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Location

Message

Date Posted

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

Which melon seed has the best chance to grow the next world record?

3/30/2010 10:17:37 AM

Rochester, Minnesota

Interesting question. Here's my thoughts. You have to take into account three major things. 1) Vitality of the plant. 2) Potential for fruit girth of the variety, and 3) Potential for fruit length for the variety. I suppose we could argue that density of the fruit could come into play, but I think that has more to do with growing conditions.

In general, the world records seem to be around 38" in straight length. That seems to be some type of wall we need to get past. Nygaard produced a 45" melon in 2008 that achieved a 200+ weight. I think that is significant. I suspect a cross between a genetically long fruit and a genetically wide girth fruit is what is going to break through this barrier.

3/30/2010 10:22:45 AM

Rochester, Minnesota

Minor correction. I said 38" for record melons, but some are 39 to 42 inch.

3/30/2010 10:26:05 AM

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

Thanks for the info Melon Man. Is there any sort of melon database that has measurments and seed weights? If not, which seeds produce the really long ones and which the really fat ones? If I remember right the Johnson 168 seed produced long ones and the Elkins 140 produced fat ones. So crossing the two might be the way to go?

3/30/2010 10:50:53 AM

Rochester, Minnesota

I have a database that I populate from everything I encountered, but it is far from complete. There is not an online registry that I know of, but that would be great for capturing cross information.

Size does matter for getting into the world record category. 38" isn't enough. You really need to see 43 to 46 with the really good girth (at least 65").

I would guess that is you really want to nail it, you would need to have a Girth of 65", a straight length of 43" to 44".

While we are wishing, I would like a pony.

3/30/2010 11:11:22 AM

sevierville, Tn

Not being hollow would help too ;)

3/30/2010 2:44:01 PM

Lexington,IN

There is somewhat of a database on yahoo group I started many years ago. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bigwatermelons/
The group has all but died out over the years, I have been trying to get it going again but evidently I'm not trying hard enough. I have also pleaded on here trying to get people to join the group and enter melons into the database on the yahoo site. We need to make this information available to all those that wish to use it, and the site is FREE. Sharing information will only help us all grow, like in the AG world over the years...
As for the 168 X 140, it has been done, by Bill Edwards in 2001, his 219 was 140 Elkins X 168 Johnson. The 219 has grown several over 200, like 20 or more. I also made the same cross in 2003, my 182. It grew my 196 in 2004 on a neglected plant. I think a few of the 182's will be planted around this year, and here also...

3/30/2010 2:52:16 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

I don't remember why any more, but I had a serious problem trying to use the Yahoo site for sharing information. It was the mechanics of it, not the people doing the sharing. I marveled at how the giant pumpkin people shared here at BigPumpkins.com, and I asked that the watermelon forum be created to get it out of the general discussion. They even went one step further and populated the forum with all the previous appends concerning watermelons. I contemplated creating our own website, basically duplicating what this site had for photo sharing and the like, but I worried that BigWatermelons.com sounded too much like a porn site.

3/30/2010 3:21:58 PM

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

Hey Dewight. How are you doing? We have chatted in the past about melons. Is your email working? I tried to send you an email to the address I saw on your grower diary, but it got rejected. I was curious about the 285 Edwards you mentioned in an earlier post. I have never heard of that one. Why UOW.

Mark

3/30/2010 4:31:30 PM

Okla

Melon Man or anyone, please try posting info at the yahoo bigwatermelons website and if you have any problems please let us know and Dewight and I(mostly Dewight,LOL) will work at getting it to work for everyone to use. Look under the FILES and DATABASE on the links on the left side of the homepage and enter any info that you can.
Thanks
Thomas

3/30/2010 7:22:30 PM

Berlin,mi.(zuhlke2@hotmail.com)

mshy,I beleive the 285 had a rott spot on the bottom. Im not sure how Bill got the weight on it. I don't know if he gave any of the seeds from it to anyone. I know I didn't get any from him.

3/30/2010 7:44:29 PM

Lexington,IN

I have not noticed any issues recently when posting data on the yahoo group. I was away for several years so I can't speak for past issues. But I entered several melons to the database and updated the GPC winners list about a month ago. MMM, can you send me the list you have so I can add them to the database? I'm unemployed so lots of time on my hands right now.
Steve is correct on the 285, had a soft spot on the bottom that Bill poked his finger right thru. Not many seeds from it, I didn't get any either. (But I bet Marv Mitchell did.) It was grown on the 157 Bright. I have a picture of it, widest melon I ever saw, big time girth! I think the weight was estimated from the Elkin's OTT chart, "RIP Reggie". I think the next WR will come from MI, or maybe the state below it...Oh, my email is: dewton232(AT)yahoo(dot)com

3/30/2010 10:17:19 PM

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

Thanks for the info guys. Very interesting. I am going old school this year. I just started the last of my Johnson 168's and Elkins 140's as well as a bunch that were labeled "Best from Donald Murphy". Does anybody know if Donald is still around? Super nice older gentleman that sent me a bunch of seeds in the late 90's. He grew a 64# cantaloupe that won a Weeks Seed contest way back in the day.

3/31/2010 9:23:40 AM

sevierville, Tn

Dewight,I think the next WR will be more south like Mo,Ar,Nc,Sc,Ga,TENN ;)

Where are the Johnsons & Elkins from ?

3/31/2010 2:21:31 PM

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

It's Chuck Johnson's 168 from 1999 and it was grown in Wisconsin. Bill Edwards has grown some nice 200+ pounders from it. Marv Mitchell also grew a 255 from it. The other is the Reggie Elkins 140 also grown in 1999. Dewight grew a nice fat one around 240# from the 140. Unfortunately Reggie died way to early of cancer. I'm not sure but I think he was from Illinois.

3/31/2010 3:47:29 PM

Frankfort Ohio

this is very interesting ,you all had this disscussion ,because, thats how I came up with the 136 cross, the 267 had the width and the 197 had the lenght,thats exackly what I was after ,can`t wait to plant it this year.

3/31/2010 3:56:08 PM

Frankfort Ohio

sorry thats my post ,I`m on sir pumpkins computer, littlebit ,here I maid that last post ,Rob Hampp, some of you have my 136 , hope it does good for you.good luck to all.

3/31/2010 4:01:25 PM

Some of you may have seeds from the seed melon that produced the extra large Edwards melon that Dewight mentioned. If I remember correctly, the seed melon was a 200.5 Mitchell. I have planted a few seeds this year from one of the 200.5's parent melons. This is the first time I have planted from it. If the melons from these 157 OS seeds are similar to the parent plant, I will send Marvin a few more seeds of the parent melon and will donate a dozen seeds from the parent melon to the Port Elgin seed auction next winter. With that said, it is also worth speculating that Bill Edwards or Marvin Mitchell could buy a package of big melon seeds off the shelf at Wal-Mart and grow a huge watermelon from those seeds.

3/31/2010 11:10:32 PM

Neenah,Wi

That was any forever will be grown from a 157 Bright.
This from the man him self!

4/4/2010 7:17:16 PM

Saskatchewan Fosston Canada

mshy midwest i have 239leonard watermelon for trade.My imail address is gracres@sasktel.net

4/5/2010 9:47:02 PM