Watermelons

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Brute 23

Brute 23

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Gulf Coast of South Texas
We are not gardeners by any means. We have been planting some trees and grass and stuff. My brother threw some watermelon seeds out for the kids just to see what happens. Its super sandy soil and we have been getting a bunch of rain. There are probably a dozen or so.

They are not real sweet like at a store bpught one but definitely taste like a watermelon. Guess we need to actually do some research on how to grow them.

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The little seedless refrigerator size watermelons they have for sale now in stores at $8 or $10 a melon because city people don't have large families with a lot of kids. The whoppers with seeds are no longer available. You have to get 'hairloom' watermelon seeds now and grow your own.
 
Brute 23 said:
They are not real sweet like at a store bought one but definitely taste like a watermelon.

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I'd rather have a normally sweet melon, personally. The way I understand it, there are people that like "sweet" and people that like "savory". It has something to do with genetics. Of course most people like sweet. That's why commercial foods are full of corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. If you read labels, you'll find bread, canned beans, and even bottled gravy with sweeteners. I don't know how diabetics can find preserved foods they can eat, but I'm not diabetic so maybe it's easier than I think.
In any case, I like food that tastes like food. I've tried to keep my kids away from sweeteners so they don't get comfortable thinking that is normal.
That's a nice looking watermelon... Might need to be riper?
 
Travlr said:
I'd rather have a normally sweet melon, personally. The way I understand it, there are people that like "sweet" and people that like "savory". It has something to do with genetics. Of course most people like sweet. That's why commercial foods are full of corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. If you read labels, you'll find bread, canned beans, and even bottled gravy with sweeteners. I don't know how diabetics can find preserved foods they can eat, but I'm not diabetic so maybe it's easier than I think.
In any case, I like food that tastes like food. I've tried to keep my kids away from sweeteners so they don't get comfortable thinking that is normal.
That's a nice looking watermelon... Might need to be riper?
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Ya Im not sure. Read some stuff saying to not to water them the last week. Im not even good enough to know when the last week is so we have some learning to do.

I agree. I like my Old Fashions savory... not sweet. LoL
 
Brute 23 said:
Ya Im not sure. Read some stuff saying to not to water them the last week. Im not even good enough to know when the last week is so we have some learning to do.

I agree. I like my Old Fashions savory... not sweet. LoL
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I can tell if they are ready to eat by rapping them with a knuckle, but sometimes they will fool you.
My wife and I read labels and avoid anything with sweeteners. But I do like cappuccino and something in tea.
My garden has been terrible this year, so your watermelon gives me some incentive to do better.
 
Brute 23 said:
We are not gardeners by any means. We have been planting some trees and grass and stuff. My brother threw some watermelon seeds out for the kids just to see what happens. Its super sandy soil and we have been getting a bunch of rain. There are probably a dozen or so.

They are not real sweet like at a store bpught one but definitely taste like a watermelon. Guess we need to actually do some research on how to grow them.

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Click to expand...
There's going to be a variety of factors affecting the sweetness of a watermellon, much the same as grasses that cattle graze. You can take it to a different level and even apply the concepts to cattle themselves. Genetics plays a big role , but so does environment, and by that I mean climate and soil in general which can be boiled down to nutrient uptake.

Consider the soil pH. Thats going to affect the flavor/sweetness of the watermellon. I'm sure most of you have heard, or even used the phrase "sweeten the soil" by limeing. That will raise the pH of the soil, which tends to make nutrients more available. It also quite literally ends up making the grass sweeter. Good bet, and I may have heard at one time, the same thing happens to watermellons.
Cutting back on water useage prior to harvest will decrease water content in the watermellon (lower dilution) and concentrate what is inside the mellon itself, making it sweeter. Stopping water supply will slow growth resulting in the mellon present being a little more mature/developed, possibly having a little more flavor.
I tried to grow watermellons at one point and failed miserably ending up with 2 silver dollar sized watermelons and one the size of a baseball, so I'm not an expert here by any means.
 
We grew some a couple years ago. I guess it was the variety we had. But they had more seed than they had melon Turned out that the chicken loved them.
 
