Finally got some ripe pods. Numex Suave Orange and Ace.

The Suave Orange is looking a little more like yellow.

It has a decent bite on it... nothing like a normal hab, but up there with a jalapeno for sure. Very tasty.

New seedlings for an indoor grow. Both bhuts. Has anyone ever had a bhut with this coloring on the leaves. I germinated 3 each of purple, white, yellow, chocolate, and peach. The green one is chocolate and all others look the same. 3 purples came up and one looks like this with purple looking leaves. Guess we will see if they stay that way. I have never seen this before. Any one else see this before. I have looked all over the net but cant find anything close. The seeds came from Australia.

Click on the pic for a normal view.

What kind of soil are you using?

The black (purple) coloring is not unheard of. Some varieties will always come up that color, others occasionally. I believe it has to do with growing conditions such as soil, ferts, light etc... Normally it isn't a problem, but I had one year where I used what I thought was a bark based soil and it turned out to be wood pulp. Well, the seedlings germinated just fine but almost all became purple like yours. This was several different varieties and almost all were purple. They stalled at about the stage yours are at and after a couple weeks, they began to go downhill and die. I transplanted all the rest and soon they gained normal color and took off as normal. I am not saying that is your problem, but that soil looks unusual to me. If your seedlings start to stall out over the nest week or so, then I would consider changing to a regular potting soil.

They have all been germinated in 100% worm castings. Just like i always do. All others are normal. May just be genetics. All are under led.

Some say worm castings kill seeds but I do this all the time. This time I had 100% germination rate for 15 seeds. Transplant when they get there 3rd set of real leaves. This is the only one that is purple. Some genetic morph or deficiency. Will see what happens when I transplant in a couple of weeks. Seem to be growing fine. Only 1 week old.

OK, now I am pissed. Something totally ate one of my watermelons. I was out mowing the lawn today and found this. Do I load the .22 or the 12 gauge???

Any likely culprits. I live in rural Wisconsin so anything from a Black Bear to a field mouse would be possible. I just don't know what kind of animals are known to tear into a watermelon. And now that he has a taste, do you think I need to worry about a return trip?

I would think because of it being hollowed out, it would have to be a larger animal, bear, deer or coyotes. Were any of the broken off pieces laying around or were they gone? Most likely attacked because of thirst, unless a black bear then he may be back for food. That is terrible, do you have a trail cam?

No trail cam. I do wish I had one. If it happens again, I may go get a cheap one. I did not fine any pieces of the hull laying around. I checked and it looked like I might have had another one completely disappear, but it would have had to have been a while ago because the grass where it "might" have been wasn't patted down like if it was freshly taken. By the way, the watermelon in the photo was still attached to the vine.

Man, that sucks. I'm thinking something large might have trashed it more and perhaps helped themselves to a second or third melon. Could it be a racoon? Any visible teeth marks? Can you tell whether it was it bitten or torn open? Have you ever been known to sleepwalk?

Probably a raccoon. Once they know there is food good luck. Get the 22 and tape a 2 liter coke bottle to the end. Home made silencer. Quit as a bb gun.

Yah, there were some teeth marks. I am thinking raccoon myself, Just perfect size for a coon meal. Anyway, I put out a live trap baited with some mini marshmallows next to the melons. I hope I catch him before I go camping in a few days. I don't want to come back to a huge mess. These damn melons are resource intensive compared to the output. I can't afford to lose any more. If it happens again and I don't get the perpetrator in the trap, I am thinking I will turn on the backyard floods and sit on the back deck with my .22. Anyway, I will updating my blog later tonight so you can see the trap in that.

Screw the coke bottle. I will just shoot and duck back in the house. "Nope, didn't hear a thing. I been asleep since 9pm".

That's brutal Esox I would be so mad too! We had hail last weekend that knocked off or damaged some of my prized citrus fruit that was close to being mature (my first ever!!) and also completely smashed my winter squash to pieces. I lost some peppers and tomatoes too but they will recover. In case that makes you feel any better.

So I feel your pain. Hope you get 'em.

Yah, something got a second one now. But I dont think it was a Coon this time. Much smaller watermelon (softball size) and the hole is pretty small too.

That's terrible! I remember that when I had pumpkins we had squirrels do similar but I don't remember them eating the insides just seeds, but I wonder if they are fond of melons?

Heck if I know. Something sure likes nice ripe melon flesh. That thing was completely cleaned out. And it was sticky too so I know it was ripe even though it was small.

Bruce - I'm going with a raccoon. I've had them do the same thing here. Neighbor confirmed it was a coon when she heard a ruckus in my backyard and came over to look (midnight). I have them at the lake too and have watched them in action on picking beans, eating the insides of melons, picking peppers (hot and sweet), etc. The smaller animals like squirrels and chipmunks love to taste test my tomatoes. They taste and then let them hang there or lay on ground.

