Fast growing watermelon

**llama momma** 8/24/2013, 4:29 pm

This small variety of Japanese watermelon is called Takii Gem, my first edible watermelon, ever. It weighed exactly 4 pounds. Grows fast in short seasons and turned out to be very sweet. I look forward to growing this again next year and devoting more trellis space for it. Side note- in earlier posts and avatar I incorrectly called a yellow rind watermelon by this same name. Should have called that one Golden Midget which I'm also growing and still waiting for it to ripen.

**RoOsTeR** 8/24/2013, 8:33 pm

YUM

batmap 8/24/2013, 10:24 pm

Wow, nice and red pulp. And all those seeds. Time to break out the salt shaker, if you like salt on your watermelon.

Since you mention the melon sweetness, did you notice any bee stings on the rind? Harvesting Ripe Watermelon has a few tips to picking them.

**llama momma** 8/25/2013, 3:00 am

batmap wrote:Wow, nice and red pulp. And all those seeds. Time to break out the salt shaker, if you like salt on your watermelon.

Since you mention the melon sweetness, did you notice any bee stings on the rind? Harvesting Ripe Watermelon has a few tips to picking them.

I've seen pictures of bee stings on fruit, didn't see any here. Never heard of putting salt on watermelon, I bet it nicely enhances the flavor like salt does with dessert recipes. I also couldn't use the tan colored spot from sitting on the ground since this was hanging from a trellis. Went strictly by the tendril being completely dried up. I thumped it too and it seemed to be a hollow sound but I wasn't confident. My limited experience says to trust the dried up tendril. Very Happy

**walshevak** 8/25/2013, 7:33 am

I am drooling. I had tomatoes bigger than my watermelons this year. I got a tablespoon full of melon from the biggest ones. At least it was sweet.

Kay

southern gardener 8/25/2013, 11:22 am

walshevak wrote:I am drooling. I had tomatoes bigger than my watermelons this year. I got a tablespoon full of melon from the biggest ones. At least it was sweet.

Kay

Same here Kay, my SFG watermelon was about the size of a ping pong ball Sad

I should have taken a pic! lol

**Turan** 8/25/2013, 11:41 am

Just what it needed for the dog days of August drool

CapeCoddess 8/25/2013, 2:14 pm

My watermelon's on the slow boat...

LM, lemme know if you save seeds from that pretty baby. Anything short season is good in New England.

CC

**llama momma** 8/25/2013, 9:21 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:My watermelon's on the slow boat...

LM, lemme know if you save seeds from that pretty baby. Anything short season is good in New England.

CC

I wasn't sure how to save them so I looked it up online and now I have some!
Pm me if when you are ready for them.

lyndeeloo 8/26/2013, 6:21 pm

Llama momma, that looks soooo good. I have never grown watermelon, but always wanted to try it. Do you have a picture of it in your garden? I'd like to see how you used the trellis. Did it need any special care or attention?

**llama momma** 8/26/2013, 7:55 pm

lyndeeloo wrote:Llama momma, that looks soooo good. I have never grown watermelon, but always wanted to try it. Do you have a picture of it in your garden? I'd like to see how you used the trellis. Did it need any special care or attention?

Lyndeeloo, I found a picture of it in the garden. I used Mel's traditional style of trellis, conduit, rebars, corner pieces, and netting. When the watermelon got heavier I wrapped in in bird netting and tied it up with twine for extra support. It only weighed 4 pounds so the extra support was probably overkill. In the picture you should see it on the top and left side of the trellis. Special care or attention? I would say other than supporting it there were no special things done to it. I watered it a lot and one time gave it a top dressing of compost.
The trellis was also busy with a tomato plant in the center and a cucumber plant that rambled about on the right side.

CapeCoddess 8/27/2013, 11:24 am

What a beautiful photo, lm! I would LOVE a cuc that looked like that, but the PM here doesn't seem to allow it.

How deep is that box?

CC

**llama momma** 8/27/2013, 4:03 pm

Thank you Cape Coddess,

Actually I got about 30 cukes from it then in a blink of an eye it went downhill fast, looked like aphids and disease came together and knocked it out in about a week.

The box is my orginal 8 by 4 from three years ago. It is 12 inches deep. This year the bottom half was dry llama manure pounded into a near solid layer then mel's mix on top. My boxes get over 12 hours daily sun so it has worked well as insurance from drying out. And if the roots want to go deeper than mels mix I figure they are in for a big surprise of manure with worms.

On the left side of the trellis is the watermelon from my other post, pm me if you are still interested in seeds. Smile

lyndeeloo 8/27/2013, 8:08 pm

Thank you Llama Momma! That is beautiful! Now I really want to try to grow them, I will add that to next years garden list. Those are a must have!

**sanderson** 8/28/2013, 3:31 am

LM, I want one or two of those next year, also!

lisaphoto 2/23/2014, 1:20 pm

sorry, I know this post is old, but do you know where I could get some seeds for that kind of melon?

**sanderson** 2/23/2014, 3:29 pm

The Takii Gem watermelon? Baker Creek carries them. www.rareseeds.com

**llama momma** 2/23/2014, 3:30 pm

Lisa
I have seed from last year if you're interested. Or you can buy fresh seed from Baker Creek.

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