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Post by Yoris on Dec 3, 2018 21:44:31 GMT -7
So, in 2015, I grew a Red-seeded Citron watermelon plant (started in an 18-ounce foam cup indoors under fluorescent lights, grown huge indoors, damaged while hardening off such that it came to have no leaves and be pruned back; it grew new leaves inside again, miraculously; I transplanted it in an area with black plastic and muskmelons, and it grew phenomenally, with 15 to 17 fruits or so). Anyway, I saved seeds from one fruit, but several of the other fruits got thrown out after ages in storage in a room where a freezer had thawed and spread bacteria all over the place. Those fruits took over a year to decompose. Anyway, none of the seeds from the fruits I put outside volunteered until 2018, in an area newly covered with leaf mulch. Being volunteers, they got a late start. They suffered from spider mites much more than their parent. The plants produced about five small fruits, with no watering or care, in tough soil. Recently, one of the fruits softened; so, I cut it open today, and we ate it. I noticed that unlike the parent plant's fruits, this smelled like regular watermelon. The white flesh was much softer and somewhat different, with seeds that weren't as richly red. It still wasn't sweet, but was very edible (and only took one sitting to eat the whole fruit, which felt very healthy and invigorating). It didn't have much taste, but I liked the texture. Anyway, I don't know if it was a cross with another watermelon in 2015, but I have my doubts due to the rind being the same, and the fruits being smaller instead of larger (but you never know). The seeds aren't as bright red as the parent's. I saved the seeds. Here are some pictures from today: [HASH]citronwatermelon
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