Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 22 Entries. Thursday, March 25 View Page I am going to TRY to keep a diary on my watermelon growing this year. I'm going to make a few entries to see if I know what I'm doing. This first picture is of my current giant watermelon seed collection. The row on the far left are seeds I got prior to this year. The middle row are seeds I got starting this year and the row on the right are some of my own seeds from melons. Thursday, March 25 View Page 16 yards of compost delivered for the melons. I have spread about half of it on the patch before the rain started. I will probably only grow 5 watermelon plants this year as my compost didn't go as far as expected. And about 4 familes are depending on me to have a large veggie garden this year. I am still thinking over seed selection to plant, so far, well today anyway, my line up is: 217 Pleasant - 255 Mitchell - 267 Edwards - 239 Leonard and my own 182 Blanton. Saturday, March 27 View Page More compost moving! I first dumped about 5 wheel barrows of compost in each of the 5 planting spots, in a 5 foot circle where the plants will be transplanted to. Tilled that in and waited one week and a few rain showers later before adding 5 more wheel barrows of compost in each of the 5 planting spots as before. That's where the spot on the left in this picture is at. Then we dumped and raked more compost over the rest of each plants area, that's where the spot on the right of this picture is at. Saturday, March 27 View Page My son Christopher working hard on his spot he will grow in this year. He wanted to grow melons with me this year and I told him he had to work hard to get a BIG melon. I will involve him in every step along the way, hopefully teaching him something he will stick with for years to come, we will see. We will start a few seeds within the next week. Saturday, March 27 View Page Finally done! Yeah right! At least with the compost in the general areas. Each compost covered area is about 25' X 25'. The total area I allowed for each plant is 30' X 28'. Next step is adding rabbit and hopefully alpaca manure and getting it all tilled in. Then we'll scatter the rest of the compost over the areas and add sand then till again. Other than a little blood meal and doctoring up the planting holes, the patch will be finished and will rest for 20 or so days before plants go in. Tuesday, April 27 View Page Not so great luck germinating seeds this year. I did buy an incubator and had best results at 93-95F. I have 10 seedlings to transplant into half gal. pots soon. I will keep plants inside for another week or so depending on the weather. Most are at two leaf stage today. Next update will be after transplanting, with pictures... Tuesday, May 4 View Page Group shot of those that survived my torture! If the rain holds off until this weekend, they will go in the ground. If it's too wet to put them in the ground this weekend, they will be upcanned to gallon pots. Tuesday, May 4 View Page The two 255 Mitchell plants. They are doing the best at this time. Tuesday, May 4 View Page Here are the two 217 Pleasant plants. They are the second best ones out of the group. Tuesday, May 4 View Page Two 267 Edwards plants. This is the one I hope to do two plants of in the patch, that all depends on how the group grows... Tuesday, May 4 View Page The 239 Leonard. This plant was started later and is about 10 days behind the others. I hope for this one to be my son Christopher's plant. Friday, May 28 View Page Plants are finally in the ground, been there for 5 days. A cool then wet past Month put me behind on setting them out. Planted on Mon. May 24. I hope it dries up soon, need to till the weeds under! Friday, May 28 View Page Plant #1 - 255 Mitchell Friday, May 28 View Page Plant #2 also a 255 Mitchell Friday, May 28 View Page Plant #3 267 Edwards Friday, May 28 View Page Plant #4 239 Leonard (this seed started 1 week later than