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Rochester, Minnesota

I believe that the size and shape of the melon on the female plant at pollination time directly correlates to the size and shape of the fully grown fruit. That is, if you were to chose a short round female melon, you would get a relatively short, overly round finished fruit. If you choose a super long melon at pollination time, you would get a super long finished fruit.

With that said, what do you people think?

1/27/2009 11:51:01 AM

sevierville, Tn

I think your probally correct. I'll watch for that this year . We look for nice shaped pumpkin fruit, so the theory sould carry over to watermelons.
What about stem size ? I noticed a big difference in the lenght of stem on the baby fruit. Is that a factor in your choice?

1/27/2009 2:13:10 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

I hadn't considered stem size.

I had a conversation with a fellow grower once and he said that even if he had a melon already up to 70 pounds, and a really long female set. He would knock off the 70 pounder.

Here in Minnesota, you have to take time into consideration along with size. It's tough to get too many choices, but I can say that I have measured fruit at pollination time in the past, and you really looked for melons greater than 3.0 cm. One that is 3.5 cm is a winner.

1/27/2009 3:42:53 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

Dave B set one in 08 that was 1.3 cm. It produced the shortest, but widest melon you could imagine. The plant wanted to produce a nice fat melon, but was restricted the allowable size of the melon.

I believe that Dave was more interested in setting a fruit as early as possible thinking that length of growing season was everything. I think it's more than that.

1/27/2009 3:45:19 PM

sevierville, Tn

Cool, now i have something else to measure, baby watermelon. LOL
Based on last year, 70 lbs was reached at around 3 weeks. So i guess if you have the season length, cutting a 70 lb melon, could be the right choice.

1/27/2009 4:22:56 PM

Rochester, MN

Yes, my experience has taught me NOT to take the small fruit early in hopes that it will grow big....2.5cm is probably the smallest to get to 200...as I had a 2.5 get to 195lbs one year...but 3.2 would probably put you in the 220s or above...I'd love to hear from growers of the big ones..the size of the pollinated fruit!!!

1/29/2009 12:46:38 AM