When I posted about Growing Watermelon in Containers in my last post, little did I know about the traffic it is going to receive.
The post featured in WordPress’ front page (FreshlyPressed) and the visitor count increased by 10 times the usual. Thank you so much for your overwhelming response. All your suggestions and comments motivate me a lot.
After reading the last post, I am sure many of you were wondering how the melon tasted. I did too. I waited and waited. The sign of ripening for watermelon is the distinctive sound when you knock on the fruit with your finger. For sugar baby, the outer skin (rind) becomes very dark green in color(blackish) when it is ripe. If you remember I had showed pictures of 3 melons. Two of them small and one that is bigger. I decided to pick them and taste.. come on how long can a gardener wait?.. All three of them were of the same age. I picked the smallest of all first. It was very compact and I would call it as 1-person-watermelon. It was around 600gms and quite small.
This is how it looked when cut. I was so happy that it was “red” let alone sweet. I took a small slice and tasted it. Wow!!! It was so sweet. I knew the right person to give this to.. the 3 year old kid next door. It was quite big for her hands and she did total justice to the fruit. She ate the fruit with juice dripping all over her face. The smile on her face showed how sweet it was. She thanked me with a flying kiss.
This one was the next biggest one. GG and family gobbled up in minutes.
Harvest two of them already and I wasn’t done. Patience? What the heck.. Took the cutter and brought home this beauty. It weighed a humble 1.79 kilograms.
This is the moment you wait for. The seeds were very less in number; thin white rind; bright reddish flesh. The sweetest watermelon I have ever eaten. Trust me this is no exaggeration. I shared a half with my colleagues and they felt the same.
Tempting?..
Don’t worry if you didn’t already sow some seeds of watermelon. Its still not too late. Try sowing some today.
25 Responses
Awesome red color. It looks juicy.
Quickgardens,
Yeah its a nice color and was juicy to taste too.
Hi GG,
Melons look simply yummy and truly mouth watering!!!!
Thanks Binita
Yummmmmmyyyyyy!!!
Wonderful especially the third one. I wonder why there is a difference in seed pattern in the two.
Yeah I felt the same too. It could be due to couple of reasons. Maturity and pollination.
gg
Ours not to wonder why
Ours but to eat and sigh………………………
gg, you are going to make me die of jealousy! I’m looking for a house with place for gardening or a flat with a large terrace for the same purpose. Do let me know if you come across one. After all, you’re the one who’s made me passionate about gardening!
Jeanne,
Talking about Jealousy, I remember the old Onida Ad. “Neighbors envy Owners Pride” ;).
Its so nice to know that you are considering a place for garden as a criteria for your moving. Way to go! I will keep my eyes wide open from now and will let you know for sure.
Happy gardening.
gg
Hi GG,
Amazing harvest, I will try this next year.
Before visiting your blog, only place where I used to grow veggies was on Farmville 🙂
Now I have my own little balcony garden.
Thanks to you
Keep up the good work.
Archana
Archana,
Thank you. Glad to hear that now you have a ‘real’ garden and I am sure it is much more fun than in Farmville ;).
gg
I planted some watermelons about 2 months ago but I hardly see any progress. Is this an all year plant?
Hi Srikanth,
Watermelon needs hot weather for a good yield. It can be grown in other seasons too with a compromised yield. What is happening to your plant.. Are there no flowers? Did you check the pollination?
gg
Great photos. My mouth is watering. I will surely be sowing watermelon soon.
Whoa! what a feast!! 🙂 do the watermelon plants keep producing for some more time?
Hi Goodearth,
The plants produce 5-6 melons when planted on land. Mine was on container with soil so it produced 2.
gg
Hi gg:
“Neighbour’s envy owner’s pride” is fine but I am not your neighbour(Thankfully?) but even then I am feeling exasperatingly jealous!! I really pity your poor neighbours and can imagine their ‘green’ faces when they see you ‘creating’ such beauties every day. One of our neighbours has a very large farm and sends us all sorts of beautiful vegetables every now and then. Even though their is no possible comparision between my garden and their farm, I can’t help feeling envious when I see those beautiful vegetables. Seriously, what is the right time to sow water melons? January? And CONGRATS on another achievment!!
Regards.
Infact, I am really thankful to my neighbors for allowing me to use the common terrace for my gardening purpose. They are such good people. If you were my neighbor I would have definitely shared a melon or two. :).
Right time for melons are Dec-Jan so that they come to harvest in March -April when the sun is at his best.
GG
Hi GG,
Where did you buy the seeds of this variety (sugar baby?). Do you have a few that I can buy from you?
Regards,
Shankar.
Hi Shankar, I got this seeds during an expo. Sure, I can send you some seeds. Send me an email admin@geekgardener.in with your address and contact number.
GG
Hi GeekGardener
I planted sugar baby when i saw the seeds at a store… m new to this hobby actually so i planted whatever facinated me (tomatoes,chilli pepper, mint leaves…… came out fine…ate salad already now) gave me a boast so i bought some seeds for sugar baby, cucumbers and camomilia… (this morning i saw some small things coming out from my camomilia pot :))) now my problem is since i am NEW i don’t know for sugar baby or cucumber how big a pot i need :S i don’t know anything … i live in DUBAI in an apartment… with a balcony which is quite big… in dubai we are only having only seasons… Summer and Extreme summer… 🙂 so m not sure if my choice is right… this is april and temperature is already 30 C+… in peak summer it goes up 2 50 degrees….
Hi GG,
This is an SOS!
A few months back I noticed an unplanned watermelon plant in one of my containers, allowed to grow not hoping for much. And now I cannot take any chances with the lone watermelon growing with the season having come to an end (or almost). how will I know that the fruit is ready to be harvested?
Is there a foolproof method to indicate that the fruit is ripe? Or should I take my chances? I think that it has stopped increasing in size. It is tied to my water tank with support in form of an old duppatta so the lower portion will not change color when ripe(I got this info on the net)
Please help
Regards
Chitra
Hi GG,
Just to update you about my watermelon.
Nature took its course and the fruit just dropped off the vine yesterday.
~ 800g, Cut it open, very red and juicy exactly how a perfect fruit should be.
Thanks for inspiring me to grow watermelon. My plant had just grown from some compost.
I am planning on saving the seeds from this fruit and see if I can repeat the magic next year.
Chitra
Hi GG,
To my surprise I could get some plants from the water melon seeds from the watermelon that I bought from the market. It grew well and looked healthy. flowered and about 3-4 small fruits started coming up. But unfortunately they all dried up and the new leaves on the tip of the creeper started getting shrinking. I assume the creeper has caught some disease. I cut the tips but I cant see any healthy leaves coming up. The leaves in the the bottom look healthy. Can you please suggest me the remedy for this problem.
thanks in advance.
regards,
Meera.