Thursday, August 19, 2010

Oh baby, Sugar Baby!!

I'm talking about my Sugar Baby Watermelons.  This is the first year with any kind of melons.  As such, we're still watching and learning the whole process.  We've been waiting a long time to harvest this melon, but aren't sure when to pick it.  The first melon was spotted on July 7th, but it seems to have grown just a little bit more and then stayed the same size till now.  Sugar Babies are supposed to grow between 6 lbs -10 lbs. 
The first and smallest melon bagged into onion mesh bags, to support the vertical growth of the vines.

This is what I found online about harvesting any kind of watermelons-

Use a combination of the following indicators: (1) light green, curly tendrils on the stem near the point of attachment of the melon usually turn brown and dry; (2) the surface color of the fruit turns dull; (3) the skin becomes resistant to penetration by the thumbnail and is rough to the touch; and (4) the bottom of the melon (where it lies on the soil) turns from light green to a yellowish color. These indicators for choosing a ripe watermelon are much more reliable than "thumping" the melon with a knuckle. Many watermelons do not emit the proverbial "dull thud"when ripe.

To apply the first rule, I looked closer at the tendril and this is what it looks like
Still looks green!

The other thing, that was mentioned about Sugar Baby watermelons is this-

When the plants are in full bloom, you can expect the watermelons to be ready for picking thirty five days later.

Well, the plants were in full bloom mid- July.  So, it seems we are pretty close to that thirty five days.  We also had more melons since then.  Almost all, are much larger than the first one above.


This is the largest one! I had to use 2 bags for this one!

This is probably the avg size.

I've got two in a bag!

Vertically grown watermelon vines.

At this point, we've still waiting to harvest the first melon.  Supposedly, Sugar Baby watermelons are really sweet as they have a high sugar content.  I hope we can taste them, soon!


4 comments:

  1. This is really cool! I love that last picture of your vertically grown watermelon vines with all the supported watermelons hanging from them. I have already read that melons generally take about 5 weeks from initial fruit set to be ready for harvesting, so it sounds like you'll have lots of melons to enjoy in the very near future. Congratulations! I have one melon growing right now from a seed I started from a supermarket cantaloupe. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

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  2. I hope so! It's so exciting to check on them every day! I have maybe 9 plants in there and about 9 fruits - so I'm averaging one per plant :-)

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  3. LOL. That last picture reminds me of a Christmas tree with red ornaments hanging on it. Love using the mesh bags for supports. They'd be so easy to hook onto the tops of fences, which is how I grew mine this year. I hope you have better luck than I did. Squirrels 5, me 1.

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  4. I never thought of the Christmas tree analogy. But, you're right! That's exactly how it looks. Haven't seen any squirrels in our yard, but there's certainly voles eating up anything they can find - beans, tomatoes, beets .....etc.,

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