A few years ago, wife and I did the local farmers market thing. We let the extension agent at the time talk us into trying plasticulture, with the plastic and drip tape irrigation.
We grew some water melons and cantaloupes.
We prefer the seeded varieties, I can’t remember what we planted variety wise but I know we planted two varieties, one of which was Crimson Sweet. The other was probably Charleston Gray as it’s a very popular variety among the older locals in the region.
From my understanding, how the seedless varieties are planted with a male plant in between every 4 female plants, at least how I remember the explanation.
The way I understand it the fruit on the male plants is very small in comparison to the fruit of the female and full of seed.
There is an Amish owned greenhouse supply business in southern Ky, and they also sell seed, they carry a large supply of both commercial and heirloom type seeds. We’ve ordered seed from them a few times, since it’s about 80 miles south of us, and easier than traveling there unless we just want to take a day trip to Amish country which sometimes we do.
 
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Brute 23 said:
We are not gardeners by any means. We have been planting some trees and grass and stuff. My brother threw some watermelon seeds out for the kids just to see what happens. Its super sandy soil and we have been getting a bunch of rain. There are probably a dozen or so.

They are not real sweet like at a store bpught one but definitely taste like a watermelon. Guess we need to actually do some research on how to grow them.

View attachment 69458
Click to expand...
Really not much to growing them. Just need to pick the right variety and supply plenty of water and fertilizer. Nothing we plant goes into the ground anymore. We use left over molasses tubs to grow everything. Tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, sweet potato, jalapeño, and various squash. In general, the smaller round melons are sweeter and the larger ones are waterier. Too much or too little water can really screw it all up. This year, bugs killed most of our squash and too much rain split most our larger tomatoes and gave us an irregular cucumber crop. Melons did okay and had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes. Digging up the sweet potatoes in about a month.
 

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I can thump watermelons with the best of em. 9 of 10 success rate usually.
BUT NOT with the round seedless ones, which I don't like anyway..

Most folks water their melons too much, causing them to grow faster than they can build sweetness. And, heavy watering (or rainfall) near they end of growth is a great way to go out one day and find most of em split open from too rapid water absorption.
Good melons have more to do with soil nutrients than water anyway, which is why Pecos C antelope are SO sweet, ripe and juicy. THEY ARE SEASON NOW AND AVAILABLE AT MOST H-E-B AND SOME KROGERS. Better get em while you can... September they'll be gone. If this label isn't there, they are aren't the real deal.IMG_20260708_125143541_HDR.jpg
 
If any Texan has seeds from an HEB Pecos cantaloupe please PM me. I cannot find Pecos Cantaloupe seeds for sale anywhere. Is Pecos a hybrid? In which case they don't breed true from seed.
 
TexasJerseyMilker said:
If any Texan has seeds from an HEB Pecos cantaloupe please PM me. I cannot find Pecos Cantaloupe seeds for sale anywhere. Is Pecos a hybrid? In which case they don't breed true from seed.
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And, you probably won't. Pecos cantaloupe is not a specific variety. There are also Pecos watermelons and Pecos honeydew. All get their flavor and sweetness from the specific soil and elemental minerals in that part of the Pecos River drainage system over 1000s of years of flood, then water receding, leaving the thin films of minerals and salts decade after decade. High potassium I believe.
Having said that, I 'think' I do still have some seed I saved from 2025 Pecos cantaloupe. I have no idea if they are still viable...Dried and put in an envelope last year. Pm me a mailing address.
 
When I was young, there there were dozens or hundreds of Pecos melon farms and their produce was shipped all over the USA much like Washington State Apples were. Now, there are just a small handful of Pecos area melon growers left. The biggest being Mandujano Bros in Coyanosa Texas. They fill the Tx markets for a few weeks each summer but not much outside that, tho you can order some online nowadays. Shipping $$ won't be cheap.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Mandujano-Brothers-Produce-100063142963385/
 
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greybeard said:
And, you probably won't. Pecos cantaloupe is not a specific variety. There are also Pecos watermelons and Pecos honeydew. All get their flavor and sweetness from the specific soil and elemental minerals in that part of the Pecos River drainage system over 1000s of years of flood, then water receding, leaving the thin films of minerals and salts decade after decade. High potassium I believe.
Having said that, I 'think' I do still have some seed I saved from 2025 Pecos cantaloupe. I have no idea if they are still viable...Dried and put in an envelope last year. Pm me a mailing address.
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When I worked out there we would drive to Cayanosa to buy them. We had wells not far from there on the south end. Its literally an oasis in a desert.
 

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