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Bethlehem CT

I was just reading a paper called " Watermelon fruit Disorders" ( By Donald n. Maynard and Donald L. Hopkins) In it they suggested that a factor in making hollow hearted melons is the location of the melon on the plant. Melons that are close to the crown were much more likely to have hollow hearts than ones further out on the plants vines. I was wondering if any of you have seen or suspect this? Here is a quote from the article; "Results obtained in Japan (Kano 1993) confirm that hollowheart occurs more frequently in crown set (7th to 8th node) Than in lateral set fruit (20th node) fruit. The crown set fruit had fewer but larger cells than the lateral set fruit. Accordingly cell separation occurs because the fewer less compacted cells in the crown set fruit can not keep pace with the expansion rate of the rind. When growth rate was depressed by defoliation the inner cell growth did keep pace with the expansion of the rind and hollow heart did not occur. These results agree with the notion held by some that watermelon plants that are"forced" are more likely to produce fruit with hollow heart.

2/15/2013 8:19:01 PM

Corryton, TN

It doesn't seem that there is a definitive answer. I've set them near and far.
Here is a link for more recent thoughts about HH. http://agdev.anr.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=1841

I've always believed it has a lot more to do with genetics. Here is another link http://gcrec.ifas.ufl.edu/watermelons/PDF_Files/Diploid.pdf
Being a numbers geek it's hard for me to come to a different conclusion when you have these results. Could it be a Fiesta in this case and our CC's need a little extra something to eliminate HH, sure. Until that is discovered I'm looking for melons that go heavy to the chart.

2/16/2013 12:59:57 PM

Corryton, TN

The HH info is on page 17 of the second link.

2/16/2013 1:02:27 PM

Bethlehem CT

Thanks for the links Dave. It amazes me that 'Crimson Sweet' can still hang in there with the newer hybrids.

2/16/2013 3:32:05 PM