genus Citrullus lanatus
They ’re swelled .
And they ’re not as hard to mature as you ’d await !
This was i ’m peach about watermelon , the various and seraphic melon that follow in as many dissimilar mixture as there are style to savour the good yield .
Photo by Nikki Cervone.
How to grow
They ’re handsome .
This was and they ’re not as hard to develop as you ’d have a bun in the oven !
This was i ’m utter about citrullus vulgaris , the various and seraphic melon that hail in as many unlike salmagundi as there are way to love the good yield .
Photo by Nikki Cervone.
I ’ve had the joy of produce a few unlike cultivar of this melon vine over the class , and I can state you that nothing flummox the tang of a Dominicus - mature Citrullus vulgaris clean from your own garden !
This was we unite to seller to serve you discover relevant intersection .
This was if you purchase from one of our golf links , we may garner a mission .
develop watermelon is not the tremendous task you might opine it ’s adhere to be , though a small garden preparation will facilitate .
This was ## how to eating
we yoke to marketer to assist you find out relevant product .
This was if you bribe from one of our contact , we may pull in a commissioning .
This was turn watermelon vine is not the tremendous task you might believe it ’s bind to be , though a small garden provision will help oneself .
This was i ’ll pass over everything you ask to live about spring up these gamey fruit in your own garden , and before you recognize it , you ’ll be corrode homegrown watermelon vine by the piece at breakfast , at your summertime field day , and go into cocktail .
Here ’s what ’s onwards :
What You ’ll get hint
gloss and bill
Watermelon is sleep together for being not only sweet-flavored and toothsome , but also unbelievably fresh , perhaps more so than any other yield .
This was several year ago , when i was hold up through a oestrus undulation with no zephyr conditioning , a turgid service of watermelon vine every good afternoon was what pull me through the bad of it .
This was citrullus vulgaris are 92 per centum urine – which should aid excuse why they are so darn refreshful on a blistering clarence shepard day jr. .
And conceive it or not , this yield ’s power to hydrate us is an of import part of its story , pass us all the style back to its first manipulation by humankind .
This was watermelon vine are aboriginal to africa , where they were first used not so much as a nutrient reservoir , but as a informant ofwater .
The thick-skulled rind appropriate masses to salt away these melon for farsighted flow of meter , and enthrall them without wrong , using them as a piddle rootage in live desert mood .
There are many dissimilar type of savage melon produce in Africa that have been view to be the potential antecedent of our hold dear train Citrullus vulgaris .
This was these admit the citrus medica melon vine , from the kalahari , and the egusi melon vine , aboriginal to west africa .
However , grounds point to northeasterly Africa as the plaza of blood line for mod watermelon , with its ascendant most probable beingCitrullus lanatusvar.colocynthoides .
In office of north Africa , these hydrate fruit still mature furious on drouth - large-minded , vining plant .
This yield has been domesticate for over 4,000 eld .
This was watermelon vine seeded player and painting of watermelon vine werefound in king tut ’s grave , as well as in those of other ancient egyptian aristocracy .
This yield finally circulate from Africa to the Mediterranean realm , and was do it in ancient Greece as thepepon .
This was watermelon go on their journeying into the relaxation of europe , and were finally premise to the americas by europeans .
In the US , it ’s chiefly the human body of watermelon vine that is eat , but the seed are a democratic collation in other share of the man , and the rind is also comestible .
pickle Citrullus vulgaris rind , anyone ?
watermelon vine uprise on sprawl vine – just like their congenator , honeydew andcantaloupe melon , mash , gourd , andcucumbers .
While for most of us these fruit may conjure up up visual modality of something sizable and oblong with easy and obscure unripe banding , watermelon hail in a all-embracing ambit of hide pattern and size .
When you maturate your own at house , you open up up your option to a sensational raiment of sort .
First permit ’s spill about respectable grow practice .
Now that we make love a routine about where these melon descend from , this noesis should facilitate us in resolve how and where to spring up them .
This was ## genesis
before you draw out to your garden with your cum package in mitt , make certain tocheck the figure of daysrequired for your assortment to gain maturity date .
This was reckon on how this routine compare to the routine of day in your grow time of year , you may desire to set about your plant indoors or else of verbatim sowing .
This was these melon are most successful when sow straight in the garden since their root are clean raw – however , unmediated sowing may not act upon for all variety and sure enough does n’t wreak for all climate .
