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Post by mountaintopgarden on Feb 26, 2012 13:18:59 GMT -5
I just started reading Carol Deppe's Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, and right there in the beginning was a reference to storage watermelons, or Christmas watermelons.
There are no specific varieties mentioned, only that the storage types usually have a white rind. And that Glen Drowns eats his last storage watermelons in February.
I've done some googling and only come up with some watermelons that are supposedly good for shipping, and that Georgia Rattlesnake stores well.
Does anyone know of any other varieties? Anyone store watermelons till February?
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Feb 26, 2012 14:05:44 GMT -5
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 26, 2012 14:23:17 GMT -5
We pick Charleston Gray about mid September, and eat the last one about Thanksgiving.
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Post by gakaren on Feb 26, 2012 17:25:24 GMT -5
I live in HOT south....and have a dumb question.
HOW do you store them? My DH loves watermelons and would be tickled silly if I found one that would not only grow here but that he could have "after" the normal season.
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Post by castanea on Feb 26, 2012 19:10:22 GMT -5
I think we have another thread on this somewhere.
Many, if not most of the newer hybrids have been bred for tough skin and long storage. I don't know which is best .
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Post by johninfla on Feb 27, 2012 9:25:08 GMT -5
gaKaren, that is an excellent question. I'm in northern Florida and have the same question. With our humidity and heat I suspect our storage problems are different from the folks "up north". I even thought about digging a root cellar but I am not sure the ground temperature would help. Our well water temperature is about 70 degrees year round. Any ideas about storage in the HOT SOUTH?  ? John |
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Post by terracotta on Feb 27, 2012 12:04:55 GMT -5
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Post by terracotta on Feb 27, 2012 12:07:00 GMT -5
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Post by gakaren on Feb 27, 2012 21:50:13 GMT -5
gaKaren, that is an excellent question. I'm in northern Florida and have the same question. With our humidity and heat I suspect our storage problems are different from the folks "up north". I even thought about digging a root cellar but I am not sure the ground temperature would help. Our well water temperature is about 70 degrees year round. Any ideas about storage in the HOT SOUTH? ? John John, don't forget our well water sits in a pressure tank that absorbs the outside temps. Ours is pretty warm too. But we have a tall crawl space under our house that is mostly below surface level & it is nearly always cool under there...but it is a bit damp too especially after a rain. So I'm not sure how good it would be for storage. |
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Post by gakaren on Feb 27, 2012 21:58:55 GMT -5
terra, thanks for the link but I didn't find anything about HOW to store the melons. It was mostly a discussion about which kinds. And I don't like Citron! There is some kind of variation of those that grows wild down here...no one eats them, they are hog food if you have hogs. They can also be invasive in crop fields around here. |
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Post by castanea on Feb 28, 2012 0:49:58 GMT -5
I suspect that commercial watermelon growers or grocery stores would know how best to store watermelons. I would guess that they store best at around 55-60 degrees F with relatively high humidity based on what I see in some grocery stores.
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Post by johninfla on Feb 28, 2012 7:18:05 GMT -5
Karen, I had forgotten that.........duh....  I'll have to run the water for a while and then check it. Whenever I have to go under the house to fix something in the summer, it is always cool but I'm not sure just how cool it would have to be to serve as a root cellar......any ideas? |
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Post by mountaintopgarden on Feb 28, 2012 11:39:04 GMT -5
Thank you for all of those links. I am going to try to grow a lot of different watermelons this year and try to store them. Stone Mountain also looks interesting, but I doubt I could grow a 30 lb watermelon here (Vermont). rareseeds.com/review/product/list/id/14887/Here's what it says in the book on page 5: "There are long-storage melons, the Christmas types," Glenn say. "I'm surprised more people don't grow them. I always do, and I eat my last watermelons in February. But the storage types all seem to have that white rind." ..... Storage melons are harvested at just under ripe and finish ripening in storage. I looked at that other thread that was linked. Now I'm going to want to grow a 100 lb Zucca Melon and it's YOUR FAULT  ! |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Feb 28, 2012 12:53:38 GMT -5
Yeah, the winter watermelons from NativeSeeds sure did seem genetically different that most of the other watermelons. The white rind was easy to spot, but mine never grew very fast, and they never ripened. If i had to offer a guess i'd say that maybe the white rind reflects a lot of heat and so maybe thats the reason they dont ripen like the others, or perhaps genetically they just take a long time to ripen. Perhaps if i had harvested mine and brought them inside that they would have ripened by now. But they were too small to be worth it. I assume they did cross with some of the others though, so maybe one better suited to my climate will re-emerge in a few generations.
I dont know if just having thick rinds make them good for storage or not. If you take a look at my watermelon page on my website you will find a picture of a small watermelon that had a thick rind and it was the first to ripen weeks ahead of the others. I didn't know it was even ripe, and when i did cut into it was all red goo.
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Post by traab on Feb 28, 2012 19:17:57 GMT -5
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?
I'll have to run the water for a while and then check it. Whenever I have to go under the house to fix something in the summer, it is always cool but I'm not sure just how cool it would have to be to serve as a root cellar......any ideas?
!