Jun 17, 2008 4 min read

It’s summertime! Watermelon time!

Watermelons grow really well in the South, where long, hot summers are ideal for growing many kinds of watermelons, such as the Charleston Grays, melons that can reach 35 pounds, and the unusually marked Moon and Stars.

However, there are a few varieties of “icebox”-size watermelons that grow and mature quickly enough for Northern gardeners.

Usually, I start my watermelon seeds indoors three weeks before I put them out into the garden to help speed things up, but I didn’t get to do that this year — so I’ll be planting mine right in the ground this summer.

I’ve done very well with the Sugar Baby in the past. It’s a sweet, red-fleshed watermelon with few seeds that reaches maturity in about 75-80 days. Fruits get to be about 12 pounds.

New Queen Hybrid is an All-America Selections winner that also matures in about 75 days. These 5-to-7-pound melons have orange flesh.

A variety I want to try next year is called Triple Crown Hybrid. It matures in about 65 days, is reported to be high yielding and produces 18-to-20-pound melons.

Renee’s Garden offers in one packet a trio of watermelon varieties I like, with yellow, orange and pink flesh. She calls the mix Rainbow Sherbet. It’s fun to cut into these 4-to-7-pound icebox melons to see what color you get.

Watermelons, Citrullus lanatus, have been grown for thousands of years. Believed to have originated in central Africa, they were grown by the ancient Egyptians – and their cultivation spread across the Middle East to India and eventually China, as well as up into Europe and warmer parts of Russia.

Wild varieties can be sweet or bitter. And in some parts of the world, watermelons serve as an important source of water. Watermelons were brought to the Americas and were grown in Massachusetts as early as 1629. By the mid-1600s, they were being grown in Florida.

Watermelons range in shape from round to oblong, and rind color can vary from light green to nearly black, which can be solid in color, striped, marbled or have splotches. The flesh of watermelon can be red, pink, orange, yellow or white. Seeds can be black, brown, red, white, green or speckled. Seedless watermelons have thin, undeveloped seed structures that are edible.

Watermelons like the heat of summer. As a rule, you need to give watermelons a fair amount of space to grow, but there are bush varieties you can grow that are more compact in habit.

I’ve found it really helpful to use black plastic as mulch for watermelons. It helps ensure the soil stays nice and warm, and also blocks weeds.

But I’ve also planted melon seeds in well-mulched perennial beds and allowed them to ramble where they will.

While they are related, watermelons will not cross-pollinate with pumpkin, squash or cucumber.

But if you grow a seedless variety of watermelon, you must grow a seeded variety alongside for pollination, because seedless watermelons are hybrids that are self-sterile.

There are many ways to select a ripe watermelon – thumping them is not the best method.

Instead, look for the surface color to be a bit dull; the bottom of the melon, where it rested on the ground, should have a yellowish color; and the rind should be slightly rough and resistant to penetration of your fingernail.

Depending on what part of the watermelon you’re eating, watermelon can be considered both a fruit and a vegetable. I enjoy eating them as a sweet fruit dessert, but some people pickle the rinds, and, in parts of China, the rind is used like a vegetable in stir-fry and stews.

Some people around the world also roast and eat watermelon seeds.

Watermelons have high water content – around 92 percent – and they are good for you.

A two-cup serving has only 80 calories, and is an excellent source of vitamins A, B6 and C, potassium and lycopene. In fact, watermelon has more lycopene than fresh tomatoes.

Mark Twain once called watermelon the “chief of the world’s luxuries.”

I don’t know about it being a luxury, but on a hot summer day, a cool slice of watermelon is certainly a real pleasure.

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Susan Brimo-Cox gardens, observes nature and writes in Ohiopyle.

Readers can send questions or comments to her at naturesgarden@brimo-cox.com.