I’ve grown many watermelons, and I have yet to find a variety that will produce well without some type of nitrogen source.
They all seem to be lackluster, producing 1 small fruit on average if they make it to adulthood — unless given a nitrogen source.
Does anyone have a recommended variety to try?
I’ve never heard of a variety specifically saying that. You may be interested in seed from EFN that’s been sourced from other countries. (Assuming you’re in the USA.) And they’ve been developed under different conditions and probably less pampered.
Art Comb Cave Melon performed very well for me with zero input.
Melons were good size and tasted great.
I have some red seeds in one of my bags from last year’s harvest, and I wrote down that it was one of the best performers for melon size, relatively speaking. I think it was Art Comb. I remember starting with a small bag of red seeds I got from a swap, maybe 10 seeds. I got a couple plants that produced 1 fruit each weighing probably 10 pounds.
I gave the red seeds preferential treatment in this year’s planting. I have probably planted 200 of those red seeds already this year. I will continue to select for size in low input and hope for the best. But I will keep my eyes open for already available varieties that have more of this trait.
We think the same about this. I have noticed some UK seeds stores carry many of the same varieties as US. I really want to get my hands on seeds produced outside of the main system.
Did you het GTS seed to try?
No, not yet