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Princeton Kentucky

Just a curious question. What would you veteran melon growers consider to be a normal Watermelon bloom size across the petals? My daughter and I walked up to the grafted 260.5 Clementz plant yesteday and I about fell over because of the bloom sizes on it. They are right at 3" across. There appears to be no main vine on this plant but its a perfect spider like structered plant..near perfect set vines going out, 20 plus vines. I had melon plants last year and they were nowhere this size. This plant is grafted on my est 801 AG whether that has anything to do with it, I have no clue, I'm just curious to hear what you all know to be normal size in watermelon blooms or what yours is measuring to date. I'm going to post pics today after they open up ....if the storms allow it,lol. Thanks

6/15/2014 8:30:39 AM

sevierville, Tn

i have never measured a flower size, but they are normally no where near 3" in size !

6/15/2014 8:35:02 AM

Princeton Kentucky

Thats what I thought, no where near that 3" size. The flower is normal looking both male and female. I've pulled some females already and boy they were good length melons. I'm going to measure total vine length here in a bit and probably start setting nice looking ones.

6/15/2014 8:59:00 AM

sevierville, Tn

the largest i could find was 1 3/4 inches across

6/15/2014 11:29:16 AM

Muddy Waters

I have never gave the melon size much merit.Why does it matter the fruit size?We dont measure the pumpkins??Just asking.

6/15/2014 11:30:17 AM

Corryton, TN

I agree with you on the size doesn't seem to matter when comparing plant A to plant B. My records show that it does seem to matter when comparing female size on the same plant. Smaller ones don't usually make the grade at 15 days. I keep trying to prove this wrong but I nearly always end up with the longer females at day 15. In a way we do measure pumpkins. Seems most growers would prefer 5 lobes over 4 or 3 on the same plant.

6/15/2014 11:59:22 AM

Cameron

"This plant is grafted on my est 801 AG whether that has anything to do with it"???

Did you graft it to an AG?

6/16/2014 4:43:54 PM

Bethlehem CT

Great job Joseph, it will be great if you can bring it to the finish line. Keep an eye on that stump.

6/16/2014 4:51:50 PM

Princeton Kentucky

Thanks Chris, Mark I personaly don't think theres any link to bloom size versus melon size outcome.........with that said, I must also state that both the AG seed and seedling and your 260.5 melon seed was treated with Benzylaminopurine 99% prior to grafting and to date. BAP is a 1st generation synthetic cytokinin that highly promotes plant growth and development responses when in the flowering stages hits it highly promotes cell division and in fruit setting stages enhances fruit capacities in numbers (volume) and "Hopefully" size of fruit. Not trying to per say prove these larger blooms mean larger fruit but was just curious what you all thought a regular or normal size melon bloom measured for a type of standardization for me. Just took a couple of pics, we had some bad storms and every time I think of taking pics its after noon and the flowers are closed up. The melons its setting are considerably larger than I've seen also, not saying I think they are special its just I am impressed personally and the plant is putting out two female flowers on almost every leaf side 6 ft out on all the vines...is that Normal in itself? lol.. I've also treated 2 AG plants with Ben-6 and I'm not even going to discuss how big those plants are,lol. Tomatoes are a whole nother story...growin is fun!!

6/17/2014 3:33:07 PM

Princeton Kentucky

Jane & phil I did graft marks 260.5 with a Dills Atlantic Giant. The plant is doing good and beginning just now to put out tresh vines @ 100 total ft of vine so far. Big Blooms, Big Melon Sets..can't wait to see what this thing does in the end..no one needs to worry though,lol just havin fun.

6/17/2014 3:40:04 PM

Princeton Kentucky

OK this will be my last post on this particular subject for your alls well being,lol. Sorry for the blurry pics. Will get some better early morning pics where the blooms are over 3" across on there own. Females and males are about the same size. Thanks for everyones input, I live such a closed sheltered life evidently to think this is an interesting subject. Good Luck All!!
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=219529

6/17/2014 4:05:03 PM

sevierville, Tn

Joseph, i have seen 2 females back to back on a vine, but its rare. in my experience, size maters only when the female is too small. there seems to be a certain minium size to get a good final fruit. I never get the "big" femnales many growers get.

6/17/2014 6:02:44 PM

Cameron

Cool. We look forward to seeing your results. Good luck.

Jane & Phil

6/19/2014 11:31:17 AM