ha. The Crenshaws too!

Still have about 6-7 Raspas on the later 2nd planted crop, these are the really late ones after the first flush. That 4+ inches of rain in early August got them going again, but only the Raspas got going, nothing else, surprisingly not even the yellow dolls?

I wonder how the other Wayne in CA is doing? Last post I read from him it was still all vines out there about a month back.

Thanks for the clairifation Wayne!

Do you find seedless watermelons to be as tasty as the seeded varities? Someone posted something in here a while back implying that seedless = tasteless. I hope that's not the case, but I've only been growing melons for 2 years and have never tried a seedless melon.

Thanks again,
Bart

Bart,
I haven't eaten one of those seedless skunks this year so I don't know how they compare now. I may get one to see as mine are about done except for some that have set on recently.

I tried King of Hearts seedless a few years back and it was very good & sweet. Main problem with all seedless I've tried is that they aren't very productive.

Has anyone tried the Ali Baba watermelon
http://www.gourmetseed.com/watermelon_seed.0.html

or the Gurney Giant cantalope?
http://gurneys.com/product.asp?pn=14759&Gurney+Giant+Hybrid+Cantaloupe&bhcd2=1193021326

Does it matter what you use for the polinator of a seedless? Can I simply put a few seedless into the melon patch just for grins? What is the best seedless you have had?

It was too dry this year for watermelons here, I watered with five gallon buckets but had to give up on the watermelons. Lots of great information here

Hello,
Commercially speaking it does make a difference which pollinator you use w/triploid. Pollinator can have an impact on yield, weight, % hollow heart, hard seed coats.

To get seedless to germinate it takes a warm soil/medium during the day and night. I think minimum temperature you are looking for is 80F.

Seedless will never yield as much as a seeded. If you are looking for good tasting seedless you can go with King of Hearts, Queen of Hearts (hard to get seed), any European Seedless. Asian seedless have a strange flavor to them. I don't mind them but they are different than any "American" watermelon. Not alot of advances in seedless watermelon in the US in sometime. Top varieties around are still Tri-X 313, Millionaire, Fandango, A&C 5244. All are over 15 years old.

Anyway, good luck all with next season. I will be starting my transplants in about 6 weeks to go to field in late Jan.
Yuma

Yuma, Now that's getting a head start on things.

ohiogrower, I tried Ali Baba once, but did not get flavor or sweetness in mine.....even with good size which is a critical criteria with me. Some claim good results, but I will not try them again as there are so many really goods ones that work for me.

Hi VeggieKing: It was a marginal watermelon year for me overall. I did get a slow start and it was quite a cool summer here -- in fact we never ran the air conditioning once this summer. Next year will be better, I'm sure. Summary:

Moon and Stars Yellow: harvested 3 of these. Two were good, one was bland. Biggest one was 13 pounds

Black Diamond (red flesh): harvested 2 of these. First one was average; 2nd one is in my fridge now; only about 8 pounds

Carolina Cross: plant was very vigorous and had a wonderful melon going. Gopher got into watermelon patch and killed this plant! Melon only hit about 35 pounds -- I think it was probably good for 80 or so given the way it was growing. I haven't cut it open yet. I left it on the dead vine for almost 3 weeks in the hope it would ripen up -- sounds ripe but won't know until I get out the knife.

So, next year I'll be planting much earlier, mid-april.

Now here's a late-breaking news flash. Got an envelope in the mail today from Lloyd Bright, of giant watermelon fame. I swear this was completely unsolicited, unless memory fails me. He sent some CC seeds from a couple of plants that produced >200 pound melons along with growing instructions. I almost fell off my chair when I opened this up! So I think next year will be a very good year indeed. I'll probably grow 5 or more plants and see how they do. Can't wait!

PS: Our twins celebrated their 1st birthday today!

Wayne

Since the thread is already here I will add another question. The King of Hearts sounds good after finding some more info. If I want to grow something like the 420 in this thread so I have to have a large separation from the seedless to prevent cross polination? Or, can I do something labor intensive such as hand polinating the 420 with a cotton swab and keeping paper bags (or that thin bug resistant netting) over the blossoms? I would only have 2-3 of those plants so it might be manageable

If you plant seedless, you will have to have a seeded variety growing right with the seedless to pollinate the seedless. SF#420 ought to be an excellent pollinator for seedless. The ratio required is about 3 seedless to 1 seeded. You will not need or want to save seeds from these two varieties so the bags and such are not needed.

Hello,
Wayne is correct. The seedless is a mutant that shouldn't, but is possible, produce viable seed. The seedless produces no pollen so if you want to save any seeds (eventhough 420 is hybrid) you can. Any hard seeds from the seedless should be hallow, no cotyledons. If they are not you either had the female tetraploid or a spontaneous reversion to the diploid parent that was used to make the tetraploid. If you have any females pop up you can save the seed from that and get more seed of King of Hearts. Confused Yet?

I can't quite remember, but I think the female to King of Hearts is a Grey Round that is similar to Mickey Lee. By the way Mickey Lee is one great seeded type Wayne! You should try it if you haven't. The Heart's line of seedless were tetraploids of Mickey Lee.
Yuma

Yuma, I don't plant many small melons. Oh, I have gotten some nice Yellow Dolls, sometimes a great Fordhook, and once a 15½ pound Tiger Baby that was super, but I don't know how Mickey Lee tastes. I really tend to large melons that have a lot of heart area and good texture.

Hi this year I didn't get to plant any mellons, the year befor I grew OrangeGlo and loved the flavor so I plan to grow them again. They did so well i was giving them away.
I'm trying to find some Korean watermelons these are small melons only a couple of pounds but just right for my grand daughters. The main one I want to find is called Boksubak it has a tender thin rind that you can peel off the melon or bite into it like a apple. So far I have not heard back from the one Korean seed co. that might have it. The melloms are really sweet compared to other watermelons also I'm going to try a Korean melon called Early Siver Line. (C.melo) The skin on it is also very thin and the very sweet melon can be peeled like a apple Burpee puts it out under their Asian melons. One other small Korean Watermelon that I'm looking for is called Shindewha 3 or one called Seokwang. both have a brix rating of 11 to 11.5 This is pretty good compared to most watermelons that are considered pretty sweet at a Brix level of 8 to 10.

Has anyone tried the SSuperSweet triploids from Twilley Seed? I was thinking about trying the 5544 in a larger field.

The SuperSweet triploids are from Abbot and Cobb. I am pretty sure about that. They are ok. Just old types with pinker flesh and softer texture (in my experience).
Yuma

Here are a couple 2006 variety trials.
Purdue variety trial

Here is a link that might be useful: variety trials