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Watermelons!

Pepperhead

Pepperhead

How's everyone's watermelons this year? Mine have gone completely insane and I'll have well more watermelons than I need. One snuck by me and grew through my fence into the neighbors yard. I told him he could have that one. I think they're the yellow variety (we had a little mix up before transplanting), but we won't know until the first is harvested.
Anyone else have runaway crops this year?
 
My pumpkins are trying to run away into my corn. Not to much on my watermelon, but I'm ready for some fresh out of the garden watermelon to eat. Also hubby and I are both excited to try and make watermelon jelly.
 
Sadly my Watermelon is not growing the squash and cucumber are taking over and shading my watermelon, sucks because all my squash is rottening before even growing so i might chop it down and let the watermelon grow
 
My cucumbers are out of control. I've already pickled 16 pints (sliced) and 4 quarts whole. I'm picking a couple of pounds a day and there's only two of us here.

I'm already getting sick of cucumber salad, cucumber soup, peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches, etc. I only have six plants and only three are currently producing. I don't think I'll plant as many next year. I wasn't expecting them to crank out so much but I guess I shouldn't complain. :P

Here's one I overlooked too long:

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Lost a few melons to bottom rot, but still have a few good ones. Pumpkins are growing straight through them though. Got one Lumina pumpkin that's set.
Seems like viney stuff always takes me by surprise. I never learn. :rolleyes:
 
I have never once succeeded with a watermelon, when they do grow, critters always eat them about a week before they come ripe (aaargh!!). Last year we had more cucumbers than we could stand and had a hard time giving them all away, from only 5-6 plants! This year the cukes all got destroyed by aphids, but we still have plenty of gourd action with bitter melon, and some Chinese variety of long squash.
 
Got one decent straight 8 cuke this year and a couple lemon cukes on the vine now. Watermelon vines are dying back, but the pumpkin vines are on with a vengeance. Might get 2 lumina pumpkins this year in our little patch. Harvested one watermelon so far and it was a red one, so that means Carolina Giant (I think that was the name). Have a really massive one that I think we'll harvest this week, and I'll post the picture. Massive! Pretty good for a first year grow.
 
My garden is doing pretty well this year despite the heat and my lack of weeding -- got 3 cuke plants that have put out a couple dozen cukes already and more growing - have one Dansuke ( Japanese Black ) watermelon plant that has 3 or 4 melons going - the Lumina pumpkins are doing good also (2 12 -15 lbers ready to harvest and 4-6 others going on 3 plants) - the Giant Cantaloupe finally has one going good and several more blooms on 2 plants - And actually got 1 of the Giant Pumpkins to finally set and it's at about 160 Lbs and adding about 7 Lbs a day currently. The regular watermelons -- not so good so far a couple tiny melons started but growing really slow.
Now if the weather would just cooperate for awhile and let the Bhut plant finally set some pods !!
 
Watermelon cubed into bite size pieces.
Layer on a platter or plate.
Sprinkle with Cayenne Powder.
Spritz with fresh squeezed lime.

Enjoy.

Just thought I would share my favorite way to eat Watermelon, it's awesome. Especially ice cold.
 
JDFan said:
My garden is doing pretty well this year despite the heat and my lack of weeding -- got 3 cuke plants that have put out a couple dozen cukes already and more growing - have one Dansuke ( Japanese Black ) watermelon plant that has 3 or 4 melons going - the Lumina pumpkins are doing good also (2 12 -15 lbers ready to harvest and 4-6 others going on 3 plants) - the Giant Cantaloupe finally has one going good and several more blooms on 2 plants - And actually got 1 of the Giant Pumpkins to finally set and it's at about 160 Lbs and adding about 7 Lbs a day currently. The regular watermelons -- not so good so far a couple tiny melons started but growing really slow.
Now if the weather would just cooperate for awhile and let the Bhut plant finally set some pods !!
Click to expand...

160 pounds? That's awesome! I'm surprised my one lumina set, and it looks like I may get one more. Never had much luck with pumpkins before. Got a new strategy for them next year, though. We'll see if I can make it work. Any pointers?

Sounds awesome Scovy! What we've done with our other watermelons was cut em up into squares, freeze em, then shave them into a bowl like shaved ice. The kids love it. I think we'll photo our kids with our giant one and give it to the neighbor. There's only so much watermelon we can eat. :)
 
Pepperhead said:
160 pounds? That's awesome! I'm surprised my one lumina set, and it looks like I may get one more. Never had much luck with pumpkins before. Got a new strategy for them next year, though. We'll see if I can make it work. Any pointers?
Click to expand...

I pretty much got lucky to get the AG going this year as well -- last year was really bad and both my giant pumpkin plants died off early (year was over by late august so actually had to buy a few pumpkins for the Neice for the Halloween display - so planted a bit later this year and was having real problems getting anything to set in the 100+ temps but one finally made it when we got a bit of a break in the weather as a storm moved through for a 4 day stretch and it has been doing pretty well since (hopefully it will keep going for awhile longer ( My personal Best was 3 years back had a 320 Lber - a 187 Lber and a 95 lber on 3 plants but they were earlier plantings and rotted before Halloween got here )

To let you see the difference a couple weeks makes
Here's a pic of it taken 08-20 :
bhut2012002.jpg


And one from today :
GiantPumpkin.jpg
 
Wow. I didn't think luminas got that big. Should try a lumina/giant cross. My lonely lumina is just about the size of your first picture.
 
