by admin | October 18, 2023 7:25 am
I planted the two seeds Sheryl gave me a couple of years back (seed from Cambodia), mid September 2009 – only one seed germinated. After three weeks the vine had grown about 1 metre and produced three flowers – one of these flowers was pollinated naturally and developed into a small melon the size of a marble. The melon developed very slowly and by the end of October the vine had not grown any further so I decided to nip the end off the vine to produce more growth – this produced two more leaders and about twenty flowers by the end of November. I cross pollinated each flower the morning after it opened – this did not produce any more fruit. Mid December the melon had grown to the size of an orange and the vine had only grown to about two metres in length. I had no idea of the growing habits of this type of melon so I decided to let nature take its course. By mid January 2010 the melon had developed in size and weight – at the end of January the shin had change to a lighter colour and looked thin and shiny. I left it for another week – by this time the vine had started to wither and the shin could be easily scratched off. I picked the melon on the 2nd of February – it was the size of a large rock melon, round in shape, it had a thin rind, about sixty seeds, orange in colour, crunchy watermelon texture, heavy water content and delicious sweet flavour. Ref: John & Ray Capps
Source URL: https://stfc.org.au/tips/watermelon-tips/
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