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California central valley

This seed company in Estonia carries seeds for a large watermelon, Russian XXL, which allegedly reaches up to 100kg. I'm sure it doesn't get as large as American watermelons but it might introduce some nice hybrid vigor into a watermelon breeding program.

http://seemnemaailm.ee/eng/index.php?GID=7542

Other than the really big one, they also have a very interesting selection of dozens of other watermelon and melon varieties, most of which are not available in the US.

1/7/2011 12:56:31 AM

South East

looks like a carolina cross thats renamed for selling purposes.

1/7/2011 9:23:27 AM

Bowdon, GA

The one with the bananas sticking out of it don't look like 100 kg. Like all the american seed companies advertise up to 200 pounds, just because they are the same variety. When in reality you would do really good to get one a hundred pounds from one of their seeds.

1/7/2011 11:05:06 AM

California central valley

It certainly might be based on CC genetics, but the one that is pictured on the package looks longer and skinnier than the average Carolina Cross type. If it's really CC, they don't need to rename it. No one in eastern Europe knows or cares that it might be CC. They sell Crimson Sweet and Sugar Baby and didn't rename them. Why would they rename CC?

There's only one way to find out for sure.

1/7/2011 8:59:05 PM

Nicolaus, CA

Be careful of Bacterial Fruit Blotch. Eastern EU doesn't alway quite keep up with the best phytosanitary conditions for their crops.

1/9/2011 2:48:36 AM

Nicolaus, CA

Hey Midwest, funny thing. Their seed source is NK. Northrup King is owned by Syngenta. NK used to be an American company and now is part of their international line. The watermelon you see most likely was grown here in the US as an open pollinated variety or as hybrid production under Syngenta seeds.

1/9/2011 2:55:05 AM

California central valley

What makes you think their seed source is NK?

1/9/2011 11:59:42 AM

California central valley

I see the NK initials next to some of the listings.

There's no reason to believe this refers to Northrop King. Neither Northrop nor Syngenta grows giant watermelons, or dill, or strawberries for seed, or most of the other listings that have "NK" next to them. Whatever the NK means, it's not Northrop King. The actual seed company indicated on the packets is Pycckhh Oropoa, which in Russian means basically "Russian Garden".

1/9/2011 2:48:12 PM

California central valley

This is the Russian seed company that is referred to as NK on the Estonian seed site. In Russia they refer to it as NC:

http://www.ncsemena.ru/

http://www.ncsemena.ru/english/

1/9/2011 2:55:15 PM

Nicolaus, CA

Hey Midwest, pretty cool website. My mistake. They have some awesome varieties there. Those would be some fun ones to try!

1/9/2011 6:34:21 PM

California central valley

What's really amazing is their wide variety of more obscure things like dill. There are maybe 3-5 varieties of dill available in the US. They have dozens of varieties.

1/9/2011 9:12:31 PM

Nicolaus, CA

I didn't see all of that. I'm looking for more varieties of Basil to make different pestos with. The dill would be a lot of fun to play with when putting up vegs. Hmmm, the wheels are a turning.....

1/10/2011 12:24:29 AM

South Finland pumpkinfinland@gmail.com

Seemnemaail from Estonia is quite popular seed purchase place for finnish hobby gardeners. Basically cause prices are 50-75% cheaper than in finnish shops. Most have been pleased with veggies that are for eating, quite interesting varieties they carry.

But, I would not count much for their XXXL varieties. I dont know about that watermelon but pumpkins are pretty interesting to say... Atlantic giant is their 4th largest pumpkin with top weight of 50 kilos. Goliath grows up to 70 kilos, Big Max up to 90 kilos and.... Titan up to 500 kilos when average weight is 180-230 kilos. Hmmm... Estonian pumpkin record was 77 kilos before 2010 when Juha grew one over 600lbs...

So, Titan´s top weight by Seemnemaailm is 10x larger than AG´s....Maybe we all should grow Titan´s instead of AG´s...LOL

1/10/2011 3:29:27 AM

California central valley

They also have an amazing selection of strawberries.

1/12/2011 2:06:26 AM