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Alaska

Chris I just looked at the pictures you posted. I'm puzzled by what looks like a bad spot/hole on the bottom of it? Can you elaborate?

1/23/2014 9:55:00 PM

Muddy Waters

I can I shipped this melon from Hamilton Ohio to Michigan & then To OVGPG on the 13th of October.It then was handled by the GPC to go to New York.In Hamilton we noticed a little black spot on the bottom smaller then a nail head on a spiral nail about a 6 penny nail.About 1/4 the size of a normal nail head.We probed it. It didnt go thru the rind was only about 1/4 deep on Oct 5th.I put some captain in the indentation when I got back to Michigan on the 8th.Looks like bacteria can really grow.I bet it was keep in a warm environment in New York.

1/24/2014 7:38:21 AM

Bethlehem CT

A few years back I was harvesting my Carolina Cross melons about a month before the weigh-off because they had stopped growing and the plants were dead. On the bottom of one of the melons I noticed a brown spot the size of a dime, I figured the melon was done for. I decided to scrape away the brown rotten tissue. Luckily it had not spread to the red part of the flesh. So I scraped out the part of the rind that was turning brown. I got down to healthy rind, then I painted it with straight daconil, The daconil dried it right out and it lasted a month until the weigh-off. No Problem.

1/24/2014 8:06:24 AM

The North Coast

What's up with the lack of seeds???

1/24/2014 10:01:12 AM

sevierville, Tn

it was as Mark discribed. the melon had been off the vine a month or so by the time the picture was taken.

1/24/2014 12:42:21 PM

sevierville, Tn

the spot must have started to go into the melon when they cut it open.
Seeds....yea where did all the seeds go ????

1/24/2014 12:43:30 PM

The North Coast

It is interesting, the seed count. It is obvious that this melon and plant were special...and being special lent itself to a low seed count. We are seeing this more and more with the pumpkins also. To me it appears that we are scratching the surface of something interesting.

The inducing of parthenocarpic fruit via a hormone (cytokinin) has been commonplace recently in agriculture. Some of these seedless fruit are larger and some turn out to be smaller. My research leads tells me that parthenocarpic melons tend to be smaller...but there is so much we dont know. There is most definitely a hormonal response when the seeds mature in a fruit. It is a bit of a hormonal balancing act. This melon had many immature seed and few mature seed. If this phenomenon actually led to it's size, my best guesses would be- genetic disposition, the grafts ability to alter hormone levels by generating more root tips, and the nutritional program it was on. The answer could be any amount of what I mentioned or none of it at all.

I have believed that an interesting experiment would be to treat an infant melon (pre flowered) with a cytokinin spray as soon as it separates from the vine. Then pollinate the flower when it opens. The melon would either abort or...its cells would rapidly divide in the critical melon formation period before the bloom. There is an direct correlation to the cells in the pre flower and its ultimate cell count. The treatment of individual fruit and the treat/pollinate techniques are used today...but in different fruit. The result tends to all be the same once it is figured out. Bigger fruit.

1/24/2014 1:54:55 PM

Alaska

You see this sort of thing with pumpkins all the time. Didn't know it was a watermelon problem too. You kinda know when you have something special growing and as the season moves along you get excited as hell. Then comes the day your family and friends gather round to watch or help harvest that special fruit you've put so much into. So glad it turned out for the better Chris.

1/24/2014 6:43:17 PM

Home of happy lil plants

I still want my 350 plants :] giving a new meaning to early start!

1/24/2014 11:56:31 PM

The North Coast

It is hard for me to believe that you got such good results out of your garden Chris. It went from being the side yard into a champion quality environment in a couple days. Taking into consideration also that you were probably being torn up by vermin.

In the past I have been able to get good results by buring expanded metal lathe to exclude moles and voles. It is a pain in a butt and it is not perfect...but when it works it works. Run it across the bottom and up and out of the soil a few inches. Maybe best to run a 2x6 around the edge and terminate it there. It would be really effective for moles but voles can technically go over the top. Fortunately, voles can be controlled a bit easier, go with poisons peanuts in mass.

1/27/2014 8:55:40 AM

sevierville, Tn

thanks Nathan...yea no telling how well the plants would have done if the critters had not been eating the plants. The 260 clementz =grew the 297 , had the worst damage with 1/3 of the plant being gone at one point not to mention the endless mole tunnels. Who knows how big that would have been. Remember that vine with the melon was chewed 1/3 through at about 40 days old ! The 239 leonard had greatness written all over it too :( Oh well , there is a new year coming. I'll try to fix things for this season .

1/27/2014 4:42:46 PM

Muddy Waters

Start trapping & eliminating critters before the growing season starts.Trap them in the off season.

1/27/2014 10:47:38 PM