Homegrown Goodness - Australian watermelon varieties

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May 23, 2013, 10:43am

Homegrown Goodness :: What's Growing on in your garden? :: Cucurbitaceae (cucumbers, squash, melons, ext.) :: Australian watermelon varieties

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Topic: Australian watermelon varieties (Read 1,457 times)

raymondo
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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #15 on Aug 9, 2011, 4:24am »

The melon mentioned in the article, Cucumis picrocarpus (meaning bitter fruit), is just one of at least 6 native Australian plants in the genus Cucumis. I'm doing a research project on them currently. A Dutch vegetable breeding company has expressed great interest because of the possibility of disease resistances that may exist in these wild melon species which may be transferrable to the common melon.

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Ray
Gardening in slightly alkaline clay at 1000m near the 30th south parallel with 150 frost free days.

mareebawatermelons
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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #16 on Mar 16, 2012, 6:15pm »

Just saying hello
I am new to this forun

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traab
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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #17 on Mar 16, 2012, 6:38pm »

Marebawatermelons you picked an interesting thread on which to say hello. I am sure you will have much to add to this network of growers. Welcome to the site.

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castanea
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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #18 on Mar 16, 2012, 7:42pm »

Mar 16, 2012, 6:15pm, mareebawatermelons wrote:

Just saying hello
I am new to this forun

Welcome, what else do you grow in Mareeba?

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raymondo
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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #19 on Mar 16, 2012, 10:18pm »

Welcome. Is it Mareeba NQ?

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Ray
Gardening in slightly alkaline clay at 1000m near the 30th south parallel with 150 frost free days.

templeton
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Box-ironbark forests of central Victoria. Skeletal sedimentary soil, 500mm rainfall

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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #20 on Mar 17, 2012, 8:41am »

hi, mareeba.
Ray, are all the paddy melons native? I was under the impression that most of the 'weedy' ones were introduced.
And what's the phylogenetic story? How did the natives get here from Africa? Hitch a ride on a Boab?

And typical, if i can have a bit of a whinge - it takes an overseas company to have the vision to see the potential of something we kick across paddocks for fun.
T

« Last Edit: Mar 17, 2012, 8:43am by templeton »

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My occasional vegetable breeding blog - http://templetonsmedelania.blogspot.com/

raymondo
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Re: Australian watermelon varieties
« Reply #21 on Mar 17, 2012, 4:26pm »

T, what is commonly referred to as paddy melon could be any one of a number of species. A couple are introduced like Cucumis myriocarpus, the one with the soft spines. It's poisonous as far as I know. Then there's wild watermelon. They're small though and probably quite bitter. It's not Cucumis of course. Only C. myriocarpus is introduced, brought over by the Afghani camel herders way back when. It is fairly certain that all the other Cucumis species here are native, including C. melo. I will have to dig out the papers and look up the phylogeny.

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