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What a Volunteer !!
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Posted by
rayrose 8SC (
My Page) on
Thu, Sep 4, 14 at 16:39
| There was a watermelon vine that somehow popped up through a crack in my concrete driveway. I decided to leave it alone like it was a weed. It got no water nor food the whole season. It took over half of my driveway and into my blueberry hoop house. I just harvested the last of 8 watermelons from this single vine with a total weight of 374 lbs. That's an average of almost 47 lbs. per melon. This is the largest one at 63.5 lbs. I've been growing melons for 7 years and average approximately 150 melons/year. These are the best and sweetest melons I've ever grown, and i highly recommend you give them a try next year. it's a crimson sweet type melon called Big Stripe and Willhites has the seed. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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RE: What a Volunteer !!
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RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| This is the single vine that yielded 374 lbs of watermelons. |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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- Posted by glib 5.5 (My Page) on
Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 11:23
| I wonder if the driveway helped, giving off heat at night. |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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Wow! Looks mighty good. I am so Piss**d at the industry for providing only seedless watermelons at my local grocery stores. The texture is spongy and never as sweet
as seeded watermelons. Some say I am crazy but I will
take a seeded melon over seedless any day. Kids around here will never know the joy of spitting watermelon seeds at a picnic. Rayrose that watermelon looks luscious! |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| What do you use your garage for? Did it get closed for the summer? LOL Those are some amazingly large watermelons. What length and height would you estimate they were? And how do you move a 60 + pound melon!? |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| That is a tremendous plant. If it was a volunteer, it would be F2..right? I may try that one. I have done very well with Raspa and Yellow Crimson from Willhite. |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| Spartan- someone must have seeded watermelons! Our summer place at the Russian River has a summer Big Games and has watermelon seed spitting contests. We found a big batch of watermelon plants in the area early summer! I didn't check the follow up! Nancy |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| Fortunately it's a two car garage and that side is used for storage and I never open the door. I did have to maneuver my car very carefully around the vines. You move a 60 lb watermelon by rolling it to the back door, and having your big nephew carry it into the house. LOL Wayne, it's a hybrid and willhite's doesn't list it as F1 or F2, so I really don't know. I presume I can save the seeds, since this volunteer came from last years crop.
I've also grown Raspa, and while it's a good melon, it's no camparison to Big Stripe, at least it hasn't been for me. |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| Thanks for sharing this story. You just can't keep a good watermelon down! :) |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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rayrose, Do you know what variety the volunteer was from?
It would be an F2 and if you saved seeds from it, it would be an F3. I once had a great volunteer from a Sangria. I would guess, and then the third year it was a disappointment...orangy. Raspa does very good here...limiting itself to 2 very large melons. I am eating on a 36 pounder now. Yes, that is carryable, but much larger and a wheelbarrow and rolling may be in order!! |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| Yeah, I bet the driveway helped big time, night-time heat, and also leached calcium and other minerals. |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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Wayne,
The volunteer is from last year's crop of Big Stripe that I planted from Willhites seeds. That's why I'm assuming that the seeds from the volunteer will be viable to plant next year. Is this a bad assumptiuon? |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| wow... looks great! Poor me... I don't think it stays warm enough here, nor long enough, to grow good watermelons. |
RE: What a Volunteer !!
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| Rayrose, I don't normally plant second generation hybrid seed and only remember the one good volunteer. If you only have one variety, the strain may stay more pure and a third generation may be good too. It wasn't in my case, but I had many varieties. |
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