My third year of growing watermelons a couple miles south of the Canadian border and about 16.3382 miles west of Lake Champlain. What?
The wet weather this summer helped a lot. I started the seeds in 4" pots on May 20, 2015. I grew an early variety Blacktail Mountain (6 to 12 pounds) and a later variety Black Diamond (35 to 40 pounds). I transplanted them outside on June 17, 2015.
My largest early melon to date was 14 lbs 6 ozs. My heaviest late variety to date, weighed on the vine, is 20 pounds. I have 2 others at 18 pounds and a whole bunch in between, most at 12 to 14 pounds. Hopefully, they’ll get 3 to 4 more weeks on the vine.
These seeded melons are unbelievably sweet and crisp. The melon splits open with a snapping sound when cut. The fruit is sweet right down to the white, no thick white rinds thrown away. I left a 1/4 piece in the fridge for 2 weeks and it was still crisp and sweet! A great keeper.
The pics are in chronological order a week or two apart. It did seem to take a long time before the first female flowers showed.
Now I know I can start them about 3 to 4 weeks earlier next year and get even bigger fruit. I let the Grandkids pick the ones they wanted to take home. You should have seen and heard them, lol. There’s so much beauty in gardening. Enjoy.
Pepe
Blacktail Mountain
Black Diamond
My biggest Blacktail Mountain, 14 lbs, 6 ozs. Man, the supermarket melons taste like cardboard in comparison!
Note that I misnamed the early variety. It is Blacktail Mountain, not Bucktail Mountain.
Blacktail Mountain is non-hybrid seed from the Seed Savers Exchange.
Black Diamond- I will contact the Livingston Seed Co. of Columbus, Ohio and let you know, if they let me know. Livingston was involved in early tomato hybridization studies.
