Your Favorite Watermelon?

[Redbow]

Mine used to be and still is the sweet Georgia Rattlesnake or Charleston Gray watermelons. My Grandpa used to plant plenty of the Georgia Rattlesnake variety, along with Charleston Grays, Crimson sweet, Sugar Babies and another variety or two. Grandpa knew how to grow watermelons and he had a big patch of them ever year. Grandpa would prepare his melon patch by breaking it up then applying a big wagon load or two of stable manure. He would disk that in then plant his melons. The stable manure seemed to put fire under the melon crop they grew fast and large and sweet.

Grandpa also planted a couple rows of Cantaloupe Hale's was a popular variety I'm not sure of some of the other varieties of Cantaloupe but all were very good. The Minnesota Midget is a great eating Cantaloupe but they are very small. My Grandma used to love what she called a Mushmelon, it was like a Cantaloupe but it grew long and about the size of a medium sized Cantaloupe. They were very good though, I can see why Grandma loved them.

Then of course Grandpa attended to the Scarecrow that held down the Crows from coming in and pecking holes in the melons. Grandpa hated those birds worse than any other. Back in the days when I was growing up a flock of Crows could ruin a melon patch, they walked down each row and pecked holes in them. I guess the birds were looking for a ripe one to eat.

The watermelons were always ripe during tobacco barning season and we often took a break and enjoyed a couple of big Georgia Rattlesnake's for a real sweet treat. . Sometimes I still miss those long bygone days when my Grandparents were here but I miss them most of all.

 

[livinoutdoors]

I like Crimson sweet pretty good. Need to try some of the other ones. Ive planted Hales best for several years as well. Always enjoy your stories sir!

 

[slow motion]

The old green rind yellow meated melons. They crack too easily to be a good market melon. My grandpa and other old fellas around grew them. They would occasionally swap a few seeds. Said it was necessary to keep them productive. Guess they figured it was like getting a new bull. They were sure nuff good. Still find one now and then. I've got a jar of old seeds he had saved. No longer viable. He's been gone over 40 years. That old peanut butter jar of seeds means more than a whole truck load of melons to me but I wouldn't mind having a few fresh seeds.

 

[B. White]

I've done the Georgia Rattlesnake the past few years and like em as good as any. Just picked my first one over the weekend. They kept putting on little ones and ate them all summer last year. I like the Hale's best for cantaloupe.

I was going to get rich as a kid with a field of watermelons, but just about all got a whole picked in them when they got about 10" long.

 

[fishfryer]

Tendersweet is a great yellow meat variety. Charleston Gray and Black Diamond are favorites. Sangria is a good modern variety.

 

[Nicodemus]

We always grew Charleston Gray, Jubilee, and black diamond.

 

[JustUs4All]

The one closest to the road that has some cover between it and the farmhouse.

 

[specialk]

seedless...lol....hey redbow, did any yall plant melons at the end of the rows in tobacco fields?...one feller i helped did....it was a treat picking some loupes and melons and eating them while taking a break from work right there in the field......

 

[Mauser]

Papa always grew Charleston grey,crimson sweet and jubilee. We ate one everyday when in season after he got up from his nap. He ate a half and me and cousin split a half. Boy we didn’t know how good we had it. He had the biggest garden I’ve ever seen. Sold peas,butter beans,tomatoes,watermelon,cantaloup, and people came from miles to buy his green glaze collards. I’ve got the last seed he saved from 2007.

 

[4HAND]

Sliced.

 

[Redbow]

seedless...lol....hey redbow, did any yall plant melons at the end of the rows in tobacco fields?...one feller i helped did....it was a treat picking some loupes and melons and eating them while taking a break from work right there in the field......

No, we never planted melons at the end of the row in the tobacco fields but I have known folks to do so. Grandpa usually planted his melons between his tobacco field and the corn field. I have seen field peas planted around the corn stalks so they could run up the corn for easy picking but we never did that either. Many folks had a different method of farming than we did back in the day.

 

[Nicodemus]

Around home back in the day, a new field or a field that had laid fallow for several years was almost always planted in watermelons for the first crop.

 

[fishfryer]

Around home back in the day, a new field or a field that had laid fallow for several years was almost always planted in watermelons for the first crop.

