Let your melons go to seed…and see what you get!
September 25, 2013
You may or may not know that when you plant a hybrid cultivar, and you allow that cultivar to go to seed, that those seeds will end up growing into progeny that may look nothing like the parent plant. Heirloom, open pollinated varieties will come "true from seed", however. 'Green Zebra' tomato for example is an open pollinated tomato variety. When you save seed from the fruit and replant them next season, you'll get 'Green Zebra' tomatoes. Not so if you save seed from 'Celebrity' tomato, an F1 hybrid. Your resulting seedlings from 'Celebrity' seeds will exhibit charactaristics from the parents of 'Celebrity', but may look nothing like 'Celebrity'. Such is the case with my rogue melon seedlings, which planted themsleves all over my garden from last years dwarf hybrid 'Faerie' watermelon.
These super cute teeny tiny watermelons have been producing in my garden all summer long. They came up anywhere and everywhere, all over my front garden. The vines only reach about 3' to 4' long, an the melons are palm-sized. The flesh is yellow when mature with pink flesh. Now these little buggers have a lot of seeds, but the flavor is great. Hmmm...wonder what will come of their seeds next year? I call it 'Too Cute'. LOL
