I’ve picked two of the round dark melons. Both appeared ripe, had a yellow patch underneath, spoon leaf and tendril completely dried up. When I thumped them, they sounded ripe. I don’t think they were ripe, although the seeds appeared ripe. More water than melon, little flavor, thick rind, lots of white in the flesh.
The other I picked today was perfectly ripe. It was a light green, elongated melon with dark stripes. No yellow underneath, but spoon leaf and tendril were dried up.
There are maybe a dozen more in the patch, most of them the round dark green. One more of the elongated light green, two of a dark green with darker stripes.
Today’s haul. 8 inch diameter, 19 inches long. The dark one is 13 inches long, 10 inches in diameter. I have no way to weigh them (and before people start making suggestions, I don’t have a bathroom scale and my kitchen scale only goes up to five pounds. Buying one is not an option).
At this point I’m seriously considering starting a separate population of small watermelons–say, under 10 pounds. These seem to be getting bigger every year.
Lovely melons, let us know how they taste and the flesh colors. Yellow seem way sweeter to me. My melon patch failed, I added compost from a new source and as it turns out, it was contaminated with herbicide. My melon patch sprouted but no vines, and no fruit. Dang it.
So far everything has been red, but a seed I gave to a friend produced an orange fleshed melon. She said it was “salmon,” her husband described it as yellow-orange. They said they’d get me some seeds.
Although I have planted other colors, only the red have grown in my garden.
Nice, im just curious to see if flesh colors have different types of flavors. I like yellow and red, and would be thrilled to get the salmon color…if they are tasty. Send in seeds definitely for GTS this year.
She said it was much more delicious than a red watermelon. Her husband described the flavor as amazing. And she said there are more melons on the plant, so apparently it was prolific as well.
*I guess saying her 3 year old can’t get enough might add to the features
I tasted them. They tasted fine to good. But my plants were stunted and I got wee bitty melons. So there wasn’t alot to taste. But I also didn’t really do anything to help them along either. First year grex of only 4 varieties.
One type didn’t seem to mature edible flesh. Not sure if it’s the timing and weather or what. It has big white seeds that I’m not sure are viable. They seem “filled” and not like hollow seed coats. Hmm can I do a germination test immediately? I don’t want to include them if they are duds.
I’ve one of those long ones growing, and another big round one. We got a few inches of rain and everything is growing again, so if our autumn lasts, I might get some more melons.
The orange skinned and yellow skin watermelons had white seeds for me. If its a dark green or striped skin melon those seeds should be black to be mature. Show some photos and crack open a bunch of those white seeds to be sure there is plant material inside, otherwise they are considered non fertile. Did you get a chance to check the seeds for embryos inside? If there they will be light green.
Some green varieties do naturally have white seeds. One of my green stripeys had white seeds this year. I’ve seen yellow and red seeds as well. Quite a lot of color variation in the seeds.
Though all my watermelon plants are taking off again. We got several inches of rain a week or two ago, and the temps cooled off (so that the highs are only low 90s… yes, that’s cool for us!). I’m hoping for another round of harvesting… all the hopes, like you do!
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