Growing watermelon in south FL summer?

[Julie]

Paul Nison posted a video awhile back about growing watermelon during the South FL summer.  He mentioned georgia rattlesnake as the variety in the comments.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  What month should I plant the seeds?  What varieties have you grown?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B66tq72O2Z8

[1rainman]

Georgia rattlesnake is one of the best tasting but any watermelon will do great. The key is massive amounts of water. If you don't water them the plant will grow but the fruit will die or be small at best. They also grow well in low lying swampy areas which few plants grow in. You can flood the entire field for short periods of time. The largest watermelon farm in the united states is south Florida around arcadia. Also the heat doesn't bother them and they like sandy soil. Florida is ideal for watermelon though they grow just about anywhere.

[Julie]

thank you, what month should I plant the seeds in?

[Galatians522]

thank you, what month should I plant the seeds in?

February is the traditional month to plant watermelon in this part of the state. I'm not sure if that is because they are trying to hit the early market or if there are fewer diseases durring the dry season.

[roblack]

GA rattlesnake seeds arrived, going to plant in next few days and see how it goes.

[Julie]

GA rattlesnake seeds arrived, going to plant in next few days and see how it goes.

lol, same here!

[roblack]

=)

[Daintree]

Well, they ARE from Africa, after all. So you think they'd grow like weeds down in Florida.

[Pan Dulce]

When I was at UF, getting my Hort Science undergrad, the most interesting watermelon research (to me) was grafting seedless watermelon cultivars to squash rootstocks. Grafting to Cucurbita maxima Duchesne × Cucurbita moschata Duchesne was studied as well as grafting to Cucurbita moschata. Both helped limit root and crown diseases. Research was done at a few of the big watermelon producers fields on west coast of Florida.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS1257

[roblack]

Soaked and sowed GA rattlesnakes. Plan on keeping 2 or 3 vines only, cull the rest. Going to plant some peanuts in there too (Thanks Dan!)

The area gets more sunshine than shown in pic, and can trim or take out a rogue papaya plant to add more light,.

[roblack]

Planted seeds yesterday, and saw this Black Diamond plant(s) today at HD and decided to throw it in there. My 13 year old, for just a few moments, thought our seeds sprouted overnight. Priceless LOL

[Galatians522]

Planted seeds yesterday, and saw this Black Diamond plant(s) today at HD and decided to throw it in there. My 13 year old, for just a few moments, thought our seeds sprouted overnight. Priceless LOL

It will be interesting to compare heat/mildew tollerence between the two varieties. Let us know how it goes.