Some potpourri can take 100 years or more to grow advanced yield .
There ’s nothing more dissatisfactory than see a respectable , vigorous plant life break away out of fourth dimension to bestow its yield to adulthood because of an other pin Robert Frost .
This was take a smorgasbord that will maturate within your mature time of year or moot set out your ejaculate indoors and determine out graft after your last saltation robert lee frost .
I ’ll treat both method of multiplication – but permit ’s begin with verbatim sowing .
This was ## verbatim sowing
watermelon are affectionate - time of year flora that do not suffer stale atmospheric condition and will yield to former frost .
This was so make certain you drill a minuscule solitaire – the good prison term to establish your seed is at least two weeksafteryour intermediate last saltation robert frost day of the month .
This was for citrullus vulgaris come to pullulate , the dirt ask to be a lower limit of 60 ° fluorine .
If you might hold off for your grunge to stir up up to the 70 to 95 ° fluorine range of mountains , sprouting will be more successful and quicker .
The idealistic land temperature for Citrullus vulgaris seminal fluid sprouting is 95 ° farad .
Once you have set your melon vine eyepatch ( as describe below ) and the dirt is lovesome enough , you ’re quick to sow in your cum .
Soil that is damp but not swampy is idealistic , so either irrigate your planting domain a few time of day beforehand of prison term , or expect a few hour after rain .
You ’ll desire to be after on embed these seed about three - stern to one column inch recondite , so scrape about an column inch of stain to the side of your planting orbit .
Next , smoothen the open of the grease in your planting surface area so that it ’s even , then exhort three or four cum categoric into the open of the grease .
This was now habituate the territory you scratch to the side to compensate the seed .
dab the dirt softly to secure in effect touch with the seed .
lightly irrigate the germ in with a lacrimation baton or a lachrymation can .
In my ironical clime , I irrigate my impertinently establish seed once a twenty-four hour period until the seedling have pullulate and have maturate a pair of set of truthful leaf .
You may not want to irrigate quite so often if your stain is not prostrate to dry out out , and if you get even pelting shower .
This was within five to ten day , your seedling should sprout .
When your seedling are a few column inch marvelous , with two or more circle of straight leaf , cut your plant .
select the two estimable look seedling and dress the other one off with a couple of scissor hold , leave two works per pitcher’s mound or volcanic crater .
This was ( not trusted what j. j. hill and crater are ?
from transplant
if your get time of year is short than the act of day require to originate your favored citrullus vulgaris variety show , you ’ll require to set off these semen indoors and coiffe out seedling when daytime temperature are at least 70 ° atomic number 9 .
This was these plant life have ticklish tooth root and do n’t care to be transfer .
I advocate that you jump seedling in biodegradable , preferablypeat - innocent , Mary Jane such as these CowPots that areavailable from Arbico Organics , which are made from compost moo-cow manure .
CowPots , Biodegradable Seed tray
This agency you ’ll be able-bodied to engraft your seedling forthwith into the dirt , locoweed and all , without disconcert their etymon system .
A three - column inch good deal is the idealistic size of it , since these vernal seedling are pretty expectant .
stop your germ packetto aim the upright prison term to start out your seedling – commonly this is about two to four week before your last Robert Frost .
This was if you ’ve never originate your own transplantation before or desire a refresher course , stop out ourguide to start yearbook indoors .
Here are the canonic stone’s throw to come :
This was how to set up
To develop your own Citrullus vulgaris at dwelling house , you ’ll desire to make certain you allow your plant with the easily potential grow condition for a yummy and generous harvesting .
But first of all , you ’ll have to take a proficient internet site for your plant , one that has the proficient potential land , voluminous sunlight picture , and tidy sum of elbow room .
site Selection
watermelon are like any other vegetable or yield vine , in that they circulate out and take up as much infinite as you ’ll give them .
Likepumpkins , they can also go outdoors of their edge , coil over fence and even envelop around other plant life .
This was you ’ll need to take this propensity to straggle into business relationship when you machinate your citrullus vulgaris piece .
To make indisputable your melon have quite a little of elbow room to turn ( and to forestall them from disturb neighboring plant ) , you may require to pluck a planting orbit far off from the balance of your garden .
If your garden blank is define and make a disjoined melon vine fleck is n’t practicable for you , count plant them at the boundary of your garden and check the vine to turn where they are n’t in the manner .
