Here is a White Sugar Lump

I like Raspa really well. Sangria is good, but wants to set on too many and that hurts size and quality heavily. Yellow Crimson is a good change up and a good grower. I love the taste of Klondike Striped Blue Ribbon though it isn't very crispy. Orangeglo grows about the best of all melons, but varies in texture from good to grainy and soft. Cooperstown is an excellent seedless melon.

I have to be very careful about rotation as melons are the worst of about all plants for disease.

This post was edited by wayne_5 on Wed, Oct 15, 14 at 22:25

WOW! Very impressive. Mine have never done well either so I'll plant in some amended soil & see how it goes.
Thanks for the inspiration
Craig

I forgot to add that I also used black landscape fabric. This probably helped keep the soil warm, moisture in, and weeds out. I just put it on top of my soil and used landscape fabric pins to hold it down. Glad you are inspired TCGardener!

Wayne_5, Klondike was my best producer this year. I love the taste and texture of that variety. Yellow Crimson sounds interesting, I might try that. I am also thinking about also trying Moon And Stars.

I am skipping out on planting squash next year to make room for extra watermelons. I eat very few squash anyway and end up giving most of it away.

Farmerdill,
My entire garden is usually at least 90% OP varieties. I will probably stick to mostly OP watermelons also. I don't mind seeded watermelons at all. I saved some seeds from one of my White Sugar Lump watermelons. It will be interesting to plant a couple and see if they crossed with any of the other watermelons in my garden. Thanks for the info...off to look up some of the varieties that you listed now. I will definitely check out Charlene since that is my middle name :).

This post was edited by Christacharlene on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 8:36

Btw, thanks for the link. You have grown a lot of watermelon varieties!

Ali Baba from rare seeds or High Mowing ~100 days
Sweet Dakota Rose from Fedco ~ 70 days
Blacktail Mt. From Sand hill, or Fedco `~ 70 days

I am in the Adirondacks, season is short and I amend my
soil according to the Book--The Ideal Soil from www.soilminerals.com

Dave Rogers

Give Yellow Moon & Stars a try. It is an excellent watermelon.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I looked up everything you guys/gals posted. Next year I am going to go with everything I planted this year because I have leftover seeds and I am happy with the melons they produced. I am also planning on adding Ali Baba, Yellow Moon And Stars, and Charleston Gray to the list for next year. I wish I had room for more :). Yellow Moon And Stars looks so beautiful, I can't wait to try it.

This post was edited by Christacharlene on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 23:45

I am revisiting this topic of watermelon varieties to grow out. I do dot grow that many at one time for I need to put them out in shorter rows and have enough land left over for changing the location of my patch. I have enough room to grow 14- 16 melon vines in 5 different locations which is still a bit short of room since I grow 2 crops a year. My goal is to not touch the same soil till the 4th year. I would like to hear different viewpoints and especially Southern growers who grow in extreme humidity and heat like myself, which is zone 10b in Southwest Florida. Anyone in the South of Florida usually gives up growing melons. lol Florida is #1 in Watermelon production in the Country so we have no excuses and need to understand timing is the key. I have had successful crops but have been away from the game for a few short years and am getting back to planting Watermelon again . I started about 2 weeks late getting my seeds out in the beginning of Sept. Vines are getting big quickly and I feel it will be a successful Fall, which is not easy here due to the winter is coming fast. Our Spring crop is usually much better but I was game to get some in. Here is my list for my grow out. I use a wide row method of growing so my row is 6 ft wide and plants spread out 3 ft apart in both directions and are 2 deep in the row. Soil is amended to a sandy loam and I use a triple 14 Polyon coated fertilizer and run a ph of about 6 - 6.5. I top dress every 2 weeks with a triple 20 water base fertilizer and Calcium nitrate, both at half strength or slightly above.

1. 2 Orangeglo

2. 2 Crimson Sweet

3. 2 Golden Honey

4. 1 Bush Sugar Baby

5. 1 Sugar Baby

6. 2 Leelanau

7. 1 Legacy

8. 1 Jubilee

9. 1 Legendary

10. 1 Yellow Baby Doll

11. 2 Orange Crisp

In the winter into Spring will be trialing a few more to the list and they are Starbrite, Summer Flavor #720, Grandeur, Royalty, Golden Gem. I would be growing Gold Strike but the seed is not being sold any more. That is the best yielding watermelon I have ever grown and it kills me not to have it any more. I do like the hybrid vigor for watermelon production but am keeping some of the better OP types in my trials to see if any shine. Actually I am growing more OP's with this fall crop.

Looking forward to hearing about how you rate these. I'm thinking about what to grow this year. I also grew Gold Strike for several years and am disspointed that it's not been available recently. I will likely try a couple of other orange/yellow varieties this year - orangeglo, tendersweet orange, and/or golden honey.

Chiming in, though I'm in the north. Moon & Stars does pretty well for me most years, but it doesn't ripen until September. Crimson Sweet had done well for me in the past but the past few years was cr*ppy. IDK why I can't get a good Sugar Baby to save my life, those should be pretty foolproof up here, but they're not, not for me anyway.

I bought seeds of Blacktail Mountain to try this year after reading some good reviews on the board, we'll see how that goes.

Beyond the shorter growing season, the two battles we face up here are (1) cool summer temps -- especially night temps, and (2) overly wet weather. Forget the melon crop entirely if both those occur simultaneously, like 2023. BAH!

My comments are now in on the 11 varieties are grew and just ate for my fall crop out here in zone 10. It was cool out when many were picked for I started these virtually 3 weeks late in the season and it is a short season at that. About ready to start my spring crop in the next 3 weeks.

As I mentioned my benchmark watermelon was always Gold Strike. Well I am happy to say that I found a real winner in another Orange but with even better color and more crisp flavor. That variety is Leelanau! It is a cross of Orangeglo and Crimson Sweet. The flesh quality beat out Orangeglo hands down. It was extremely crisp but also tender, if you know what I mean. Sweetness level was very similar to crimson sweet as well as it's shape and size and weighed 24 1/2 lbs. Crimson sweet performed amazingly well and Sugar Baby impressed me as well with the sweetest flavor and low seed count which surprised me. Leelanau looks so small in the pic but it was very hefty and large, take my word for it. Leelanau should do quite well in the North for it was developed in Michigan.

I've never had an orange watermelon, I'm always intrigued when I see them in the catalog. Good to know about the Leelanau -- where did you get the seed?

Very easy to get at rare seeds. And I just noticed you are in Michigan, so a perfect pick. Since you need short season production, I would try Grandeur and Royalty from True leaf Market. they are 70 day and 73 day respectfully and full sized melons. I did not get them in time to trial but will be trialing them this spring in another month.

Thanks!

Thanks for the update! I’ll definitely give leelanau a try