watermelon going insane

[Pat]

One of my sugar babies is getting bigger and bigger, and I don't know if it's ready to pick or if I should let it grow. It is the biggest sugar baby I have ever seen - larger than many regular melons. No idea what I did right with this one, I have other melons in the same garden that just died out.

The stem where it attaches to the vine has not shriveled at all, and the sound when I knock on it is "pank". I don't want to pick it before it's ripe, but I'm afraid of waiting too long. We have another month of frost-free time left here.

Please advise if you can!

Thanks....

[Dwayne]

Pick it up and hold it in one hand while you hit it with the other. If you can feel the vibration you made, that is a good sign it is ready. Check the tendril and associated leaf growing closest to where the stem meets the melon. If they have died and dried out, that is a good sign. Look at the underside. If it has turned yellow (if I remember correctly Sugar Baby will turn yellow - others get white) that is a good sign. Just remember, I am the guy who tries all these things and still gets it wrong sometimes.

Dwayne

[FarmerDill]

a suggar baby is one of the most difficult watermelons to tell if they are ripe. Most times a dead curl (tendril attached to vinewher the watermelon connects is a dead givaway) but not on a true sugarbaby. On the other hand a Sugar Baby doen't get over 15 lbs so I suspect that you have something else. They will normally be ripe about six weeks after they set on the vine and the gloss will will turn to a dull finish. There should be a yellowing of the underbelly where it lays on the ground. It will quit growing several weeks before it is ripe.

[Pat]

Well the seed came from a package labelled "sugar baby". It hasn't quit growing but there is a yellow spot on the bottom, the color is dull and the vine tendril has not dried. So I guess I ought to pick it now.

Thank you!

[Dwayne]

I would wait until the tendril has dried, but in any case, let us know how it came out.

Dwayne

[brickled]

i've grown this variety and had the melons get nearly twice the size as they are reported to. sadly, the individual melons that got larger never got ripe before the first frost.

[Pat]

I've never seen anything like this, the vine started indoors in early May, set out in soil in late May, had flowers by late June and started getting fruit in early July. The melon in question first appeared about 7 weeks ago. There are others on the same vine that have been growing longer but haven't gotten nearly as big.