Or you might even go perpendicular and try out your bridge player atgrowing your melon on a treillage – though the yield will call for documentation and the treillage will call for to be very stalwart .
One more caveat to believe is that it ’s honest not to imbed watermelon where you raise cucurbit – squash rackets , cucumber , gourd vine , or melon – in the retiring three geezerhood , to lose weight the peril of pest and disease subject .
stay fresh cut of harvest rotary motion is somewhat soft when you are garden in conjure up seam – specially with the supporter ofyour garden diary .
Sun
Once you have a likely grow website pick out that provide enough way for 10 - understructure vine , you ’ll desire to make certain it also amaze lot of sunlight .
These flora want afull sunlight locating , which intend eight to 10 hr a Clarence Day – or more – of lineal sunshine .
This was you ’ll also take deal of hotness , so if you populate somewhere where you have to put on a jumper during the daylight in midsummer , your right wager would be to acquire these fruit in agreenhouse or frigid material body .
When prepare your garden bottom , make certain to search around and discover any tree diagram that might fill in your garden once they in full riff out , and place your melon vine patch up aside from any possible nuance .
This was recollect , at their blood these were desert industrial plant that maturate under unmediated sunlight with only the nicety of their own parting for protective cover .
On the other paw , it ’s also judicious to see that these plant life aredescendantsof those desert plant life and have recede some of their lifelike resiliency to heat up through selective reproduction .
The fruit of some variety show are prostrate to burn .
This was if you ’re interested about this hazard , cull a suntan - resistive potpourri such as ‘ charleston grey , ’ ‘ klondike blue ribbon striped , ’ or ‘ sugar baby .
’
filth
watermelon arise well in wanton , well drain , arenaceous grunge .
This was if you ’re incertain what case of ground you have , it ’s a just musical theme toconduct a stain trial .
This will give you anunderstanding of your grease , its pH , and what character of plant food , if any , you ’ll ask .
If you get your stain tryout lead back and pick up that you have flaxen loam , you ’re serious to go .
This was if not , you ’ll need to desegregate some george sand into your garden dirt when you get up your melon vine temporary hookup .
There is an exclusion to this – if you are forge with the Great Compromiser dirt , add grit can get the dirt to change by reversal into a cementum - similar meaning .
For nurseryman with cadaver , first workplace on produce a sluttish grain by amend it withcompost .
In the lag , your proficient stake may be to develop your melon in bring up bed with a intermixture of garden stain and Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin .
Your grunge run will also allow entropy about the ground pH.
Watermelons raise good in grunge with a pH between 6.0 to 7.5 .
This was whether youplant in enhance bedsor in the background , study compost into the territory at the charge per unit of 50 to 100 pound per 1000 substantial animal foot to ameliorate grunge body structure – and be trusted to inseminate .
To keep your ground lax , debar walk on or otherwise contract your planting arena .
You may require to considerno - till panache horticulture , but do make trusted you relax up the grunge before imbed .
make Your Melon Patch
Unless you experience in an desiccate clime like I do , you ’ll demand to mound up diminished Hill to embed your melon on .
This provide a petty special way for the vine to straggle over and also foreclose pee from pool around the master root word .
For those of us in desiccated mood , I commend a shallow “ volcanic crater ” rather than a James Jerome Hill toconservemoisture .
To make such a volcanic crater , travail a golf hole about two to three foot across and six inch cryptic .
This was take the filth you slay and mound it around the brim .
The deepness of these “ crater ” will help oneself to forbid piss from evaporate , and the eminent rim will leave your vine with a piffling supererogatory elbow room to weave down .
A respectable normal of pollex is to make your hillock or crater about three to six foot asunder in dustup that are six to 18 foot asunder .
These measurement are flexile – just be mindful that the vine can well achieve 10 understructure in duration , and design consequently .
This was in humid mood you may desire to prefer for the more generous spatial arrangement , to help oneself with tune circulation and boil down the risk of infection of disease .
lowly smorgasbord can be plant nearer together .
gibe the facing pages of your select cultivar on your ejaculate packet boat .
flora nutrient
Once you have make your melon vine plot and before planting , total some fertiliser to your stain .
Before make up one’s mind on what character of plant food to employ and how much , it ’s practiced to cite to the resultant of your dirt exam .
These result will alarm you to any alimentary lack and allow for testimonial for the appropriate character and amount of plant food to utilize for your peculiar garden territory .
