melons for cool climates

[imgrimmer]

I harvested 4 watermelons yesterday. I left one fruit on a healthy looking plant. The fruits are small like a tennis ball and still immature but seeds seem to be viable. Hurrey!
These could be the first seeds in 10 years!

I have to say I did it the hard way I always sow direct to the ground and let them be, no black plastic, no cover. This year was special because I sow very late end of june but these plants still produced fruits. Before I had plants growing better under this treatment (better to say no treatment) but never produced viable seeds.
So if I would have sown them mid may as usual it could have been better. I have some backup seeds and hopefully some F2 seeds for next year.

I am very satisfied.

Thanks ferdzy

[philagardener]

Welcome, ericbernhard ! Your images aren't showing on my browser, but I am looking forward to seeing your watermelons! Sounds like a great season for you!

[ferdzy]

imgrimmer, I'm happy to hear you had some success after last years rough start.

I posted an assessment of my results this year on my blog a couple weeks ago and forgot to link to it here.

2016 Watermelon Project Results

Executive summary; nothing was quite as good as my 2 best melons from last year, one from each project and which were the only melons from which I planted seed. I did get a very good single volunteer melon, which I am considering folding into my orange melon project seeing as it was a very bright yellow/near orange. I did get a few very decent melons from each project, and so will be planting seeds from multiple melons for both projects next year. The only question is, how many of each and which ones? Everything had good and bad points so I have to decide how to arrange them.

[prairiegardens]

I was looking at a bunch of melon varieties from the Ukraine and almost all of them were said to have white flesh, although most of them looked more or less like canteloupe in the photos, I've never eaten a white fleshed canteloupe, anyone have any opinions on what they might be like? Some of them seemed quite short season, so thinking to try but would be interested to hear if anyone has any knowledge of what to expect.

[philagardener]

They sound delicious - I hope you try them and let us know!

[prairiegardens]

planning to order anything that's listed as 85 days or so (or less) I think that's about 6 or so varieties. We'll see if truth in advertising.

[ericbernhard]

That sounds like a good plan to me. I am currently rounding up my seed for next year as well.
From the Farthest North mix I have succeeded in selecting out a couple of strains which grow robustly and ripen their fruit outdoors in my cool summers. Their aroma is good but they lack sugar. This coming season I hope to remedy this.
I have bought seeds of the following short season melons and hope that one variety among them is able to sweeten up reasonably well in my climate so that I can then cross it into my strain:
Halona F1
Ichiba Kouji F1
Alvaro F1
Honeycomb F1 (Honeydew)
Lambkin F1
Snow Leopard F1
Tasty Bites F1
Thai Best
Kajari
Sweet Honda F1
Collective Farm Woman
Fordhook Gem
Farthest North Galia
Dove F1
Diplomat F1
Uncle Sam F1
Magnificenza F1
Sensation F1
In my far too small garden I will be able to plant a maximum of 4 plants. One of them will be of my strain and the other three will be chosen from the above varieties. Since I just can't seem to successfully cross melons by hand I will simply remove all the male flowers from the plant of my strain and let the bees do the crossing for me. In order to help me to determine the parentage of any resulting crosses the pollen-donating melons will be of three distince melon types (e.g. Galia, Honeydew, and Muskmelon).
On a friend's farm about an hour away from me I hope to then do a mass planting of all the varieties to allow them to freely cross with one another.

Does anyone in this thread or on this forum who also lives in Europe happen to have seeds of Joseph Lofthouse's melon (and watermelon) landrace? Although his days are much hotter than ours, our nights are just as cool.

Furthermore, I have received much more seeds than I need. If anyone in Europe is interested in seeds of the above listed varieties just send me a PM. I am more than happy to share.

[imgrimmer]

Hej eric,

I never had truly success with melons but I found some varieties which might be helpful for your trials.
Check this out www.annapolisseeds.com/category-s/1823.htm
I planted them far too late this year and they still got nearly ripe. Hope for next year.

[ericbernhard]

Those are some interesting seeds they have. Thanks for the tip!
And I think that part of my (partial) success with melons depends on the microclimate in my garden. It is on the south facing wall of an inner courtyard. That makes it about a degree warmer than the surrounding countryside and offers some protection from extreme temperature drops. On the other hand it is fairly shaded from the surrounding buildings. That makes me all the more excited to see how the trial on the countryside works out.

[imgrimmer]

I sow them direct to the ground with no special care later on. I think they could work for you.
I am very confident that I will have success with these this year (new year, same thoughts as every year )

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

It's currently snowing. My row of my version of Joseph's Landrace Watermelon is mostly up. I predict they will do fine. Only time will tell. Fingers crossed.

[imgrimmer]

Good luck! The first heat wave of this year just stopped by a big thunderstorm.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

We must have gotten a radiant frost or something. More watermelon seedlings are damaged and maybe died not sure yet. But there are still plenty that look fine so that's interesting. Also the two Solanum habrochaites plants i had died.

[ericbernhard]

And...how are everyone's melons doing?

keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.): have your melons recovered from the cold? I would definitely be interested in seed from any survivors that are early ripening.

After figuring out that the slugs were the cause of my plants' demise in the last years the plants are doing really well this year. We have had a really warm summer here in Germany which has also helped a lot.

In a giant black bucket I have planted two Watermelons: Bozeman and Sugar Pot. They are growing great and I look forward to crossing them.

With the muskmelons I got a bit creative this year. The local garbage collection facility offers free compost to all who are willing to haul it away. Lacking space for melons I have filled up big blue ikea bags with this compost and planted one plant per bag in them. The plants are growing pretty well and the slugs don't seem to have found the plants yet. I am really impressed with the Farthest North Galia mix. I have four plants of them in the garden and they doing amazingly well.
Especially impressive is my selection from the Farthest North mix. It's growth seems to be a lot more compact than the other hybrids that I am growing but it has begun branching much sooner and is one of the first plants to flower. This gets me really excited to cross it with the other hybrids that I am growing, which should improve the quality of its fruit. Up to now it has been very aromatic but lacking in sugar. The hybrids that I am planting are Dove, Sensation, Alvaro and Diplomat. I will keep you posted on how things develop.

One final innovation that I have tried this year is with floating row covers. I have a real problem with soil temps here in Germany and the fact that my melon bed is right next to a cool brick building doesn't help much either. Normally I would cover the plants with a floating row cover, but then they wouldn't be able to climb the trellis which I set up for them. So, what I did was cut holes in a lightweight floating row cover and lay it under the plants like one would do with plastic mulch. The advantag with the floating row cover is however that it is water permeable. But, it still traps a considerable amount of heat due to the greenhouse effect. I tried using heavy black landscaping fabric and although it got plenty warm it left the soil cool, the opposite of what I was wanting.

This season has begun very promising. I will keep you posted on any developments.

[mskrieger]

Glad your summer is warm, ericbernhard. I didn't plant my seed until early June, but the plants are up and growing fast--all except two varieties new to me from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Zero emergence. Strange, since even some really old seed from a weak variety in my stash germinated fine. Too late to reseed, but plenty of other plants doing well. I have good soil and the weather has warmed nicely; as long as it stays warm through Labor Day we'll get good fruit. I'm excited to taste fruit from some of the seed saved from two years ago!