Late season watermelon

[Butzmark]

This year my watermelons are thriving late in the season. I suppose it's the varieties. I've never grown these before. I've got yellow doll and orange sunshine seedless. I highly recommend both. The yellow doll does fine for a pollinator and produces a great melon. I'm in Ohio, zone 5. The quality seems to have diminished in the fall picked melons. It's grainier, and the yellow and orange flesh, respectively is not as bright. I picked when the tendril by the fruit dried up, summer and fall. I think the leaf cover is not as heavy. Any ideas why, and if there's anything I could do differently if I get a long season next year?

[Dwayne]

1. I plant mine indoors a month before time to plant them outside. Any longer than that and the tap root gets confused, doesn't do its job and you have to water them all the time.

1. Don't put them outside until the temp is going to stay around or above,

60 all the time. Cold weather stunts the watermelon plants growth and sets it back for a couple of weeks.

I have seen nothing in writing about the first of these recommendations, but it has been my experience that both are true.

[farmerdill]

I have found that the quality of watermelon diminishes as the day shortens. They apparently the need the extra hours of sunlight to develop maximum sugars.