Today is day 111. It’s weigh-in day. The watermelons stopped growing several weeks ago so I stopped watering them last week. I read somewhere it helps to sweeten the melons up if you stop watering them just before harvest.
Let me summarize this project before we get into the weigh-in. This was my first year of planting a serious garden. Everything was in the ground by April. We had tomatoes, zucchini, green cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, beets, onions, blackberry, raspberry, sun flowers, cayenne peppers, chayote, crook neck squash, corn, garlic and radish. I was feeling pretty good that we were going to have a great garden.
In late April as I was browsing the seed rack at Wal-Mart, there in front of me was a packet of Burpee Carolina Cross #183 Watermelon seeds. On the package beneath the picture of a giant watermelon it said “Gigantic Fruits – up to 200lbs.”. It took me a split second to decide, “I can do that”.
If you read my previous postings, you’ll see that it is not easy to grow large healthy fruits and vegetables.
Fast forward to today. After losing two of the five watermelons to BER we were down to three. Last week I harvested the smallest of the three remaining melons. It weighted 11.4 lbs and was marginally sweet. The seeds were large, about six times larger than a normal watermelon seed and white instead of black.
Today I weighed the largest melon from this project. It was an eye popping 17.6 pounds. Yes, my genetically capable 200 lb watermelon was a tiny 17.6 lbs. It was an eye popper because your eyes popped out straining to see such a tiny watermelon. I wish I could say it was 176 pounds like the picture seems to show but it's not. Look careful to view the decimal point. What a disappointment. It was nowhere near my goal of growing a 200 lb watermelon. What went wrong? Everything. I started late. I over watered. I over fertilized. I didn’t check the ph of the soil. I used the wrong type of soil.
I would not say I failed, only that I learned a lot of what not to do. I am already making plans for next Spring to try again.
I need to chill the melons down before we eat them so I can’t tell you today if they were sweet or not. Next week I’ll post the sweetness factor.
Let me summarize this project before we get into the weigh-in. This was my first year of planting a serious garden. Everything was in the ground by April. We had tomatoes, zucchini, green cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, beets, onions, blackberry, raspberry, sun flowers, cayenne peppers, chayote, crook neck squash, corn, garlic and radish. I was feeling pretty good that we were going to have a great garden.
In late April as I was browsing the seed rack at Wal-Mart, there in front of me was a packet of Burpee Carolina Cross #183 Watermelon seeds. On the package beneath the picture of a giant watermelon it said “Gigantic Fruits – up to 200lbs.”. It took me a split second to decide, “I can do that”.
If you read my previous postings, you’ll see that it is not easy to grow large healthy fruits and vegetables.
Fast forward to today. After losing two of the five watermelons to BER we were down to three. Last week I harvested the smallest of the three remaining melons. It weighted 11.4 lbs and was marginally sweet. The seeds were large, about six times larger than a normal watermelon seed and white instead of black.
Today I weighed the largest melon from this project. It was an eye popping 17.6 pounds. Yes, my genetically capable 200 lb watermelon was a tiny 17.6 lbs. It was an eye popper because your eyes popped out straining to see such a tiny watermelon. I wish I could say it was 176 pounds like the picture seems to show but it's not. Look careful to view the decimal point. What a disappointment. It was nowhere near my goal of growing a 200 lb watermelon. What went wrong? Everything. I started late. I over watered. I over fertilized. I didn’t check the ph of the soil. I used the wrong type of soil.
I would not say I failed, only that I learned a lot of what not to do. I am already making plans for next Spring to try again.
I need to chill the melons down before we eat them so I can’t tell you today if they were sweet or not. Next week I’ll post the sweetness factor.
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