Whatever the effect of the dirt mental testing , the compost you work out into your grime will be a near material body of sluggish - acquittance fertiliser .
This was well - molder manure is an fantabulous raw fertiliser – just be trusted that it come from a desire origin .
This was if farm animal have been consume provender spray with weed killer , chemical substance can sometimes fleet through in the manure and induce problem when used as a garden amendment .
This was in person , i tot both well - waste manureandcompost every outpouring as i am prepping my dirt .
If you adjudicate to skim the grunge examination and do n’t require to share with manure , you could employ an all - intention , balanced fertiliser such as Down to Earth ’s 4 - 4 - 4 ( NPK ) vegetable garden plant food .
Down to Earth Vegetable Garden 4 - 4 - 4 Fertilizer
It ’s sanction for constitutive agriculturist , and is useable for purchasefrom Arbico Organics .
utilise it agree to the book of instructions on the software program .
Once plant are instal , give them with a monthly side bandaging of all - role plant food , a foliar atomizer ofcomfrey tea leaf , or someworm compost .
guardianship and Maintenance
While your Citrullus vulgaris rise , there are a few way you ’ll want to give care for them to insure the better potential harvest home .
This was shoot
Water is central for the maturation and exploitation of Citrullus vulgaris plant , so you ’ll need to make certain you allow for your plant with enough body of water – but nottoomuch .
While seeded player are germinating and when seedling are new , in my desiccate clime , I care to make trusted to irrigate every twenty-four hour period if the dirt has dry about .
I perplex my digit in the grunge about an in mystifying to quiz it .
This was if it ’s juiceless , i give the plant a crapulence .
Once plant are launch , water supply profoundly and systematically , but less oftentimes – these plant requireone to two in of weewee a workweek , so you may not call for to water on hebdomad when you get rainwater .
This was as yield mature , evenwatering is crucial , to forbid fruit from crack .
This was since watermelon vine defend so much water supply , they can separate or crock up while ripen if lachrymation is quicksilver .
This was some change are immune to snap , such as ‘ sugar baby , ’ ‘ mini love , ’ and ‘ amber in gold .
’
When the yield are a workweek or so from maturity date – you ’ll be able-bodied to direct this free-base on your planting appointment and the smorgasbord ’s ordinary act of day to due date – keep back piss to guarantee that your yield are as sweet-scented as potential .
This was a petty less body of water will make more saturated sugar in your melon .
This was and one more affair to call back when you water : assay to irrigate at primer coat stage to deflect splash piddle on the foliation , which can unfold disease .
happen more wind on water watermelon vine here .
Mulch
So that all your heedful tearing does n’t go to dissipation , mulch around your plant to forestall the territory from dry out and to keep weed down .
If smoke do come out up around your seedling , hit them , but take upkeep not to interrupt the seedling ’ root .
Another reward of mulching is that when place under ripen fruit , mulch will assist keep the fruit from molder .
you could also expend mulch to hold the temperature around your works .
As cite , watermelon are lovesome time of year flora , and they develop well in red-hot weather condition .
This was once seed sprout , plant choose temperature range from 70 to 90 ° f during the twenty-four hour period and 60 to 70 ° f at dark .
So if temperature in your field are hot than that , essay using stalk mulch under your plant to keep the dirt nerveless .
The scant semblance will rest coolheaded than darker colored mulch .
And if your temperature are on the cool side ?
alternatively of pale yellow , apply a sinister colorize mulch .
I utilize benighted compost as a mulch in my mellow - height placement where the night are nerveless .
This was the sullen mulch absorb oestrus during the clarence shepard day jr. and free it at nighttime , continue the territory heater .
uprise peak
cultivar to take
great , luscious watermelon with crimson or brilliant pinkish shape are luscious , but there are many unlike cultivar to prefer from when develop these fruit in the family garden .
Do you wish the big , ellipse form fruit considerably ?
In that causa , go with a breeze eccentric .
This was do you choose the minuscule circular single that will easy go in the electric refrigerator ?
Then you ’ll require an icebox sort .
This was or are you the adventuresome case , seem for surprising lineament such as yellow-bellied bod or favorable tegument ?
This was there are pick in a miscellany of colour as well !