Yep

 

[Flash]

Sugar Baby is great tasting, but small

 

[HermanMerman]

Here’s a whole podcast about the subject.

Ep. 125: THIS COUNTRY LIFE - Watermelons | MeatEater Podcasts

Watermelons? Yep, watermelons. Today on the show, Brent pontificates on the finer points of summer's favorite fruit. Where do they come from? How the heck can you have a seedless watermelon? How do you pick the very best of the bunch? Stick around and Brent is gonna spell it out for you. In the...

www.themeateater.com

 

[oldfella1962]

Mine used to be and still is the sweet Georgia Rattlesnake or Charleston Gray watermelons. My Grandpa used to plant plenty of the Georgia Rattlesnake variety, along with Charleston Grays, Crimson sweet, Sugar Babies and another variety or two. Grandpa knew how to grow watermelons and he had a big patch of them ever year. Grandpa would prepare his melon patch by breaking it up then applying a big wagon load or two of stable manure. He would disk that in then plant his melons. The stable manure seemed to put fire under the melon crop they grew fast and large and sweet.

Grandpa also planted a couple rows of Cantaloupe Hale's was a popular variety I'm not sure of some of the other varieties of Cantaloupe but all were very good. The Minnesota Midget is a great eating Cantaloupe but they are very small. My Grandma used to love what she called a Mushmelon, it was like a Cantaloupe but it grew long and about the size of a medium sized Cantaloupe. They were very good though, I can see why Grandma loved them.

Then of course Grandpa attended to the Scarecrow that held down the Crows from coming in and pecking holes in the melons. Grandpa hated those birds worse than any other. Back in the days when I was growing up a flock of Crows could ruin a melon patch, they walked down each row and pecked holes in them. I guess the birds were looking for a ripe one to eat.

The watermelons were always ripe during tobacco barning season and we often took a break and enjoyed a couple of big Georgia Rattlesnake's for a real sweet treat. . Sometimes I still miss those long bygone days when my Grandparents were here but I miss them most of all.

Wow! More about watermelons & melons in general than I ever thought of. I don't eat enough to notice a difference between any varieties, I just know they are all delicious to me.

Sidenote: where I recently used to work some guy brought in small "wild musk melons" from a county just southwest of the Augusta Ga area. They aren't very tasty, and he used them for target practice & whatnot. I did research and of course they have different varieties & hybrids & go by different names, but "Cucumis Melo Agrestis" is the specific name of the most common variety.

 

[Nicodemus]

Wow! More about watermelons & melons in general than I ever thought of. I don't eat enough to notice a difference between any varieties, I just know they are all delicious to me.

Sidenote: where I recently used to work some guy brought in small "wild musk melons" from a county just southwest of the Augusta Ga area. They aren't very tasty, and he used them for target practice & whatnot. I did research and of course they have different varieties & hybrids & go by different names, but "Cucumis Melo Agrestis" is the specific name of the most common variety.

View attachment 1239147View attachment 1239148

The ones in South Georgia are called citrons. Although not native to this country they grow wild in cultivated fields. Hogs, cows, and deer eat them and the vines.

 

[Redbow]

Wow! More about watermelons & melons in general than I ever thought of. I don't eat enough to notice a difference between any varieties, I just know they are all delicious to me.

Sidenote: where I recently used to work some guy brought in small "wild musk melons" from a county just southwest of the Augusta Ga area. They aren't very tasty, and he used them for target practice & whatnot. I did research and of course they have different varieties & hybrids & go by different names, but "Cucumis Melo Agrestis" is the specific name of the most common variety.

View attachment 1239147View attachment 1239148

I have seen that variety in people's gardens but not very tasty to me. The ones my Grandma liked would grow 15 to 18 inches long they were good and sweet.

Around home back in the day, a new field or a field that had laid fallow for several years was almost always planted in watermelons for the first crop.

Yes sir new ground I saw a lot of it when I was a kid. Many of the farmers I knew put tobacco beds in the new ground the plants seemed to grow quickly and looked very healthy.

 

[livinoutdoors]

Around home back in the day, a new field or a field that had laid fallow for several years was almost always planted in watermelons for the first crop.

What was the reason they did that?

 

[longrangedog]

Black Diamond