Heck, watermelons that taste sweeter without adding extra sugar sound good to me.
I think they are sweet enough as they are if they are fully ripe (which they aren’t at the stores usually). Here in cool climate not all get as sweet as they can, but personally I can do with less as I don’t use sugar in my daily live so everything tastes sweeter. Last year I had one watermelon that was maybe even too sweet for my taste some days before I would expect them to be fully ripe. I accidentally cut it off. It must have just been better at ripening in our climate. At some point I might start to push it by taking them off at X days from flowering to see if they are fully ripe.
I think my neighbors small dog has taking a liking to my watermelons. He got 2 more last night. I didn’t realize they were this close to being ripened. I’m think the two that got hit last night are orange tendersweet that hopefully crossed with Charleston gray. Or it might be one of those seeds I ordered from David the Good’s son’s seeds.
Maybe Mother Gaia sent a signal to the little mutt through the passageways of the mycorrhizal that I need to plant these seeds now! So I went ahead and planted a bunch of these seeds today. Nah, I don’t really believe in that. I see this as an opportunity.
Unfortunately, I think my watermelon patch is being raided by coons. If anyone has suggestions on a defense, please let me know.
Shooting and lethal traps are not possible for proximity reasons or the risk of harming unintended target with trap.
I could view the coons as a selection pressure. Perhaps I can breed a coon resistant watermelon?
I was thinking about taking an old boom box out there at night and playing on repeat David the Good’s Biscuit song to the coons.
Get really big panty hose stockings, the largest size. Pull one over each watermelon. Make sure the fruit goes all the way to the end, so that the open part is around the vine. If you wanted to be really sure they can’t try to sneak in from that end, maybe fasten it with a twisty tie.
I’ve seen this advice for keeping animals off watermelons (and other cucurbit fruits) many places, including trustworthy sources like MIgardener, so I’m guessing it works. Apparently the Amish have been doing it for decades!
Apparently it works because the texture is really unpleasant and says “this is not food,” so the animals tend to leave the fruit inside alone.
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That’s interesting, thank you. I will look into panty hose that is the same color as my grass. I already look redneck. Tan colored panty hose would remove all doubt.
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If you don’t want to look any more redneck then other gardening channels I have seen use nylon fabric called Tulle they make wedding veils and other things from.
It comes in emerald green which is what I’ve seen gardeners using to blend in. I use it on my growing totes to exclude birds and bugs from my seedlings while allowing air and sunlight and rain to get in. It’s got the same texture that rodents etc get their claws stuck in so they don’t like it. It will last a season or two then you can reuse it for tying plants to stakes etc. after it starts getting torn.
I got mine on eBay by the large roll cheap. But the usually online Chinese stores and craft stores usually sell them.
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I’ll need to look into this, thanks.
Oh, I didn’t think about tulle for animal barriers, but that makes sense! I could easily see that working.
Somebody breed one that will keep the raccoons from eating my watermelon. 
Come to think of it, some plants use thorns or bitterness on the exterior in order to keep their tasty innards from getting eaten by animals. Thistles and burdock spring to mind. Maybe you could do something kind of similar, by growing your watermelons surrounded by a companion crop that drives raccoons away?
Ideally, you would want it to be something raccoons detest and humans are fine with. Such a plant may exist – poison ivy deters humans and not many other species, for example.
Does anyone know of something like that?
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Maybe mint? I read online that raccoons hate the scent of mint. That’s a groundcover that spreads easily and doesn’t get tall, so it wouldn’t shade out your watermelon vines. Maybe if you grew them together, you’d get fewer raccoons eating your watermelons?
Anybody tried that?
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(Laugh.) I’m suddenly envisioning a bunch of sentient deer deliberately planting a sea of poison ivy everywhere on their land, as a delicious edible that also drives away those humans they don’t want on their land. 
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Good thoughts. My watermelon patch has been hit a few nights the last couple weeks. I am going to wait and see if they become a consistent problem.
I have recently brewed a catnip tea. I made it pretty strong, and it was relaxing. It almost put me to sleep. I am beginning to get into the herbs/mints more. Maybe mint would be a good solution if the problem persists.
Ooh, now that you mention it, catnip might be an interesting choice, too! I’m not sure if raccoons dislike the smell of catnip, but I wouldn’t be surprised, since it’s in the mint family. I’ve read the squirrels dislike it.
Catnip is extremely drought tolerant, so it shouldn’t need to be irrigated. I mean, it’s commonly used as a xeriscape ornamental in unirrigated spaces here in the desert I live in. Since watermelons are better off unirrigated as well, at least while the fruit’s in the last stages of ripening, a companion that doesn’t need water would be ideal. My chocolate mint plants don’t seem very drought tolerant, but catnip sure is!
If you have feral cats, maybe it might attract some of them to your watermelon patch, too? That may be beneficial; raccoons would probably prefer to not be near cats.
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Sounds good. I just pulled up a dried up catnip flower stalk and rubbed and pressed my fingers on it, dropping about 30 - 50 seeds on a paper plate. Interesting, that was easy.
Nice! Let us know how that goes. I hope it works easily!
The watermelon seeds definitely appear to be ripening outside the fruit. A germination test between the groups should tell the tale once they’re dried down.
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Colour change doesn’t mean ripening. Colour changes just by drying. Once they are removed from the fruit or fruit is removed they are as ripe as they get. There might be other changes that aren’t related to ripening like eggplants have chemical compounds on seed that inhibit germination. Those can wear off and so you might go from 0% germination to good germination over time. Those watermelon seeds look like they are fully developed and should have fairly good germination. Seeds are the first to ripen so you can easily save seeds from immature fruits.
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I’ve been sorting my watermelon seeds based off color. Isn’t it true for most varieties the darker seeds are more mature?