I ate some of it last night and it was a real taste treat. I have no idea how the seed got into the crack in the driveway, but I'm now a firm believer in more is less. i did absolutely nothing to this plant, no fertilizer or water. It did this all on its own, and what's even more remarkable is that there are 7 more melons on this plant, and two of them look even bigger than this one.
THANK YOU MOTHER NATURE{{gwi:807}}!!

This post was edited by rayrose on Thu, Aug 14, 14 at 9:45

Massive, that's for sure!! And I double down on my previous comments.

I'll never forget my first visit to Texas. My husband's aunt had a cattle ranch with a corn field, and down the center was a long row of watermelons. She taught me how to know when they are ripe (look for the curl. When it's dead, it's ripe), so I thumped the ripe ones to learn how to pick them at the store, but the best was she would just crack a ripe one open and we would just scoop the heart out, eat it right there in the field, and leave the rest for the crows. Memories...

That is one beautiful melon! Some driveway! Mrs. G

That's a whole lot of big melons for one vine!

Man all I get is crab grass in my cracks! Almost as big though :)

What a blessing Rayrose! It is gorgeous indeed! I can smell that watermelon right now! When I was a kid, my dad used to take us into the field and break open the watermelons right there and we kids would eat until our bellies poked out. Then we would go into the house and lay down because we were too full to do anything else! LOL. There is nothing like the smell of a perfectly ripe watermelon. Hope you get volunteers every year!!! Good going!

I just finally harvested the last of these melons and the 8 melons weighed a total 374 lbs. That's an average of almost 47 lbs per melon. The biggest one weighed in at 63.5 lbs. and is shown here. I shared these melons with lots of friends and relatives, and everyone that got some called and told me they were the sweetest and best watermelons they have ever had, and I know they were sincere, because I've eaten two of them myself, and they are the best melons I've ever grown. I usually harvest approximately 150 melons per year for the past 7 years. For those of you who grow melons, I highly recommend that you try this one. It's a crimson sweet type melon called Big Stripe, and Wilhites has the seed.

Ray...you are going to need to get a bigger knife so you can cut all the way through these things. Perhaps a Sumari sword. I'd do the slashing outside though...those are nice countertops.

Not to worry. I cut them in my large one bay sink. As we say in the South, "My mama didn't raise no fool."

Be sure and save seeds that melon looks like a prize winner!

So beautiful RayRose, and wow those are BIG! I myself grew an heirloom, Klondike, this year and was thrilled with results. I have gotten so used to buying seedless watermelon, that forgot how wonderful the ones with seeds taste!

wow I wish I had your driveway! It must have some really good genetics to thrive in such a situation. Are you saving seed and are you willing to share? I would be really interested in getting my hands on a few!

Glenn

Glenn, I doubt if you could grow this melon in Canada.
Your season isn't long enough.

rayrose, I have about 15 4x8 mini green houses that I use to grow melons and water melons and get so many each year that 20-30 get turned into chicken and chicken eggs:) I am constructing a few 10x10 (maybe even larger)enclosures this winter as I will be growing a few of the more heat loving varieties in these larger houses next year. This no-care melon that popped up for you is very appealing to me. If you have saved any seeds send me a PM and name your price!

Glenn

I am getting driveway envy.

Me too! My driveway will only grow columbines.

Nice!

Glenn,
Big Stripe is a long season melon that requires LOTS of room and 90+ degree heat all season long. This is not a green house melon.

We had volunteers pop up at work (clemson u) this year in an island near the parking lot. Not sure if tailgaters dumped remnants or if birds brought them in. But they're delicious! We started watching them and counted up to 17 at one time. Some disappeared and I picked the rest to store inside and eat before they disappeared. I'll be planting some in a more secluded area next year and they probably won't be near as good as these volunteers have been.

I'm scavenging the rinds to make pickles! :-)

This post was edited by chrisb_sc_z7 on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 12:26