What's your favorite watermelon variety to grow? Let us know! SHOP LAZY DOG FARM FIG TREES: lazydogfarm.com/collections/fig-trees 0:00 Intro 0:45 Waiting for Our Onions to Fall Over 2:23 How to Tell When Onions Are Ready to Harvest 3:15 How Do You Prevent Onions from Flowering? 5:47 How Are Seedless Watermelon Seeds Made? 8:13 Why Do We Prefer Seedless Watermelon? 9:24 What Watermelon Varieties Are We Growing? 12:25 Germination Tips for Seedless Watermelon 14:41 Starting Seedless Watermelon Seeds in Trays
With the bigger seeds, I've taken a liking to germinating them in a moist paper towel. Fold up the paper towel with your seeds in the folds, run it through water, squeeze out the excess water, then place inside an open ziplock bag on top of a heat mat. When they germinate, place it flat in soil and cover. Works every time. Love the videos!
I do something similar (though never with seedless watermelons), but I use a plastic tub with a clear top rather than a ziploc bag. More air seems to be better. I don't always have a scrap of cloth handy, but cloth also seems to be less prone to molding than a paper towel.
I’ve been thinking about starting with paper towels on most of my seeds, try to save a little on my starter mix and not have it wet as long. I have a problem with the green stuff on top with seedlings that take a long time to germinate.
Fun story on the bolting onions... I had some that got grown up with weeds year before last, and I missed harvesting them. I planted them somewhere more convenient when I found them, and as expected for second year onions, they bolted. But... I clipped the scapes and just let them sit. When I pulled them in late summer, they had set new bulbs. Out of curiosity, I replanted a few bulbs late last fall, and they look gorgeous this spring, though they're bolting again. I'm going to give them the same treatment and see how that works out.
I planted Chianti onions last fall after seeing yours and man they are some great onions . I have a few hundred of them growing . I pulled just a few last week and what a nice color and taste they have . They’re not showing any sign of bolting and are still growing. I already ordered more seeds for this fall .
Seedless grape breeders cross pollinate two varieties, and use an embryo rescue technique to create plantlets from the seed traces present in seedless grapes, before the developing embryo is aborted. For example, the Cotton Candy seedless grape variety was created by cross pollinating a seedless Princess grape with a Concord seedling. Complicated but the breeders make millions off the patented varieties they create.
@@LazyDogFarm I haven't tried them, just read the breeding history. The breeding company in California(International Fruit Genetics) obtained the Concord seedling breeding material from the University of Arkansas. Only select growers are allowed to grow them plus the variety is patented. I've heard it's not that good, mainly sweet with little other flavor. I can grow table grapes here but most varieties break dormancy too quick and get killed to the ground almost every year. The ones that do grow well, rarely live longer than 5-6 years before Pierce's Disease kills them. I still grow them just for the chance year where they're really good.
Ive been growing a garden as an adult for almost 20 years and my family had a garden growing up... the thought of only watering seeds once gives me so much anxiety 😂😂 imma trust your advice and as a Gator girl, hell i might even buy a dogs bucket for extra luck 😂😂🤦♀️
I went searching because I couldn't remember when you started your onion seeds and you've had your channel for two years already. I can't believe it's been that long already!
I direct sowed my watermelon and cantaloupe today. I'm only growing about four watermelon plants and about four cantaloupe. Crimson sweet and sugar baby watermelon and Hales jumbo cantaloupe. With my onions were that big, but they never got enough sun in the beginning.
We always direct sow our watermelon and cantaloupes. Never had a problem with germination, we’re in 8a. We grow Crimson Sweet & Sugar babies as well. I forget which cantaloupe variety we planted this year. It was a different one than the two previous years that didn’t produce too well. Good luck with your melons!
Travis, Onions look amazing ! Trying watermelon again this year with Johnny's "Starlight" icebox type. I don't mind the seeds. Thanks for the video and tips on growing, all the best.
Your onions look terrific! I have two varieties of watermelon this year; a red one (strawberry) for my husband, and a yellow one (Leealanu) for me. Neither is a seedless variety, like what you grow. Thanks for doing this video. Best wishes from Kate in Olympia, WA - 4/23/2023.
Kate, I’m in Olympia too! You have success with watermelons in our area? Any tips would be much appreciated. I see mostly the small watermelon starts at the store and tried several years ago. No success. Where did you get your seeds, how and when did you germinate and any special growing conditions? Winnie
Hi, Winnie. MOST of the time I have success... not always! Our marine climate can be rather cool at times. Seeds were started indoors on 3/5. They were placed under grow lights in the dining area. The plants were subsequently potted up on 5/1. They will be hardened off between 5/24-31. If the 10-day forecast shows it is safe, the plants will go in the ground on 6/1 - or shortly thereafter. That places the growing season for melons at our hottest time - Mid June to the end of August... if you can call 75-85F hot!🤪. Got my seeds from Baker Creek. Good luck to you in your garden. Best wishes, Kate - 5/5/2023.
