2022 Watermelon Harvest

Here is a Charleston Gray watermelon picked today that weighed 29.4 pounds. I used the rest of a container of seeds (maybe over 100) from 2009 thinking they were only maybe 10% viable. Well it appears almost all of the seeds grew causing way too many plants.

Watermelons were organically grown in Clark County, Indiana USA. I used black plastic to grown them on to contain weeds and retain moisture. Next image shows 9 other melons picked that day. I did plant a few Sugar Baby seeds and a striped melon (maybe from farmer's market).

Watermelon Seedlings

A wide body printer we have at work has cardboard tubes left after it finishes a 500' roll of paper. For a while I was trying to figure out how to use these rolls. After cutting a roll into 4-6" segments, I capped one end and then filled it with potting soil.

I then planted Charleston Gray watermelon seeds saved from last years harvest. I was not sure the seeds would get warm enough in the sunroom yet. It turns out they did and 3 seedlings have appeared. It might be warm enough by next month to put them into the ground.

Watermelon Jack-o-Lanterns

Looking through some old pictures and found watermelon jack-o-lanterns from October 31, 2004. There were some immature watermelons left in the patch that were never going to ripen due to the fall weather. It seemed like a novel idea to make them into a Halloween decoration. The inside cast an eerie red when lit up with a candle at night. Some of the trick-o-treaters found it amusing when visiting the house that evening. Working with these old digital images, we have come along way with digital photography!

Cut Watermelon 2019

In an earlier posting on this blog, I showed a picture of the first watermelon of the season, https://poppular.blogspot.com/2019/08/first-watermelon-of-season-2019.html. Over the weekend I cut that watermelon and it turned out to be very good. I forgot to weigh this Charleston Gray melon but I would guess it weighed about 20 pounds.

First Watermelon of Season 2019

Picked Charleston Gray watermelon. My watermelon crop this season is not good, it looks like I will only get 4 melons this year compared to 50 from last year. This crop did not get affected by fungus like last year. I planted different varieties of watermelon and also cantaloupes.

About 20 cantaloupes were in the field, most are the size of softballs. Two got to be about volleyball size but deer have started eating on them.
I also picked some cherry tomatoes and Concord grapes. Most of the Concord grapes were eaten by deer. I also picked a basil leaf.

Watermelons 2018

After a number of years where I did not make a good effort to grow watermelons, this year I got a nice crop planted in Clark County, Indiana USA. New plastic in about a 50 foot by 20 foot plot was used. Eight hills planted with about 35 plants growing. The vines were growing great and the due to all the leaf coverage it was hard to tell how many melons there were going to be. It appeared that 20 pound melons were already forming by the beginning of August and my past crops did not mature till mid to late September. I was getting excited that I might have 40+ lb melons in September!

All my hopes were dashed when disaster struck. The leaves in the middle of the patch started to wilt soon the entire middle was dropped. Within the week almost all the leaves in the patch were brown or wilting exposing a lot of melons (possibly 50 or so). I picked two in the middle of the dead zone to see how far along they had gotten. They were a reddish-pink and had relatively large seeds. They were slightly sweet and were edible once refrigerated. The largest weighed a little over 16 pounds and the other 11 pounds.

I am hopeful that several of the larger melons at the end of the patch will ripen before all the plants are dead. Time will tell.

Growing Watermelons in 2016

 These pictures were taken in August 2016 of watermelons growing in field in Clark County Indiana USA.

Cut Up Watermelon

It is hard to beat having fresh cut up watermelon that has been chill'in the refrigerator!

Long Live the Seeded Watermelon!

Newspaper articles are appearing lamenting the loss of seeded watermelons.  First, it was The New York Times and now The Washington Post with an August 31, 2010 article entitled "Watermelons: What happened to the seeds?" by Jane Black (is that a real name?). The comments on the article are interesting to read. I agree with some of the comments that there are good seedless melons.  I have grown some but they were difficult to grow an d the seeds were expensive.  This argument that seeds are a choking hazard is bizarre.

Well, the seeded watermelon is alive and well growing in gardens in Indiana and Kentucky.  Maybe on a smaller scale but they are being grown.  This season I grew mostly Charleston Gray but also Crimson Sweet and maybe some sort of Jubliee striped melon.  The great thing about seeded melons for the gardener is they provide you the seeds for future seasons to grow more melons.

Crop production for my small gardens probably will reach 450 pounds gross weight harvested.  The melon in these pictures weighs a little over 40 pounds.  After cutting this watermelon up and placing it containers in the refrigerator, I washed the table off.  Small pieces of watermelon still remained with all the seeds and soon butterflies appeared to eat the watermelon sugar left on the table.  So neat!

2010 Watermelon Harvest

The watermelon harvest has begun with these first 16 watermelons picked.  The light green melons on the right side of the photo are Charleston Gray watermelons.  The ones on the left are a little harder to identify.  The striped spherical watermelon is Crimson Sweet.  The other four striped melons might be some sort of Jubilee watermelon.  I have a jar of saved watermelon seeds that I usually plant one hill of.  It is sort of my mystery melon to grow.

These watermelons were grown in Hodgenville, Kentucky and were harvested August 21, 2010.  I estimate the gross weight at 390 pounds [177 kg] (the largest striped melon is 37 pounds while the largest 3 light green melons weigh 40-41 pounds a piece).  Not sure what makes produce organic but no pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers were used to grow this crop.  The weeds were pretty bad this year probably because I did not use a tiller on the garden this year and the black plastic is getting old.

