Thanks for the suggestion! From where did you get your seeds? (I don't think I've heard of this one)...

Sharon

Ditto Shankins. Where did you get the seeds? We LOVE melons...and our fave is Sugar Baby. This year (thanks to the seed offer from SSE) we're trying Dakota Rose also. Would love to add another favorite variety.

Thanks for the recommendation! Can you believe some of us will add this into the "next year" line of thinking after this HORRIBLE gardening year? lol!

Paula

Paula, Yes I can believe it. Can you believe I cruised through the Baker Creek Seed Store today? Well, I was in the area. LOL Carol

Willhite Seed. I think a few other places carry it also. Not as seedy as sugar baby and probably twice as large.

Well, THERE YOU HAVE IT!

Hello, Captain Obvious!!! We are a die-hard bunch, aren't we? HA! Thanks for the info, quailhunter! I order from them in the winter and I'll be sure to order these.

Carol - REALLY??? What did you find? Carsonsmimi was there about a month ago and came home with a @##%load of new seeds. I'm envious...I still have Slo-Bolt Cilantro seeds from there that are AWESOME! Best crop I've EVER got from cilantro seeds.

Not to deter from the thread on melons....

Paula, Actually I bought very little, 2 magazines and 4 packs of seeds. I didn't need much (read in nothing), but we were just one town away so I wanted to go look.

I still have a tote full of seeds and I held back on things that I normally would have planted because it was just too hot and dry to take care of it.

I bought some Jing Orange Okra, Penny Rile Peas, Blue Lake Green Beans, and Sugar Snap Peas. The free gift was Parisienne Carrot today.

I was going to buy the Carol Deppe book that George has recommended, but since it was $30 there I couldn't make myself do it until I checked Amazon. It was under $18 on Amazon. I told Al the next time I feel like buying myself a gift, I'll order that. LOL Actually I may check it out at the library and see if I really need to own it. I stood there in the store looking at the books today and realizing how many of them I already had.

I started not to tell this story, because Dawn already teases me about my many trips to Baker Creek, but I'll give her a laugh. One day I was on Facebook looking at the people that wanted to connect with me, and one of them was Jere Gettle, the owner of Baker Creek. I don't know how this happened, but I checked it and have had a few messages. The other day he sent out a invitation to attend the 'happenings' at the California store and it had an RSVP on it. I answered that I would not be attending but would probably be at Baker Creek this week. He "liked" me. I'm surprised seedmama or Lisa didn't see it and ask me about it. Actually it was kind of funny because he doesn't know me, nor does he know how much of my money he has gotten. LOL I should get a 'frequent flyer' discount.

Back to melons - I didn't buy any today and the few watermelons I have planted have grown very slowly. The canteloupe have covered the ground and climbed every cage they could latch onto. I think I planted a hill of six different ones, so no seed saving for me this year. Not that I need to save seed anyway.

I have another word for all cilantro seeds and it isn't awesome. I sent out 4 packs in the seed swap and I think I may be doing that again next year. Yuck

Carol, I'm absolutely green with envy of your Baker Creek trips!! I have promised myself that, the next time we go through the area, we WILL be stopping by. I don't care how rushed we are, how cranky the kids are from being cooped up in the van, I will suddenly have to pee really, really bad and, oh, look, there's the Baker Creek exit. Can you believe we lived in Springfield for a few years, have driven past there time and time again on road trips when we lived elsewhere andI have still never been to Baker Creek?? It's a pitiful shame, it is.

I got one of your cilantro packs in the swap, I think. I planted that and another one I had this year and have been letting it go to see so I might have enough to grow for next year. We go through 1/2 dozen bunches of store-bought cilantro each and every week. Yum!

And, just to stay on topic, I'm only growing two boring varieties this year: Sugar Baby and Crimson Sweet. I'm not terribly fond of either one but the seed was handy and melons weren't my focus this year. They can't be any worse than those horrid melons at the store. None of those things have any taste these days.

Diane

I'm telling you guys, if you're wanting an icebox melon that isn't terribly seedy, then this is the one. I grew Cimson Sweets last year and made a few nice melons. They didn't really size up. They did taste great.

You won't think that Crimson Sweet is too boring when you eat it! I thought these tasted great. They would only get to about 15 lbs for me. I did not prune, just let them do their thing.

I only devote a 10' X 30' spot to watermelon. I plant them fairly close to my onions and potatoes. Those come out right as the vines are encroaching on that area. Seems to be working perfect. I know I've read about Mickylee on here before. Maybe it was Dawn that got me looking at that one. I don't know that there is a variety of whatever that she has not planted. She may have a different opinion of Mickylee. For now, I am sold on it.

A friend of mine stopped by to inspect one of my gardens while I was out (it is in my neighbours yard) and she suggested that I "tent" my watermelon fruits to keep them from getting too hot in the heat of the day. Anyone else ever heard of this? And if so, can I get away with just putting some newspaper over them somehow?

