Newspaper articles are appearing lamenting the loss of seeded watermelons. First, it was The New York Times and now The Washington Post with an August 31, 2010 article entitled "Watermelons: What happened to the seeds?" by Jane Black (is that a real name?). The comments on the article are interesting to read. I agree with some of the comments that there are good seedless melons. I have grown some but they were difficult to grow an d the seeds were expensive. This argument that seeds are a choking hazard is bizarre.
Well, the seeded watermelon is alive and well growing in gardens in Indiana and Kentucky. Maybe on a smaller scale but they are being grown. This season I grew mostly Charleston Gray but also Crimson Sweet and maybe some sort of Jubliee striped melon. The great thing about seeded melons for the gardener is they provide you the seeds for future seasons to grow more melons.
Crop production for my small gardens probably will reach 450 pounds gross weight harvested. The melon in these pictures weighs a little over 40 pounds. After cutting this watermelon up and placing it containers in the refrigerator, I washed the table off. Small pieces of watermelon still remained with all the seeds and soon butterflies appeared to eat the watermelon sugar left on the table. So neat!
