2024 Watermelon
Wow!! Had recieved a bunch of seed from all over the US. Thanks to all who contributed to this swarm. There are close to 20 varieties with all of the colors of flesh represented. Orange, red, yellow and white with interesting heirlooms included.
So, be patient when awaiting for ripening of fruits due to this mix.
I have an early planting started and just beginning to flower. I’ll also start another planting in late July for the monsoon season when we get limited rainfall.
Even though we irrigate the garden, we still hold off watering during the ripening period. So we typically keep the melon patch seperate from everything else. We grow utilizing organic methods and like to use wood chip compost and worm castings.
Who has watermelons started? Did anyone grow them last year?
No photos for today…just a flower from the Fukuoka’s Grab Bag mix.
I had direct seeded all my GTS watermelon. 8a/8b. End of April/March. Leas than a 1/3 have made it so far through late frost/false spring and those have started running, no flowers yet.
I also mixed in my own watermelon seed from what I grew last year and one new orange variety from the big box store I wanted to try this year and swaps with GTS members.
No water during growth or fruiting. No sprays. Watermelons grow extremely healthy for me in my woodchip mulch garden even with heavy pest pressure (squash bugs mostly).
We haven’t had the squash bugs, just birds flying in to eat baby sprouts. Daytime temperatures here already up to 104 degrees and high 70’s overnight. I usually get 3 or so melons from each vine and several flesh colors. I save seeds from all of them each year and add heirloom seeds from companies that strickly grow organically.
These are several of the watermelon fruit types whose seeds went into the GTS 2024 seed mix. The yellow one with mold on the rind sat in my fridge for 4 months and surprisingly was still good to eat. So this yellow skin melon stores really well. It was also sweet and had great texture.
Planted the watermelons in February and they started coming up a few weeks ago. One thing I’ve learned about watermelon is that they don’t particularly care about getting cold. They’ll come up when the conditions are right.
I want to fall plant them this year and see how many survive.
@Lauren sounds good, hopefully something good and tasty grows for you and you get some seed. Yes, they do like hot weather and will take off growing around 90 degrees. Will you get temperatures around 90 degrees? There are over 20 varieties in the 2024 mix.
@WilliamGrowsTomatoes hoping you get something tasty as well. The mix has over 20 varieties and something should thrive there. My grow outs are in there too, seven or so varieties and will mature to various sizes and colors. All were good seed producers too.
Oh my grex predates GTS. Has past projects from Joseph and Andrew Barney. Additions of my own including some seed saver seed swaps. Some selection by my son for sweetness. If it germinates!
Planting alot of seed seems to be the norm to see what will come up and grow. At first it was kinda freeky, now my third year adaptive growing im getting used to not seeing everything I plant actually sprout. I dont think I’m to the landrace stage yet, just swarming varieties, since there are still new varieties added each season. I still purchase seed and trade with any growers that wish to trade. Im just reflecting, growing adaptive/landrace is still the way forward.
Mostly seeds I grew, but I did include some that were crossed by a friend. I have yet to see any of the white, yellow or orange fleshed watermelonss, although the genes should be in there somewhere.
Nice! The GTS mix has all the colors of watermelon flesh and I’m curious to see what grows in each garden. Thanks for the updates. It looks like at least two different varieties on your chip pile.
At least 5 distinct melon types, although they’re all trending toward long and slender. I probably have at least a dozen varieties in the mix. I found another the other day that is much larger than those I took pictures of.
