Its Watermelon Time on HOP Farm

hopfarmnc (60)in #homesteading • 6 years ago

It was time to go ahead and harvest the watermelons. With all the rain we've been getting lately a few of them started to crack and break open. We ended up getting 18 edible watermelons out of a 30 foot by 30 foot area. There were 6 watermelons that had cracked open because of all the recent rain. We just fed those to the pigs.

Over three months ago we planted the watermelon plants. To get the area ready for planting we cut the grass as low as possible. Then we laid cardboard in a 30-foot by 30-foot area. On top of the cardboard we put a layer of compost and then a layer of double ground mulch. cardboard compost and mulch will help smother and kill out the grass and weeds and gave the watermelons a big head start.

The Watermelons were progressing quite well. This is the first year I've been successful at growing watermelons so it was exciting for me to watch them grow. I did have to pull a few early because they started rotting and I didn't want that rott to spread.

So this 30 by 30 area produced about one watermelon per square foot. But after I factor in the loss it came to just over one watermelon per two square feet. The heaviest watermelon is about 12 pounds and the lightest one is around 4 pounds.

A couple of the smaller melons had cracks in them so I went ahead and busted them open and started eating! They're very sweet and of course juicy. I'm thinking about making some wine out of a couple of them. Does anybody have any experience in making watermelon wine? I would love to hear about it if you do.