I vote for the .22 and then lay and wait. Can get them bullets that are real silent, I know John here at home has them. No louder than a bb.

Well, I ate slice of store bought watermelon yesterday so I took the rind, which still had ripe melon on it and sliced it into chunks. I used that to bait the trap. But this morning, it is untouched. I haven't been out to look to see if any of my melons were messed with though.

I have a couple small melons forming....let's hope the animals don't get them! I have my strawberry basket cages on them, but that's no guarantee!

Josh

I had 8 or 9 watermelons on my container plant out back but I am down to about 4. They are getting raided fast. I have basically given up on that one. I have three on the in ground plant though and so far so good. It is next to the house in the front yard so that might be to my advantage. I just wish I knew what it was that was raiding my others.

Well, I went out today to check the Watermelons and found two more shells. They were all soft and collapsed but completely eaten out inside. I picked one up and there were Vole runs under it and the holes in the melon were on the bottom that was on top of the Vole runs. So, I know those were Voles, but still unsure of the others since they were attacked from the top. I have basically given up on the container melons. They grew so well and produced so well but I am down to just two or three small melons out of 8 or 9 and some of those were big already when attacked. I have three nice sized ones in the in-ground patch. I have voles up there too, but they don't seem to be interested in the melons so far. I should probably just harvest them as a preventative measure.

Last year I grow watermelons!

Aw man, I feel bad for you. Everything else seemed in place for a successful grow, until critters decided otherwise...

Bruce, that sucks and I hate when any varmint eats our time and effort when they come take freely.

well finally got to harvest a Galapagos pepper they are so tiny. I have about a dozen of them now, still very tiny and green. Have not tasted it yet.

Dang, that is tiny. What is the story behind them?

Yah, I have gotten over the dissapointment. It was a fun experiment. I probably won't do it again.

I got only one melon, it was good but I will be growing a orange fleshed watermelon next season, only for my daughter or else I would not.

Galapagos pepper from the Galapagos island, it is a wild pepper native to the island. I've failed at sprouting this pepper for three years and finally this year it worked, got two plants but one is stunted and not doing anything while one has grown and produced peppers. I like wild and native plants. Same reason why I want to soon get a winter banana apple tree, it's an old variety. Guess I like the old and classic when it comes to most plants not all.

Native flowers attract more pollinators than any other plant I've seen.

This is joe pye weed the plant stands at 7-8 feet tall, did not capture the bees in the pics just went for the butterflies.

It's cool you're getting some peppers from the Galapagos, hab! Let us know how they taste like.

Yah, I shouldn't say never about more watermelons. In the early spring, the itch to grow stuff is strong and I will probably get that itch again in April. I haven't checked, but I still have a couple left. I have eaten two or three actually and they were all good. I may pick one or two more this week.

That is so cool with the Yellow Swallowtails. It is awesome to just see one flitting around, but to see so many all at once in one spot is great. I am going to have to look up the "Joe Pye Weed". That is one of those strange but very interesting plants that I have an affinity for.

Maybe give it another go, but your best bet is probably out front where the melons did not get attacked. I have to remember to update a pic of my Kaletts/flower sprouts, so far they are big but no sprouts yet. I do have some tiny forming purple brussel sprouts on one of my plants.

I hope next season is much better when it comes to growing peppers, this was a disappointing pepper grow year.

Sorry to hear about your melons that totally sucks! All that work all to be gone in an instant, I know the feeling. I've just found some of my winter squash half eaten as well, not impressed!

My melons are in my greenhouse and I have 2 good sized sugar babies. But off of 2 plants I guess that is a poor yield.

I harvested one I thought was ready but it needed a bit more time to develop color and flavor. But it was so sweet and juicy, the juice was like syrup! It made the hollow thunk when I tapped it and felt really heavy for its size but then I read somewhere that the colour will change to almost black when ripe.

My other melons just started kicking off too which is kind of late, not sure if they will make it. Got a couple cream of Saskatchewan, golden midget and American melon growing rapidly. Plus about 5 charentais almost mature.

I have a couple in the front that need harvesting. I may do that today or tomorrow. I am looking forward to them. I ate one a month ago that accidentally got disconnected from the vine and it was already yummy. So, my melon season isn't a total loss.

Sounds like you got lots of melons to take anyway esox that is great! Did you ever figure out what is your critter?

Yes, it was Voles, of all things. They were tunneling in under neath the melons and then up inside and literally eating them from the inside out. Each melon had a vole run directly below it with a hole up into the melon about the size of a quarter. Then, the little bastards just ate their way through the inside of the melon until it was gone.

Brutal! Who knew something so small could do so much damage? You need a yard cat, mine eats at least a vole a day, plus birds....

