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Some of the watermelon (lemmy.nz)
submitted 2 days ago by RBWells@lemmy.world to c/gardening@lemmy.world
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Got near a hundred mini watermelon this year, the very late ones were no good but for a couple months they were glorious. Mini love variety, it was a brutally hot summer and they flourished, I let them take over the whole garden.

Two plants survived being overrun by watermelon, the asparagus and the hong tsoi. I'm sort of resting it until "spring" which is planted around Feb here.

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[-] The_v@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

It's always fun to see post like this.

I hope you like the name of the variety "Mini Love", I named it and made the decision to launch it from the breeding program to commercialization.

A few fun things about the variety.

The variety was created in Thailand by a naughty young plant breeder who ignored managements directions and had a bit of fun. Management was quite annoyed with me when I launched it as the breeders very first commercial variety. Genetically it's a tropically adapted hybrid variety with excellent tolerance to fungi.

It has several dwarf genes that decreases the plant size by around 50% versus traditional watermelons. Most other personal sized watermelons are on massive vines that look like a hedge at the end of the season.

The first customer was a large greenhouse that sold plants into the UK. They liked the variety because it grafted very well onto Cucubita maxima x C. moschata rootstock. It also set fruit and matured very early and was one of the few watermelons that could survive in the UK.

The name was almost rejected in the E.U. because using descriptors of the variety is prohibited in the naming. A quick thinking young lady in admin managed to convince them the "mini" didn't refer to its size (it totally did), but to small love (emotion). Pretty shitty argument in my opinion but they fell for it.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Wow! Mr. or Ms. Mini Love themsef!

Yes on resistance to fungus - I spray it once, mid-season, with dilute elemental copper and that's all. And yep, almost a hundred fruit in 400 sq feet of garden, I've grown it before but this year just let it take over, it was too dry for okra, which is the usual winner in summer here.

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

What's ironic is the variety was bred for the high intensity production in Thailand. They seed one plant per 1 sq ft. They only harvest 1 fruit per plant.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I only planted about 6 seeds and got nearly 100 melons, this was an exceptional year for them. Probably 25% loss because it flooded eventually and of course a few tried climbing and they are too heavy for that. Usually I get maybe 25-30 over the whole season.

They are so sweet that even after it started raining daily they were still great. Such a sturdy variety.

One plant per sq foot I can't imagine. Compact for a watermelon but they still sprawl, and pollination gets better and better through the season, bees were still trying at the end.

[-] stiephelando@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

Do they do well in hydroponics?

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

No watermelon does really well in hydroponics. They can tolerate it but they don't really like it.

[-] crenquis@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

Need a collective noun for watermelon... With your pic, perhaps a rack of watermelon (sideboard of watermelon)

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

A rack of watermelon is so funny because boobs. I vote for that.

Next year also trying piel del sapo but historically every other melon or squash is only a trap crop, and these Mini Love survive - bugs hit them too but they grow so fast still get many (and delicious) melons.

[-] crenquis@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

Perfect. My innocent mind never went in that direction... (so disappointed in myself)

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Piel de sapo (Toad Skin) is from the arid regions of Spain. Commonly grown in the Almeria region under greenhouses. The old OP variety is susceptible to just about everything. Some of the newer varieties are more disease resistant. They are 100% grafted in Spain because of widespread MNSV in the soil. So they have some pretty shitty root systems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon_necrotic_spot_virus

You might have better luck with a canaries melon. They are often grown in tropical regions and tend to be a bit more resistant to fungal diseases.

If you have severe cucumber or squash beetle infestation, look into some netting. Of course under netting fungal diseases are much worse.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Squash bugs, yeah. I haven't lost anything to fungus but do the mid-season spray when I do the annual spray of my citrus trees. Main growing season is not summer! More things grow in winter here. So depending on how hot they need to be, might be able to get them set before the rains. We have days over 70 most all year but lows in Jan/Feb sometimes near freezing, sometimes not - last year a freak double tap freeze killed my spring garden but that is unusual. Left me wishing I had planted some collards.

Worst case I guess it will be next year's trap crop - this year I tried the Natsu Cocoa and oof the bugs loved those, did not get even one. I do love the mini love ones though, so delicious and very enthusiastic about setting fruit.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Nice haul! Not many places you can grow Watermelon without critters getting to them before ripeness.

this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
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