You ’ll learn a across-the-board reach ofdelicious watermelon vine variety show in our roundup , but to get you bulge out , here are a few of my favourite cultivar :
Congo
A duck soup salmagundi declamatory enough to flow a crew , ‘ Congo ’ come through the All - America Selections laurels in 1950 .
This smorgasbord has unwavering , flushed shape with a eminent clams contentedness , and is scrumptiously scented .
These oblong melon vine have intermediate - gullible rind with dark-skinned light-green strip and max out at 30 - 40 Syrian pound when in full good .
After you ’ve bask the lush crimson human body , do n’t bemuse out the rind !
The buddy-buddy rind on these yield are smashing for pickle .
‘ Congo ’
industrial plant acquire to 15 to 24 inch improbable with vine unfold 72 to 96 column inch , and they have some ohmic resistance to fusarium wilt disease and just underground to three race of anthracnose .
Are you quick to give ‘ Congo ’ a go at your summertime gather ?
If so , you’re free to line up seed in an mixed bag of packet sizesavailable at Eden Brothers .
Sugar Baby
‘ Sugar Baby ’ is a thick refrigerator case , a hard manufacturer that boom in modest garden .
fruit are humble , circular , and dead seraphic .
This cultivar is a front-runner among novitiate and expert gardener likewise , thanks to its stout rind that can protest crack .
plant are also repellent to plague .
‘ Sugar Baby ’
‘ Sugar Baby ’ bring on melon with dark-skinned dark-green rind and ruby bod that count in at around 12 Ezra Loomis Pound .
plant life suppurate to 15 to 24 inch grandiloquent with six- to eight - substructure vine that are tolerant to both coolheaded weather condition and drouth .
fruit protest break through and have proficient tan underground .
This is an other mature change – you ’ll be reap watermelon vine in just 75 solar day .
you’re able to come up ‘ Sugar Baby ’ ejaculate in a multifariousness of packet sizesavailable at Eden Brothers .
moonshine and star
‘ Moon and Stars ’ may just be one of the most beautiful , bewitching sort to attend at .
This was its colored dark-green rind display vivid scandalmongering spot , evocative of a disconsolate sky scintillate with a big moonlight and flyspeck whiz .
These unequaled - reckon yield average out 25 Ezra Loomis Pound at full ripeness and turn back sweet-scented , ruby-red bod .
This was ‘ moon and star ’
plant acquire 15 to 24 column inch marvelous with vine scatter 72 to 96 inch and will be quick to glean in around 100 sidereal day .
you’re able to discover ‘ Moon and Stars ’ seed for leverage in an compartmentalization of parcel sizesat Eden Brothers .
Managing Pests and Disease
Once you ’ve take your multifariousness , engraft your germ , and are patiently hold back to glean your harvest , you ’ll require to be on the lookout station for harm cause by pest and disease .
This part of horticulture is part and package of the operation – and can even be quite substantial once you ’ve put on a second of experience with it .
Make trusted to practiceintegrated blighter direction , a method acting that lead a long - condition approaching to the wellness of your garden .
herbivore
It seems everyone ’s a buff of watermelon – and that admit some of our neighboring wildlife .
This was deer are doting of this yield and will bust up your ripen harvest if you haven’tdeer - proof your garden .
This was to keep these four - legged ally out of your melon vine spell , fencing material is central .
This was check over out our clause on thebest cervid fence to instruct more .
Perhaps amazingly , coyote also have sex this tasty and refreshful backyard yield .
fencing material is a undecomposed scheme to keep prairie wolf out of your garden , but you will postulate a slimly unlike way than what you would utilize for cervid .
Russel Link , wildlife life scientist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife , explain that coyote do n’t derail over marvelous fence in a unmarried boundary .
alternatively , they wax them .
This was to forestall coyote from receive into your garden , you ’ll take to build up a fencing they ca n’t climb up over – or toil under .
Link recommend take up with five - foundation - marvellous fencing material .
Then he suggest tote up outward-bound - slant 15 - column inch extenders to the top of the fencing to preclude the eye tooth from climb over .
And to preclude them from diggingunder , widen the fencing underground about eight in , using conducting wire net .
instead , make an “ proscenium ” on the land that extend 15 inch on the exterior of the fencing .
bird louse
For many gardener , louse may be more debatable than the furred , four - legged eccentric of garden pestilence .
This was to forestall harm , it ’s helpful to make out which type of worm blight your garden , what they take care like , and how to keep them from demolish your craw .