The pumpkin plants produced one small pumpkin but the plants appear to be dying (too much heat?) and the cantaloupe plants did not produce this year.

Growing watermelons is an enjoyable hobby for me that I have now been active in for at least 7 years.  So I felt like sort of farming dinosaur after reading the New York Times article "Watermelons Get Small" by Kim Severson on August 17, 2010.  It talks about trends in watermelon farming in Hope, Arkansas. The movement to grow icebox size seedless melons has caught on in the United States with the article stating that 2 out every 10 melons grown have seeds.  Of that seeded variety, a small percentage are heirloom like I grow.  The Arkansas old time melons mentioned are Jubilee, Black Diamond, Rattlesnake, and Charleston Gray.  The newer seeded hybrid being grown is called Super Sweet 710.

The largest striped melon has been cut and its fruit placed in plastic containers to be refrigerated.  The seeds have been saved and the juice collected to make watermelon lemonade.  Sweet!

Eastern Hercules Beetle

Pictures of a male Eastern Hercules beetle (Dynastes tityus) found in Larue County, Kentucky on July 31, 2010.  It was found dead on the black plastic of the garden in between two watermelon plants.  Possible it flipped over on its back at night and then died of exposure from the very hot days we have been having.  I am guessing the surface temperature of the black plastic gets to 120 degrees F during the day.

According to the University of Kentucky entomology web site, this is the largest beetle found in Kentucky.  It belongs to the scarab beetle family (Scarabaeidae).  It is also called Rhinoceros Beetle, Rhino Beetle, Unicorn Beetle, and Horned Beetle.  It is not a pest but eats decaying plants at night.  The protruding horns are only on the males and used to fight other males.  I wonder if the scratches on the front of this beetle are from some of those fights.

This beetle measures 50 mm (tip of horn to back of rear shell) and 23 mm at widest shell point.  I read the largest one reported found was 85 mm in length.

Let The Watermelon Harvest Begin

I began harvesting watermelon yesterday. So far I estimate about 300 lbs has been picked along with 1 cantaloupe and 4 pumpkins.

One of the Crimson Sweet watermelons has been cut and it tastes sweet. It weighed about 26 lbs. Studying watermelon lemonade recipes and need to find the blender.

Good season this year!

Charleston Gray Watermelon

Here is a picture of the largest watermelon I have growing so far. I estimate it is at 30 pounds and 24 inches long. It is still growing so maybe it will reach 40 pounds. The garden also as some large Crimson Sweet melons. The southern garden is doing very well right now. The one to the north, the melons are stunted and three have rotted so far out of the 12 or so in the garden.

Watermelon Tourmaline

According to Wikipedia, tourmaline is a crystal silicate mineral combined with other elements to produce different colors. This variety is called watermelon since it has the colors and look of watermelon slice. The compounds that make it up could be elbaite (green=verdelite) or liddicoatlite.

These specimens are from Brazil and are on display at the Indiana University Southeast (IUS) in New Albany Life Sciences Building in the Geosciences department. They were part of the Jimmy C. Davis collection.

Insects in the Garden

Unknown beetle sitting on pumpkin leaf.



Red ant traversing the yellow flower of a Charleston Gray watermelon plant.

A line of small ants traipsing across the yellow flower of a cantaloupe plant.


All pictures taken in a garden located in Hodgensville, Kentucky (Larue County).

Watermelons and Other Crops

These are some of the crops I have planted for this year. So far there are 15 Charleston Gray watermelon plants, 3 cantaloupe plants, and 6 pumpkin plants.

Hill with 4 Charleston Gray watermelon plants.

Hill with 3 pumpkin plants.

Hill with 3 cantaloupe plants.

These plants are all growing in Larue County, Kentucky.

Watermelon Planting Hills Located in Indiana

Watermelon planting hills surrounded by black plastic in Clark County, Indiana. Bricks and metal rods are used to weigh down the plastic. The plastic sheets are used to control weeds, trap moisture, and raise the heat of the planting hills they surround.

A small Charleston Gray watermelon plant emerging from the ground.

Charleston Gray Watermelon Planting - KYANA Plant Sale

Using Adobe Illustrator and a HP Photosmart inkjet printer, I created some seed packets for the upcoming KYANA Geological Society Plant Sale. The Charleston Gray watermelon is a heirloom variety so I save the seeds each year to use for the next crop. This watermelon was developed in the 1950s by what is now the United States Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina.

This design is sort of rough after looking at seed packets in the store. Also the flap overlaps an image and part of the text on the back. I used glue to adhere the two parts of the packet together and then used clear tape to fasten the flap closed.

These packets are loaded with seeds and the packet footprint is 2" x 3".

I was able to plant 10 hills of watermelons last weekend. I had already found one watermelon plant growing on one hill and 3 cantaloupe plants on another. I am mostly planting Charleston Gray melons this year since they are such prolific producers. I also planted two hills of pumpkins.

So in about 3 months I should be seeing some watermelons. I found this recipe for watermelon lemonade at this blog. Scroll down to the August 10, 2007 entry and you find the recipe with some pictures. Cannot wait to harvest the crop and try it out!