topic Re: Watermelon Patch in Among Friends

Watermelon Patch

On It — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 16:40:30 GMT

In a post a while back, I stated my favorite childhood memory was going to the watermelon patch with my dad. Here is a photo of a watermelon patch I saw online a few minutes ago. Those vines need a lot of space.

Re: Watermelon Patch

Mz iMac — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 17:10:46 GMT

My parents had a garden. One year they grew watermelons. Not many maybe about 10. They were tasteless. If you added salt, tasted like salty ocean water. That ended their growing watermelon craze.

Re: Watermelon Patch

cheriere — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 18:08:31 GMT

@On It I love a watermelon patch too. We still grow watermelon and cantaloupe. But one of my favorite garden memories as a child would be the time we planted a huge strawberry patch. I helped with it too, as much as a ten year old could. We let people come and pick what they wanted for so much. My parents let me use the money to purchase a bicycle. I couldn't believe it! I was one happy kid peddling that bike down a dirt road.😊💝

Re: Watermelon Patch

threecees — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 18:23:12 GMT

We grew watermelons in our backyard probably 8 to 10 years ago.

Boy, did they take off. We had blue and orange melons and they

grew and grew. Kids were small at the time and loved playing

with them and decorating them.

Re: Watermelon Patch

SaveTheTurtles — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 19:48:08 GMT

Now I can't wait for watermelon to come back in season up here in the north. That's a beauty!

Re: Watermelon Patch

Enufstuff — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 01:22:48 GMT

I love watermelon, but I have been disappointed in what the stores have been selling in recent years. They don't have the flavor of the watermelons from years ago.

They call them "seedless", but they are not seedless. They have tiny white seeds that are difficult to remove. The dark colored seeds found in the variety that were sold years ago, were larger and easy to remove.

They had such delicious flavor, before they messed with them.

Re: Watermelon Patch

Carmie — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 01:50:36 GMT

When I was a kid, we had a huge garden ( over an acre) and we grew watermelons. They were fun to grow.

Now, I grow cantaloupes. I have a small garden area on the side of my garage. I plant tomatoes, peppers, parsley, basil,oregano, chives and rosemary and marigolds.

Instead of picking the weeds out constantly, I plant cantaloupes in among everything else. They cover the ground and stay low and the weeds can't grow.

I thought about planting watermelons out front around my footer plantings. I could save myself from reapplying the mulch and perhaps from weeding.

The only problem is the deer. We have herds of them and they destroy every inch of every plant that's not fenced off or not sprayed with a deer deterent.

I wouldn't want to put fence out front and don't want to spray my edible plants.

Re: Watermelon Patch

Sooner — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 03:36:41 GMT

@Enufstuff wrote:
I love watermelon, but I have been disappointed in what the stores have been selling in recent years. They don't have the flavor of the watermelons from years ago.

They call them "seedless", but they are not seedless. They have tiny white seeds that are difficult to remove. The dark colored seeds found in the variety that were sold years ago, were larger and easy to remove.

They had such delicious flavor, before they messed with them.

@Enufstuff My cousin grew Black Diamond and Charleston Grays and they were so so so good! You'd get up some morning and there would be four or five sitting on the porch.

I still like watermelon and some of those little ones aren't bad, but still have pickups selling the big ones around here!

Re: Watermelon Patch

Boomernichols — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 17:09:56 GMT

@On It This is a staple here in Mississippi! Our little town has always had a love for watermelons and years ago, we would transport watermelons up north on trains.

Re: Watermelon Patch

On It — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 17:37:51 GMT

@Sooner Black Diamond was my dad's main type of melon. I could not lift one, so he toted them to the pickup truck. Often he would take one over to a cotton row and drop it. We would eat the heart out of it and return home looking innocent.

Re: Watermelon Patch

Sooner — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 19:31:23 GMT

@On It wrote:
In a post a while back, I stated my favorite childhood memory was going to the watermelon patch with my dad. Here is a photo of a watermelon patch I saw online a few minutes ago. Those vines need a lot of space.

@On It I was in bed for 2 weeks in awful pain after carrying one about that size to the car and leaning forward to put it in the trunk at the farmer's market. I thought I'd ruined my back forever, but luckily it got ok.

Re: Watermelon Patch

cheriere — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 19:49:34 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
@Enufstuff wrote:
I love watermelon, but I have been disappointed in what the stores have been selling in recent years. They don't have the flavor of the watermelons from years ago.

They call them "seedless", but they are not seedless. They have tiny white seeds that are difficult to remove. The dark colored seeds found in the variety that were sold years ago, were larger and easy to remove.

They had such delicious flavor, before they messed with them.
@Enufstuff My cousin grew Black Diamond and Charleston Grays and they were so so so good! You'd get up some morning and there would be four or five sitting on the porch.

I still like watermelon and some of those little ones aren't bad, but still have pickups selling the big ones around here!

We grow the Black Diamond & Charleston Gray's along with Jubilee's & Rattlesnakes. It never occurred to me until now how many watermelon are named after snakes lol.

Re: Watermelon Patch

RedTop — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:11:55 GMT

The Ph level in the soil is extremely important to watermelon growth, along with much warmer temperatures than we have in our short WV growing season.