Yah, surprised the heck out of me. I don't like cats but I do prefer them to voles and mice. I wouldn't mind one hanging around outside. Oh, I did pick my best one out front. It is in the fridge cooling off. I will probably slice it open tonight. Funny thing is, there are a ton of voles where those melons are and they are not bothering the melons. It is in a mulched garden, which the voles love. Go figure.

Well, it's official...Melon Fail! That's just how it goes, sometimes. I might try again next year. At least I can still get melons from the Farm.

That's too bad Josh. I just picked and ate my largest melon yesterday. It is the third one I have eaten. I have three or four more left if the Voles don't beat me to them. THey have all been good, but this last and largest one wasn't quite as good as the early small ones. I think maybe it was over ripe. It was the first one to appear this year. The others I harvested due to circumstances instead of waiting until they were bigger/riper. I think I may go out and harvest some of the others soon.

Hobbyartisan, your melon looks so good! I hope to one day to have a greenhouse. Your melon looks twice the size of mine and when I picked mine it was ripe, I wonder if it has to do with heat for melons to get larger before ripening.

Bruce, wow it was voles, that's insane that they did that much damage to your melons clean them out, I would never suspected they would be culprit.

Josh that sucks about your melon. Is that BER? I was hoping to see your moon and star melon pics so I could envy them.

Season here is winding down, I had success with other veggies but no so much with peppers at all. I got to try Aji lemon not really a fan, Chinese 5 color, it's ornamental so flavor is not good either. I did taste the Galapagos pepper which was decent and hot, around jalapeno temp. I can't believe it holds three seeds and they are regular size the size you would find in a habanero.

The soil I have in my raised bed is not good at all. I will re-think the mix and add stuff to improve it.

Sunchokes aka Jerusalem artichoke

Flowersprouts aka kaletts

Well if josh can't grow melons in Cali not sure why I even bother! What do you think was the issue Josh? I will say that I wouldn't even bother if I didn't have a greenhouse, my season just isn't long enough and since I only have a tiny greenhouse I could only fit 2 containers in there so I still have 3 melon containers outside. I need to harvest my last sugar baby and swap it out for my American melons I think but I want to make sure my sugar baby is ripe first. Our nights are at freezing now at least a couple times a week. Ugh.

Sorry some things didn't so great this year habjalokia, that's the way it goes sometimes. My potatoes and corn were a busy this year, which is weird because usually I get hundreds of pounds of potatoes.

Here is one of my American melons we just ate this week we have a couple more on. It's was more of a honeydew style, tasty but probably could have been a bit riper. So juicy though kind of like a cross between a cucumber and a melon.

And here are the charentais, a French cantaloupe. We have eaten one and it was delicious. Tiny though.

Yeah, my shaded garden isn't the right spot for good melon production....but I'll probably try again next year, starting a bit earlier and maybe putting in a soaker hose to keep the soil consistently moist. I just pulled the vines this evening, and split the melon open. The good news is that the seeds I saved from last year have the potential to grow true yellow-fleshed melons.

Picked a few Ghost Peppers while I was in the garden....

Nice! Oh right that was the moon and stars variety wasn't it? Cool I have read about those I would like to try them too.

Hey Josh any chance of making sun more available by removing branches/trees? I can't remember if you talked about that or not. Could you have a personal plot at the farm? Would they allow you to have a vine or two growing there? Those are nice looking ghost peppers! I have got to grow them again.

Hey, Mark! Last Summer I had a professional arborist come in and thin the oak branches to let more light into the yard...so, believe it or not, but this season I had a lot more light! Ha! Just not enough for melons, I guess. As for the Farm, they'd give me as much room as I want. We grow the Moon and Stars melon there already, but I just wanted to have one at my house, too. Almost everything does better at the Farm ;-)

Josh

Did all the rest f your garden benefit from the increase of sunlight after the tree trim? Your ghost pods look like they did. I need to have the setup you've got teaching in the fall/winter and farming in the spring/summer. That's awesome that they will let you grow things at the farm, I'd be in trouble growing all kinds of stuff and it would get out of hand. I would be cross pollinating like a mad man!

I definitely think that sunlight is a big thing for water melons. Mine did pretty good IMO. Aside from being a bit smaller than I hoped and aside from the damn VOLES getting more of them than me, I did pretty well overall. I still have three in the in ground plants up front and I think one or two in the container plant that are not lying directly on the ground that they didn't get yet. I went ahead and harvested my largest melon last week. Here is a quick video of me slicing it open.

It was maybe a bit over ripe if anything but still very tasty.

That looked awesome esox! It looks identical to my last one in my greenhouse. I think I will harvest this weekend.

Yep, I think I will be harvesting most of my remaining melons soon as well.

Hey!

Yes, everything else in the garden benefitted dramatically from the increased light. Of course, everything required more water, too ;-)

Josh