I am delighted ( and living vicariously) about your watermelon success. A couple of years ago we decided that we had not had all the watermelon we wanted in a long time. My husband planted 70 hills of watermelons. WHile we did have all the melons we wanted, we didn't have near as many as the deer did. They picked out the ripe Black Diamonds, opened them up and ate them. Looked like someone had cleaned the rind with an ice cream scoop. We had also planted Tendersweet, that they were not so taken with, and Sugar Baby which I guess they just decided were too small to fool with. Surely is discouraging. Don't know anything about tenting watermelons but my husband said when he was growing up they raised watermelons to sell. I think he said that their Grandpa made them get up early put lime in a gunny sack and dust them so they wouldn't blister in the sun. A family friend used to put a "counterpane" ( LOL his words, not mine) over his tomatoes.. Threw me off at first because he called it counter pin. I finally figured out what he was talking about.
mo

Carol, I missed something? on FB? Let me go check!

I thought about you this week. I had another big moth that needed id'ing. Guess what it was???? Bwaaahaaahaaa. I should recognize those babies by now! He actually ended up dying, so I saved him for a teacher friend of mine.

Lisa

Lisa, I am not a big Facebook user, but I do look at it occasionally to see what the grandkids are up to.

More info please.....you save dead worms for the teacher. I have had a few teachers that deserved that.....

I saved the moth actually, not the caterpillar! I've been encouraging her to butterfly garden. I gave her some passionvine this summer so she could host gulf fritillaries, which appear to be non-existent this year!

I probably flood your newsfeed :) I posted a link for pillowcase dresses recently. Didn't you tell me you make those? Someone made the cutest one the other day. The pillowcase was scalloped with a little bit of black detailing. The sewer used black and white tiny polka dot print for the pocket and ties...it is adorable. When I get around to ironing it, I'll post a pic.

Lisa, It wasn't me on the pillow case dresses, but they seem to be very popular on the sewing forum. Most of the dresses I make for charity have t-shirt tops, short sleeves and a full skirt. They are not as strict on patterns as they once were, but the dresses do have to have sleeves. Some are sent to countries where girls wear ONLY dresses, so we make them washable and the skirts wide enough to give them enough ease for playing. Then I make tee-shirts for boys. I have made other things, but those two are what I make most.

I have had my sewing room so stacked up for awhile during my kitchen remodel that sewing has been put on the back burner for a time. I made a tee-shirt pattern for Beth and a couple of shirts from it, that fit her youngest, so she could see the finished product since she said she was a beginner at sewing. Then I lost them for about a year IN my sewing room. LOL I was afraid that he would outgrow them before I got them there, but she said they still fit. I haven't seen her post for a long time.

I have tons of donated fabric right now so I need to be making some things. I not only have it clogging up my sewing room but have several totes in a bedroom. At first my friends and I were furnishing the fabric but as word got around we got donations.

There are only about 3 of us that are making them in my gourp now. One is a friend that lives 3 hours from me but everytime I see her she brings a dozen dresses. The other lady doesn't sew much, so I usually make the t-shirt top and the skirt and she puts them together. She can do that easily and it is a task that slows me down when I am making a lot. Usually she hems them and attaches the two halves. Sometimes I hem them, but since I have shown her how to do it on her machine, she doesn't mind doing that part. We have done over 400 garments so we think we are making a difference. If I could ever finish my house I could probably do a couple of hundred every year....or if I didn't garden. You know that isn't going to happen.

I have thought for years that it was something I could do in my old age when I had lots of time. [grin] Now that I am old, I have NO time. I guess that is because I don't work as fast.

Back on subject - Growing up in southern Oklahoma we had lots of watermelons and I don't think anyone had irrigated fields. I wonder if they still grow them without water? If so, they may be limited this year.

Last year my aunt's friend grew lots of watermelon, but had few tomatoes. I didn't grow watermelon, but had tons of tomatoes. My mother was ill at the time and I was going back and forth. I took tomatoes down and brought watermelon home.

I may try your Mickeylee next year because I am not usually impressed with small watermelons. When I was a child my Dad grew Black Diamond and Charleston Grey, and BD is still my favorite today.

Mickeylee is a very good one and I know I've mentioned it here before, Quailhunter, although I don't remember specifically if I recommended it to you. I would have, though, if you'd asked if I thought it was a great one, because it is.

Willhite Seed is my favorite melon seed supplier because they have bred so many wonderful varieties over the years, although they carry a lot of great melon varieties, and not only their own.

Carol, lol lol lol Somehow it just figures that while you were at Baker Creek, I was at a wildfire. This one was close to home--on the ranch formerly owned by Tim's best friend, Ken, and his wife and on another ranch that adjoins it. I was astonished at how quickly this fire spread in a very low-wind situation. I know that if our place caught fire right now, everything likely would burn just as quickly, except for my garden which still has a fair amount of green....and it might burn anyay because the mulch certainly isn't green and it isn't very moist.