Pepperhead said:
Wow. I didn't think luminas got that big. Should try a lumina/giant cross. My lonely lumina is just about the size of your first picture.
Click to expand...

That isn't a Lumina -- It is the same Curcubita Maxima family but is an Atlantic Giant the Lumina is more a 12 - 15 Lb. fruit normally and don't get much larger. I actually planted my Luminas in a SWC (self watering container) made from a Sterlite container this year (the soil here is pretty bad) and they really took off in the good potting soil mix (same as I use for my peppers) and the SWC holds enough water to keep them from wilting too badly in the afternoon in the 100+ weather we have -- I overcrowded them a bit this year with 3 Lumina and 1 Densuke Watermelon in the same container and you can hardly even see the container now - It's in the upper left of this pic (near the watermelon leaves on the building) :

bhut2012004-1.jpg


The Lumina plant leaves are actually bigger than my AG plant leaves. Here's a couple pics of the Lumina's hiding in the above pic also :

bhut2012007-1.jpg


bhut2012010.jpg
 
So the AG are pretty pale, huh? My pumpkins and watermelons were planted in a 4x6 raised garden and started kinda of slow. We went on vacation and when we came back 10 days later you couldn't see the ground because the watermelons had completely covered it. The pumpkins struggled for a bit, but now the watermelon vines have thinned out and the Pumpkins are chugging along.
We've got some old raised garden set up along our back and side fence, about 50 or 60 feet total. When the weeds all die back this fall I think I'm gonna pull everything, dig it up and mix some manure in there, then start watermelons on one end, Pumpkins on the other and see how far they'll go.
 
There is actually quite a bit of variation in the AGs anywhere from deep orange (almost reddish) to white - the one I got this seed out of was a lighter orange when it ripened and I think this one will darken once it starts to ripen as well - it has already gotten a bit of a dark white\yellow color on parts as the sun gets to it but will have to see (it may have some white genes in the family somewhere)

I'm sure your plants will love the area next year and will probably take over the entire area if you let them. If you'd like to give an AG a try let me know and I'll send you some seeds from this one around Halloween - after I cut it open for decorating the front yard.
 
It's a deal. Do you do any pinching buds or vines or anything to get them bigger? I think in the past I tried too hard and just made them suffer a slow death. This time around we just left them to their own devices, and the local bee population.

These were taken 2 or 3 weeks ago. I'll take another one when I get my big watermelon picture (current measurement about 21 inches long and 34 inches around).

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Wait...wasn't the title of this thread "Watermelons"? :)
 
LOL -- looking at your pic I see I'm not the only one that has watermelons and pumpkins fighting for the same space ! -- Compared to many other growers the AGs I grow are tiny by comparison if you want to see what they are capable of check out www.bigpumpkins.com - and look at some of the grower diaries -- many growers that routinely get 1000 Lbs plus with the world record at over 1800. But they put a lot more time and $ into it than I can and live in better areas (good soil foundation and decent weather during the season). With the weather here I don't do much pinching of buds etc. because I have a hard time getting anything to pollinate and have many abort even after getting to soccer ball size - so hate to cull down to one pumpkin and then wind up losing that one and having nothing - plus later in the year most of the original leaves give up due to the time spent in the heat so having some tertiary growth helps provide some fresh leaves to keep the plant going ! To get a decent size pumpkin on them it doesn't take a lot of attention but giving them good soil and consistent watering (esp. once the pumpkin is growing ) will get you something in the 150 - 500 Lb area and maybe more in better weather.

Growing them is pretty much the same as regular pumpkins they just grow faster and longer and are amazing to watch as in good weather they can gain 20+ lbs overnight at times. (Be ware they like peppers are addicting to grow) -- I'll send you several seeds so you'll have plenty to play around with (to practice germinating etc.) Figure they can take quite a bit of space if you let them but you can also terminate the vines once they reach a size you want and once you get a fruit set (figure about 300 - 600 sq. ft is enough but they will take what ever you give them so you might try just a couple plants) - as they grow it is best to bury the vine at the leaf nodes and they will sprout roots on both the top and bottom of the vine at each node giving it more root area to support the plant and hold the vine in place during wind storms (some growers bury the entire vine as it grows but I find it tends to rot during the season and cause problems so I just cover the area where the roots will sprout. Then pretty much treat them the same as other plants (keep the soil moist and don't water too often at night so you don't develop mildew) and you'll do fine.

And yeah it was about melons but this is all I've got so far in that area and there isn't much to talk about there :

bhut2012015.jpg


But do finally have one Giant Canteloupe going and several more that have pollinated and look to be starting as well :

bhut2012022.jpg
 
I have no idea what I would do with a 1000 pound Pumpkin. Even 500 pounds would be a stretch, although the neighborhood kids would like it on Halloween. But anything over a hundred or two would definately make for a fun Halloween set up. One year we bought 3 smaller luminas and stacked them like a snowman then carved a skeleton on them and it looked great.
Here's a pic of our big one a few weeks ago, the same time as the above pumpkin pic:
P8120806.jpg


We have a few smaller round ones and this we're calling the gourd melon:

P8120803.jpg


When we first found it (it grew outside our raised setup) it looked just like a striped birdhouse gourd. Someone told us when they start growing to put them on top of some sand to prevent bottom rot. We've only lost one to that so we'll maybe try it next year.
 
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