Those that have followed us on Facebook for a while know how much I love my watermelons. I pride myself in growing them. This year we tried a new variety and I absolutely LOVE it! The plant was super healthy and had absolutely no pest or disease issues. It got MASSIVE for a watermelon vine and when you see the size of these watermelons, you'll understand why. The best part of it all.....they are extremely sweet and flavorful! This is just ONE of our so many watermelons out there. Picked at just the perfect time.

What you want to look for when determining when to harvest your watermelon is the 'spoon' leaf and the tendril closest to the stem of the melon. Follow the melon stem down to the vine. You should see a very small leaf that is cup or spoon shaped, unlike the rest of the leaves on the vine. You'll also see a curly tendril (that thin wild strand looking thing that the plant uses to grab on to things so it can climb and move).

When the watermelon is ready BOTH the spoon leaf and tendril will have browned, dried, and shriveled. If there is any green left at all, it's not ready. If they are missing, then the chances are that they dried up already and fell off. This is the best way to determine if it is ready.

A lot of people will tell you to look at the underside for a yellow spot but this is not the best method because if the watermelon shifted, or you moved it at all during the growing process, the yellow spot will move too and once light hits it, it becomes green again. Also, some watermelons (like the one we just grew) don't get a yellow spot. Some get a white spot but if the watermelon is of light color like what we grew, it's hard to see. The tried and true method we at Kindred Acres use, is the dried spoon and tendril. We also recommend not watering for several days before harvest. If you notice the spoon starting to yellow, this would be your indication that they will start to brown soon so skillfully withdraw from watering if possible but don't allow the plant to stress out either. Balance is the key. That is the beauty of growing in a no-dig BTE garden. It stays evenly damp but not wet and certainly not dry almost alway.

Check out this bad boy! This is called Ali Baba watermelon. It is AMAZINGLY sweet and so full of flavor! The seeds from this one will be available in our Etsy shop ( https://www.etsy.com/shop/KindredAcres ) once they have properly dried and are ready to ship.

This watermelon was so unbelievably heavy....FULL of juice. I am so super impressed with this one. We will for sure be growing this variety again. This was grown in a no-dig garden. The seeds were started in pots of our homemade compost mixed with a little of our homemade activated bio-char. It clearly loved it all.

No part of the melons go to waste here. We make popsicles (watermelon-mint is so refreshing on a hot summer day! So is watermelon-basil), watermelon juice, cubed watermelon, fermented watermelon rinds, we save seeds, the pets get some, and on and on. Nothing goes to waste. We have quite a few more of these out in the garden so there will definitely be no shortage of watermelons this year.

If you have a favorite watermelon variety you would like to see us grow, leave us a comment below! Please feel free to ask any questions you might have! We love to help and to hear from you!

With lots of love
Kindred Acres

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