Tray marking tip. Use wide yellow tape and black permanent marker on the side of the tray. Won't have to worry about markers falling out and makes the trays easier to wrap.
I tried growing watermelons last year and the germ was terrible. I tried again, using plastic wrap. Much better germination that time. I have a tray wrapped right now, and will be removing the wrap tomorrow. Great advice!
I agree about how tough it is to get seedless watermelon to germinate. I planted Tailgate seedless watermelon along with Sangria seeded watermelon this year. I had 100% germination on the Sangria, but only 3 of 16 seedless ones germinated. Still hoping for a few more to germinate, but I'm afraid that's it. Not a total skunk, but a partial one. I won't give up. I did use a heat mat and a humidity dome, but I'll give your other tips a try next year.
We are putting ours (Joyride F1 from Morgan County) inside our chick incubator. It's a Brinsea Ovation 56 and we are using 6 pack cells and adding a dish of water for humidity because of the fan which could dry them out to much.
We pulled them out of the incubator yesterday after 7 days. We got 7 sprouts from 10 seeds. One sprout might not be viable. I took a photo and I am attempting to add it to this comment.
Have you tried using a wetting agent when starting seeds? I used Eden Blue Gold Base Blend for my corinto and excelsior cucumbers and I had germination overnight. I’ve also trialed using just a little bit of Dr. Bronner’s soap when initially watering my seed starts and they pop so fast! The Blue Gold is something you will have to wait for, but the Dr. Soap can be found easily. It’s kind of the same theory of using the Dr. Bronner’s with neem oil. You need something that will stick the water on what it touches.
Travis, I'm gonna need some “watermelon time” with them sweet boys when these get ripe! 😂❤😂❤😂 Before ya know it, your beautiful baby girl will be a sweet sticky mess with her big brothers. Stay awesome and blessed sweet family. Love, hugs and blessings ~ Lisa
I don’t know about watermelon seeds. Mine germinate fine. For me the hardest seeds I’ve germinated so far would be passion fruit seeds. Especially when you don’t have fresh fruit to work with but dried seeds via mail which have a low germination rate. I scarify mine but of all the scarified seeds I’ve grown they are still top of the list in low germination rates. Watermelons in general are not a beginner crop to try first time with no gardening experience as your first grow. Edit: yes I have a temperature controlled and lighting controlled germination station so I’m speaking from that perspective about what I find more difficult even with having that type of setup.
Good info. Would you consider doing a similar video on germinating the Super hot peppers. I get close to 100% germination on bell peppers, but closer to 25% on my super hots. They too are very expensive seeds and I'd like to do better.
I was surprised you did not grow any Orange Krush again this year. I will say this about watermelons.... it has been my experience they take longer than I expected to pop when germinating. Give them time if you don't see results as fast as expected. We had 100% germination on 3 or the 4 varieties I planted this year and 90% on the 4th. But they were slow and I thought they would never start! Slower than my peppers (two varieties were the last of my early season starts to germinate, but those 2 came in at 100% once they got going).
We are supposed to get some cold this weekend in Arkansas. It may be coming your way next week.Not sure.. My garden is doing so good. It would break my heart to loose all my work.
I'm in Fayetteville and just covered everything a couple of hours ago. Actual freezing temperatures aren't called for, but the forecast would only have to be off by a couple of degrees to get frost. Travis is probably safe all the way down there in south Georgia. It's very nice to have covers, as long as you don't plant more than you can cover. I expect to be able to put the rest of my tomatoes out early next week.
@@bobbun9630 It looked like we were ok with the forecast but the next day is colder. My garden is tiny so everything is tucked together and kind of protected. I'll feel it out for today. The weather has certainly been strange the last 2 years.
All I planted this year was sugar babies, so we'll be spittin seeds, but we don't mind that. I like Jubilees too but the plants get too big for our small garden.
Question. So if I would like to keep tops like to freeze dry them can I cut tops off and lions still grow with out harvesting them . Like cut them when still green.
He starts from seeds and transplants in November. I tried that for the first time this year and my onions didn't deal with the three hard frosts we got here as well as Travis' did. I'll get some good ones but several have just done nothing.
Where do you get your DP Sweet onion seed? I started 3 red seedless and 3 yellow seedless, all 3 red geminated, not a single one of the yellow's geminated.
Yes, you can get seeds from it and you can save them if it's an open-pollinated variety. We grow hybrids, so we don't save any onion seeds. Also, onion seeds are dirt cheap and not really worth saving IMO.