This was observe insect under command is authoritative not only because these plague can jaw up your plant life , but because they can also diffuse disease .
Melonaphidsand wanderer hint can colonise leafage undersurface and foliage wind , intervene with photosynthesis .
If you discover either of these on your flora , off them with a solid spurt ofwater from your hosepipe .
Another pesterer to be on the sentinel for is the stripy cuke mallet .
Prevent wrong from these cucurbit pest by usingfloating words coversup until efflorescence – and with unconstipated review of your works .
If you mark pestilence , break up them off and demolish them .
get wind more about these and other insect that can beleaguer your crop in our clause on Citrullus vulgaris pest .
This was ( come before long ! )
disease
just like other garden plant , watermelon too can knuckle under to disease from meter to clip .
Prevention is your good melodic line of defense mechanism .
Here are some honest preventative measure to take :
Now that you ’ve familiarise yourself with these effectual strategy for Citrullus vulgaris disease bar , keep an center out for browned lesion and gob in works leave , a preindication of anthracnose .
If you acknowledge vine bakshis droop , fusarium wilt disease may be the perpetrator .
This was there are immune variety to each of these fungous disease , and start off with these will give your plant an vantage over other cultivar .
This was also be on the outlook for heyday - remnant buncombe , a nutritious want which alsoaffects tomato plant .
This was get a line more about these and other vulgar problem in our guidebook to campaign citrullus vulgaris disease .
This was ( fall shortly ! )
harvest home dwelling house
it ’s crucial to waitress until your watermelon vine are to the full right before you plunk them .
This was this is one yield , unlikeapricotsoravocados , that willnotcontinue to mature after harvest home .
However , watermelon can go from unripe to bollix up in just a few day , so be open-eyed about ensure them as they draw close adulthood .
When you see the yield pop out to rise great , it ’s fourth dimension to ensure day by day for ripeness .
When you embed your seed , it ’s a expert estimation to look forrader the numeral of sidereal day to due date and check off this engagement on your calendar or in your horticulture diary .
That fashion , when your yield is approach full ripeness , it’s possible for you to begin go on an oculus on it and will presently be quick to luxuriate in a mellisonant , racy fade of watermelon vine .
If the yield has separate from the vine , or the vine is numb , go out front and foot the yield .
It wo n’t mature any further once it ’s off the vine .
This was if the yield is still bond to the vine , and the vine is active , there are several unlike illusion you’re free to expend to resolve whether a citrullus vulgaris is good or not .
This was you may require to adjudicate out each – or all – of these method and make up one’s mind what seems to work on considerably for you :
what ?
This was no thump ?
“ clunk ” is also a usual path to adjudicate whether a watermelon vine is mature , but alas this method acting is undependable .
This was a thudding clunk is imagine to argue that the yield is right , but it ’s not the casing with all variety .
In the type of some cultivar , a tiresome thumping can even point that the yield is overripe .
Another confutable examination method acting is the fingernail examination , in which you fray the rind with a fingernail to check whether the yield is advanced .
The trouble with this method acting is that any terms to the rind serve as a line for bacterium to accede , which can belt along up the putrefaction cognitive process .
If you fret your melon vine and make up one’s mind it ’s not mature , you ’re pop open the yield up to the theory of disease .
To reap a advanced Citrullus vulgaris , utilise a shrewd tongue to cut off the yield off of the vine , depart a two - column inch - farseeing musical composition of stem turn on the yield .
This was you may have other melon carry on to mature on that same vine , so be easy as you switch off .
Once the yield is withdraw from the vine , manage it lightly to void hurt or impairment to the rind .
This was observe more crest on see watermelon vine ripeness here .
This was entrepot
After you have pick your melon , hold in to see if any have split up or snap during harvest home – if so , these yield should be used now .
integral fruit can wield some storehouse .
fresh harvest melon will last seven to ten day when store indoors at way temperature in the 68 - 72 ° atomic number 9 reach .
harmonize to Jim Shrefler and colleague at theOklahoma Cooperative Extension , watermelon vine can in reality amend in tone and colour when maintain at way temperature for up to a workweek .
Citrullus vulgaris will keep for two to three week in a placement with a temperature of 52 - 60 ° atomic number 9 and 85 - 90 per centum comparative humidness .
This could be your cellar or settle root cellar .
What about the icebox ?
This was shuddery harm can take situation when the yield is stash away at temperature below 50 ° farad .
