This is my second year of seriously trying to grow watermelons, and as I've talked about, this year the weather really sucked for growing anything.
But I have a secret weapon: The greenhouse. The following are pictures of the watermelon portion of my greenhouse. The melons got enough sun and warmth to ripen nicely, and they're pretty sweet. I'm guessing I have about 100 of the personal sized watermelons. Organically grown, no pesticides, local to Seattle.
Take note you 100 mile diet folks: Watermelons you can eat guilt-free!
Some of them are the size of softballs, others the size of basketballs. I've been trying to get the watermelon growing down because these personal-sized watermelons sell for $6 to $8 in the stores, and I think I can make a good market in them in the local farmers market. I certainly enjoy them.
I grew both seedless and seeded watermelons this year. Having tasted both, I think that the seeded watermelons are sweeter, nicer melons.
Next year I think I'm going to try more hot-weather crops. Peppers and more types of melons. cantelopes, maybe. After having the pigs and cows eat most of my melon vines TWICE last year, I'm pretty happy with the crop this year.
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4 comments:
Great crop! I've bought the mini watermelons a few times in stores and won't again, because every time, they've been not-sweet and relatively tasteless.
what variety is the melon?
The seeded watermelons were Sugar Baby, that I got from harris seeds. http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-405-watermelon-sugar-baby.aspx
The seedless were the troubadour, also from harris seeds. http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-13537-watermelon-troubadour.aspx
I liked the seeded ones more, so I'll try a couple of different seedless next year to see if I can find one I like, but I'm going to stick with sugar baby for seeded.
I have 5 or 6 melon plants in the greenhouse(hoophouse), they aren't going to finish though, this years summer really stunk! I think next year i am going to make a hot bed in the greenhouse for them, i will not quite! Great job :)
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