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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 13, 2018 13:05:22 GMT -5
Final Taste Test and cutting open of watermelons for 2018! First Domestic Watermelon. Probably the best domestic watermelon this year! It was excellent and was of decent size considering.  20181008_182748 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181008_182816 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr ------------------------------ All remaining Citron Hybrids Grex Swarm. The large domestic looking ones with light green rind pattern and yellowish on top were white fleshed and hard inside with light brown mottled seeds. interesting. I guess you never know what genetics you are going to get. One melon had green Seeds! Green seeds is recessive to all but red and white. It is dominant over red.  20181012_203915 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181010_212041 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190119 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190140 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190350 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190442 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190538 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190723 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_190842 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192010 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192413 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192519 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192602 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192707 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192744 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192837 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_192904 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_202439 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_202224 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_202651 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_202509 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_204001 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181012_213356 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr |
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Oct 13, 2018 14:12:21 GMT -5
here's my harvest, didn't do too well, they had heavy weed competition but they did better than the watermelon rows next to them that had the same conditions.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 14, 2018 0:22:34 GMT -5
 20181013_221409 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181013_231259 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181013_221350 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181013_221346 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181013_214624 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr  20181013_214617 by Andrew Barney, on Flickr Just a quick update on the second largest light green rind domestic pattern. It did have firm flesh when i cut into it and it did have a light yellow tint to it. After leaving it like that a day or so and going to harvest seeds it turned slightly more yellow fleshed and became somewhat soft and even edible, with a light hint of sugar. Not great, but not terrible. This might actually be the right combination of genetics for a storage watermelon or a Winter Watermelon. Perhaps it would have tasted perfect in 3-5 months of storage. That would be an interesting project goal to select for. |
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Oct 25, 2018 14:19:32 GMT -5
Processed the citrons yesterday, took some pics but I'm too lazy to post them right now. I found 3 out of the 26 that where somewhat sweet, all of the sweet ones had yellow flesh.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 29, 2018 7:06:59 GMT -5
Processed the citrons yesterday, took some pics but I'm too lazy to post them right now. I found 3 out of the 26 that where somewhat sweet, all of the sweet ones had yellow flesh. Cool! Thanks for the grow report! |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Nov 10, 2018 13:42:24 GMT -5
Processed the citrons yesterday, took some pics but I'm too lazy to post them right now. I found 3 out of the 26 that where somewhat sweet, all of the sweet ones had yellow flesh. Any that had red flesh? I am assuming no at this point. |
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Nov 10, 2018 14:09:25 GMT -5
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on May 3, 2019 9:14:48 GMT -5
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Post by lochaberbreeder on May 25, 2019 19:35:53 GMT -5
I don't think citrons are cold resistant? There are a few cold resistant phenotypes, though, including some from Zimbabwe. I'm essentially doing the same thing you are, with a few other community members we want to develop a sweet watermelon with red seeds. I've got some citron seeds, but they did not look anywhere near as red as I had been led to believe. Maybe a little old?
I would absolutely love red-seeded watermelon seeds, if you've got some to share!
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on May 26, 2019 17:42:10 GMT -5
I don't think citrons are cold resistant? There are a few cold resistant phenotypes, though, including some from Zimbabwe. I'm essentially doing the same thing you are, with a few other community members we want to develop a sweet watermelon with red seeds. I've got some citron seeds, but they did not look anywhere near as red as I had been led to believe. Maybe a little old? I would absolutely love red-seeded watermelon seeds, if you've got some to share! Probably old. They do loose some color the longer they sit. They are nearly bright red when fully fresh. at least citron seeds are. I've seen various shades of red in domestic seeds, so there may be some variability. Yeah, i've been wondering that as well. I know if nothing else they are at least more drought tolerant. In some crops the same genetics for drought tolerance also help with cold tolerance, but it's hard to know for sure without putting certain lines through cold tests. I know in my domestic watermelon landrace i have at least some genetics that are cold/frost tolerant to some degree as there were a few years i planted them way early and some early frosts killed off some seedlings, but not others. Other that the citron-hybrids side project i don't know if i've seed the red seed trait really reappear. I'll look through my stash and see, but with many seed genetics dominant over red it's easy to see why they don't show up that often. It would be better to use a red-seeded domestic parent in particular and cross it with a red-seeded citron type. I've found the jet black but shiny plump seeds of the citron hybrids really appealing though, so even without red color they are still pretty awesome. |
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Post by lochaberbreeder on May 26, 2019 19:43:12 GMT -5
Red-seeded watermelons are pretty rare, though, aside from citrons, as far as I'm aware.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on May 27, 2019 9:09:52 GMT -5
Red-seeded watermelons are pretty rare, though, aside from citrons, as far as I'm aware. Yeah, I think I've run across 4 or 5 at most. But red seeded watermelon seeds seem to be popular in china, so it's possible there are way more. |
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Post by blueadzuki on May 27, 2019 13:40:30 GMT -5
Most of those are dyed red.
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Post by lochaberbreeder on May 27, 2019 21:27:31 GMT -5
Most of those are dyed red. Never trust anything made in China. XD |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Sept 25, 2019 21:42:40 GMT -5
So I haven't updated this thread much this year because my own crop did not do the best. But that does not mean this project is dead. I tried to select and plant the seeds this year only from the ones with traits that seemed desirable (especially for eating). I think I planted about 10-12 "strains". I'll try to come back and edit this post with the names if i haven't already posted. But anyway, yeah, so my plans mostly failed as most of them failed to thrive at all. My corn crop did fantastic which was planted as an afterthought rather than the main project ironically. But as it turns out the strongest "strain" continued to grow and set fruit regardless of the poor conditions. A testament to good genetics I would think. I still have plenty of backup seed from the large population from last year, so even if I had a complete crop failure I would have been fine. A good reason to only plant 50% of your seed! But I've heard this project in Germany and Australia? Might be doing well this season. So in other ways by sharing my seed far and wide ive hedged my bets. Hopefully they will post pictures and updates soon too. More members are joining the project on the Experimental Farm Network. -Andrew  |
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