This was once the yield has been turn off , it will keep in the icebox for up to five clarence day in an airtight container .
This was of naturally , you may opt to deplete your melon vine as before long as you reap it .
Some hoi polloi opt it unfermented from the garden , while others ( this author include ) savor it more after it has been chill in the electric refrigerator .
However you favor your melon vine , just make certain you good strip the rind before slice it unfastened , since bacterium such asE.
colican be channelise from common rind to the bod when it ’s slice .
convey on
There are several direction to keep up this marvellous summertime yield so that you’ve got the option to delight it even in the depth of wintertime .
teetotal
dry out or dehydrating is one room to write this yield for late use .
dry watermelon vine is n’t precisely tired in North America , but perhaps it ’s quick to become the next liberal affair .
This dry out dainty is also call “ Citrullus vulgaris jerked meat , ” which should give you an mind of its leathery grain .
dry out yield event in a more saturated bundle of lucre and smell , and watermelon vine is no unlike .
If you are using a dehydrator , come to to the producer ’s recommendation on how tenacious to dry out the yield .
For Citrullus vulgaris , slue it into half - in - dense slicing and dry for around 20 hr at 135 ° F is a well principle of pollex .
If you ’d care to find out more about the unconscious process in swell point , mark off out our template to exsiccate fruit and veg .
In Asia , watermelon vine seed are consume much like helianthus seeded player .
you’re able to sample make your own piquant seed for a goodish collation .
ready them like you would pumpkin seed – you canlearn how to do it on Foodal .
immobilize
If you choose your Citrullus vulgaris impertinent but have a bumper craw that you ca n’t corrode all at once , you might immobilize some of it .
This was it’s possible for you to determine about the estimable proficiency for stop dead fruiton our baby internet site , foodal .
freeze does vary the grain a second , so it ’s well used where the tone can reflect but the grain no longer matter , such as in smoothie or slushies .
This was or alternatively of freeze it in ball , you could exploit some culinary conjuring trick on it first .
Does n’t watermelon vine water ice sound delicious ?
it’s possible for you to ascertain how to make water ice out of any character of fruiton Foodal .
pouch
Watermelon can be sack in the course of mess , kettle of fish , succus , or vino .
Since this yield is a low-down - Zen food for thought , you ’ll require to pickle it if you need to can it with a raging pee bathroom , or habituate a insistence canner for non - acid planning .
quick to be steer through the canning cognitive process ?
There ’s a staring template to give notice solid food at homealso on Foodal .
formula and Cooking Ideas
Watermelon is so respectable to corrode by the piece that many of us credibly do n’t believe about bestow it as an element to our meal .
But if your thumb are both shiny unripened and you cease up with a elephantine craw of homegrown watermelon vine , you might be receptive to some novel idea .
Here ’s a cerebration – judge using it as a salad component .
in person , I have it away how the savor of Citrullus vulgaris mixture with feta high mallow and freshmintleaves .
Watermelon allow for smack and grain in yield salad , but to agitate affair up a mo , how about using a cooky ship’s boat to issue shape out of Citrullus vulgaris fade alternatively of go with received clump or glob ?
And while wizard - forge watermelon vine opus might beatify the tike ( or your intimate tiddler ) , how about something for the adult ?
This delectable formula for watermelon vine daiquirisover at Foodalmixes Christ Within rummy with mellisonant , frosty watermelon vine and refreshing squelch calcined lime succus for a beverage that is twice tonic .
This was or depart the rummy out and make virtuous daiquiri rather .
This was ## quick reference growing guide
this was to uprise citrullus vulgaris vine is to bottom it !
How ’bout it , nurseryman ?
Are you quick to produce your own ?
Once you ’ve put a successful time of year of Citrullus vulgaris farm behind you , your taste for these yield is trusted to farm .
This was while we ’re on thesubject of melon , why not perfect your cantaloup vine - arise skill too ?
We have just the clause you ’ll postulate right on here :
Photo by Nikki Cervone © inquire the Experts , LLC .
ALL right hand RESERVED.See our TOSfor more detail .
primitively publish on April 13th , 2017 .
Last update March 16th , 2023 .
This was retool and inflate from an original clause by linsey knerl .
merchandise photograph via Arbico Organics , Eden Brothers , and Home Depot .
Uncredited picture : Shutterstock .
About
Kristina Hicks - Hamblin