We are having a great melon year here. We have tons of melons on our muskmelon plants and watermelons plants. I know I planted Blacktail Mountain and think it likely I planted Sugar Baby or Bush Sugar Baby, although I don't remember for sure.

You can tent your melons with paper if you can make it stay in place. It helps prevent sunscald. Usually the vines are dense enough to shade melons adequately, unless you're having issues with some of the vines dying back.

Mo and Carol, Black Diamond was my dad's favorite and I like it a lot, but I don't grow big huge melons like that because the vines just run forever. This year I am growing my melons in a raised bed as a 'groundcover' plant underneath Stewart's Zeebest okra plants that are 4'-5' apart and it has worked pretty well. As the okra plants continue to spread out, I'm starting to worry they're going to shade out the watermelon plants. At first the watermelon plants just filled the bed with the okra plants sticking up out of them. Now the okra plants loom over them like Godzilla rising up out of an ocean (albeit, an ocean of melon plants).

Fred grew Black Diamonds as long as he was still growing a big old garden on the old home place down on the river, but I don't think he's had a garden there since 2008 or 2009. That last year he had to fight the coyotes for every melon. I always could tell when Fred dropped by to visit while we were away because I'd find a big Black Diamond melon sitting on a lawn chair or on the screened-in porch. He turns 89 this fall and now only has his big (I'm guessing 1/2 to 3/4 acre in size) garden at his house just up the road from us, and he may not grow melons there because he has red clay there, not sandy soil like he has at the old home place. I hope I am still growing watermelons (and other stuff) when I'm 89, should I be lucky enough to live so long.

If y'all order Mickeylee from Willhite, you should order Raspa. You won't regret it.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite's Melons

Wonderful thread on watermelon and best of the best varietal recommendations. Thank you all.

Is it still good to start some melons from seeds and can able to harvest few fruits before hard freeze?

regards -Chandra

Carol,

The only fields of watermelons I've seen growing in Love County this year MUST be receiving some irrigation, because they're in a part of Love County that is in Extreme Drought, and everything around them is brown, brown, brown but that melon patch sticks out like a sore thumb because it is so very green. (Almost unnaturally green, so I'm betting they've been well-fertilized as well.)

The only other crop I've seen that looks well-watered is a commercial planting of purplehull peas. You can see the big irrigation rig in the field, and it too is incredibly green surrounded by brown on all four sides.

Chandra, You probably would have time to get melons from seeds sown now, unless you have a really, really early first frost. I'd choose a smaller melon with a DTM of no more than 75 or 80 days.

Once the daylight hours get shorter and shorter and the temperatures drop in the autumn, melons slow down a lot in terms of the melons enlarging and ripening.

Dawn

Loved reading about the Black Diamonds. This is all we (I) ever had as a child. We would put them in the streams to chill in Colorado for our family reunions in July/August. Will never forget the first time we went to CA (in the late 40's early 50's) and someone told me those yellow-meated "things" were watermelons!! I didn't believe them then. . .and don't believe them now. IMO, the ONLY real watermelon is a Black Diamond.

We had a watermelon descussion once before, maybe a couple of years ago. I grew up with Black Diamond and Dawn's Dad liked Yellow Belly Black Diamond. I didn't know until we had that discussion that they were two different melons. Willhite has seeds for both.

Cheri, We had some truck/market farmers who had a big garden---I'd guess about 5 acres---on a major street corner not too far from our neighborhood in the 1960s. They sold fresh produce at a little stand on that property whenever they had stuff ripe. We'd buy things there like corn and watermelons that we lacked the space to grow in our backyard garden. When the melons were ripe, my dad would stop there to buy "yellow-meated Black Diamonds". If they didn't have any that day, he'd buy a Yellow Belly Black Diamond. And, if they didn't have those, he'd buy a plain old red-fleshed Black Diamond. I don't remember him ever buying any melon back then except Black Diamond. To him, they were the ultimate melon. Back then it was common for the country farmers to drive a pickup truck load of melons into town and sell them out of the back of their trucks. My dad always stopped to get one if he saw Black Diamonds.

Willhite has the seed for all 3 of the black diamonds---regular red flesh, yellow belly, and yellow flesh.

Carol,

I think of that discussion we had here every time we talk about melons, especially if we're talking about Willhite. And, honestly, how can we talk about melons without talking about Willhite Seed? I don't know how much they still use this slogan, but I can't think about Willhite without automatically thinking "Melon Seed So Good It'll Make You Want To Spit".

When my dad was a kid farming with his family on the other side of the Red River in the 1930s and pre-war 1940s, they always grew Moon and Stars. He started telling me about it when I was a kid, but told me it was 'extinct' and that you couldn't get seed for it anymore. Imagine his surprise when, as a young adult, I found seed for Moon and Stars at SSE and grew them. It was like giving him back a piece of his childhood. It is funny how a particular fruit or vegetable will stick in your memory for decades.

Dawn

Cute story Dawn. It is funny to me now that I look back on it, but my mother was the gardener, but my dad grew the melon patch.