First time ever growing watermelon

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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Elmigo
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No doubt about that. For now it has to be done on the balcony and this looks pretty promising!
Elmigo
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Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:54 pm

Just a few weeks ago it was the size of my index finger tip. Look at it now! :mrgreen: This is watermelon "Sugar Baby".

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Westi
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Mine have sulked from the off, but probably my fault - actually all my fault as so excited to have the tunnel I did not prep the soil well, & sacrificed plants growing in that spot just to have a summer harvest & to have something grow & they are close to the edge to climb the frame, so even more tender digging! Now I am assured tunnel is fine & sound I am not growing much in there this winter but prepping the soil for next year!
Westi
Elmigo
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Posts: 487
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:54 pm

Must be the challenges of real, solid land. Can't wait to get to the real thing and actually use spades and rakes instead of my fingertips.
Elmigo
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Posts: 487
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:54 pm

Yesterday I knocked my knuckles on the first watermelon and it sounded very hollow but full of liquid, so not very solid. I think it's getting close to ripeness but it's still very small. Not such a surprise, as it's growing in limited space so it probably doesn't get to full size. I just really wonder when it's ready to harvest! Especially now that the extreme summer days have passed. It gets very rainy and relatively cool to about 20°C the coming week, maybe even longer. Will it still grow in these conditions?

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The other day I found this little guy below in a store, just to compare :lol:

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Westi
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Hi Elmigo!

Sugar Baby is a small round watermelon, mine was probably the size of a bowling ball. It sounded hollow when tapped, but the research I did hoping to get 1 or 2 this year, said butter yellow spot where it sits on the ground so your bought one is perfectly ripe, if it is white it is not ready but of course yours is netted so this is of little help & where the watermelon stem joins the main vine the little tendril there should not be green or springy. Then of course the tap, apparently not dull but more like a rap on a door or banging a drum. I think I can just see the tendril in your pic & it looks like it is still very green & springy. It will continue to tick over slowly, 20 is fine only near frost will zap it.

Shame I won't get to trial this bit of information this year, but it in my wee book of hints & tips I write down when I see something interesting so have it for reference. BTW when I was a kid in Aussie we sed to grow the huge cylindrical ones. All the droppings from the pony & chicken was heaped up in a corner of the little field & we grew them on it & they would get so big you needed 2 to carry them. They got little TLC except for the obvious nutrition from the old heap & the odd bucket of water thrown over them, & I do mean odd as we had bore water so you had to collect it & let it cool before you could use it.
Westi
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