others) Friday, May 28 View Page Plant #5 217 Pleasant Thursday, June 17 View Page Strong storms with strong winds for the last three nights have done a number on the melon plants. Vines were rolled around on almost every plant. The main vine on plant #3, the 267 Edwards was snapped. Secondary vines were snapped on plant #2 a 255 Mitchell and plant #5 a 217 Pleasant. I have worked on them trying to straighten out the vines and removed a few vines that were damaged. Hopefully the storms will hold off a few days for the plants to recover and get the vines better rooted. I'll post pictures in a few days when they recover a bit. Monday, September 13 View Page Here's my Son Christopher with our melons from 2010. Our biggest was stolen while we were gone to a baseball game. It estimated at 180 lbs. These shown have not been weighed yet but biggest will be close to 150. Wednesday, November 3 View Page Picture for Kirk... Saturday, December 18 View Page **LOT # 1 A few old genetics of which can be found in a lot of melons from the past. 150 Keyzer '96 (Bowers seed X OPEN) 5 seeds 191 Franek '98 (221 Pleasant X OPEN) 2 seeds 140 Elkins '99 (191 Franek X SELF) 2 seeds **LOT # 2 Some OLD seeds from Ron Bowers. From my conversations with Mr. Bright, the 148 seed from 1999 could be the parent of the 157 Bright. His packs have no parentage information on any of them. 166.7 Bowers '95 2 seeds 140 Bowers '98 3 seeds 178 Bowers '98 3 seeds 148 Bowers '99 POSSIBLY 157 Bright Parent? 10 seeds **LOT # 3 Old School genetics. The 168 gene is found in a lot of today's big melons 168 Johnson '99 (150 Keyzer X SELF) 6 seeds **LOT # 4 Some good seeds from up North. 190 Kline '03 (162.5 Kline X SELF) 8 seeds 231 Mitru '07 (219 Edwards X 157 Bright) 6 seeds **LOT # 5 The seed that produced the 267 Pleasant in '09, nearly a World Record! These two seeds came from Mr. Hurley who had them in his freezer since '96. 217 Pleasant '96 seed that grew the 267 Pleasant 2 seeds **LOT # 6 Mr Donkers never wrote any parent info on seeds I got from him. 189.5 Donkers '98 10 seeds 178 Donkers '99 7 seeds 194 Donkers '01 6 seeds 207.5 Donkers '02 6 seeds **LOT # 7 The 219 has produced several BIG melons. Old School genetics here! 219 Edwards '01 (140 Elkins X 168 Johnson) TWO LOTS- 6 seeds each lot **LOT # 8 The Michigan Bunch, some old some new... 228 Edwards '00 (168 Johnson X 198 Edwards) 8 seeds 199.6 Mitchell '03 (219 Edwards X 194 Donkers) 12 seeds 230 Edwards '09 (267 Edwards X 255 Mitchell) 2 seeds Saturday, December 18 View Page **LOT # 9 This seed has already produced some monsters! I believe we will see more! 267 Edwards '08 (255 Mitchell X 262 Bright) 3 seeds **LOT # 10 Superman's (Chris Kent's) 2009 collection! Before he was on the TV! 259.2 Kent '09 (239 Leonard X OPEN) 3 seeds 243.5 Kent '09 (213 Kent X 267 Edwards) 3 seeds 209 Kent '09 (255 Mitchell X 251 Mudd) 3 seeds 113 Kent '09 (267 Edwards X 239 Leonard) 3 seeds **LOT # 11 Pleasant's biggest melon grown thus far. I doubt that comment last very long! 267 Pleasant '09 (217 Pleasant X OPEN TWO LOTS - 4 seeds each lot **LOT # 12 A few older and a few newer seeds from 'Ol Henry! 221 Pleasant '96 (165 Pleasant X OPEN) 2 seeds 225 Pleasant '99 (Grew the 233 Collier in '00- 7 seeds 267 Pleasant '09 (217 Pleasant X OPEN) 2 seeds **LOT # 13 Some say this is one of the hottest seeds! These two seeds came from P & P Seed Co. 255 Mitchell '07 (168 Johnson X 157 Bright) 2 seeds **LOT # 14 Do your own remake of the World Record producing 239 Leonard! 197 Leonard '07 (216 Mitru X 207 Hunt) 3 seeds 211 Leonard '07 (207 Hunt X 216 Mitru) 3 seeds **LOT # 15 A few more from the Leonards with the 239 and it's mother as parents. 153 Leonard '09 (197 Leonard X 255 Mitchell) 4 seeds 119 Leonard '09 (239 Leonard X 255 Mitchell) 4 seeds **LOT # 16 The seed that produced the 291 Kent '10, the New World Record! 239 Leonard '08 (197 Leonard X 211 Leonard) 3 seeds * PLUS A FEW MORE LOTS TO BE ADDED AS THEY COME IN*