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formerly RGG

My remaining 197 has produced several melons and I am now down to 2 on it. One has the normal dark green stripes but the area that usually has a very light shade of green is nearly as dark as the stripes. It looks like it has been crossed with a Mountain Hoosier. The shape of the melon is very blocky and pleasing. It is now about 10" long and a bit over 6" wide and seems to be growing well but maybe not as fast as the other melon on the vine. Everything else on the vine so far has looked normal. I noticed no discoloration on this odd one when I pollinated it with a 171. Have any of you other growers ever seen anything similar to this ? Any theories as to why this vine would produce a lone odd colored melon ? I mean I could start to understand if all the melons on this vine had the same dark color. What is going on here ?

6/20/2012 9:34:28 PM

Alabama

Dennis, I have a friend I compete against here in Alabama. and his CC melons are very dark green, he gets his seeds from mutiple sources, could it be something in the soil or a freak gene? no way to tell.

When I was growing Black Diamonds commercially in Arkansas I had one plant that put out all white skinned melons, I grew it for several years then lost the seeds I am still kicking myself in the butt over that.

I have two of the freak CC/Black Diamond crosses that showed up in my patch in 2007 growing this year. I hope to bring one to Bear Wallow or Allardt so everyone can see.

6/21/2012 9:13:55 AM

formerly RGG

Thanks Cliff, I eliminated that particular melon this morning. The other one on the vine is normal color and it was just as fat and it was also longer and they pollinated on the same day. So I had to go with the largest melon. I also noticed that David Cantrell had a melon or two last year that were a little on the dark side. I guess it is just one of those things.

6/21/2012 10:16:08 AM

Watervalley Ms

I grew the 165 cantrell this year the plant has died, all the melons on it looked like a cobb jim.

6/22/2012 12:04:56 AM