A lucky melon

Never judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a watermelon by the plant it's growing on. My golden midget watermelon plant was a day or two away from being completely done. Almost every leaf was yellow and half were brown and rotting. The one melon on the plant was only a month old and still had streaks of green in its skin. But the real blow came when I accidentally knocked the melon out of its sling and it ripped the vine holding it on the plant. It was still hanging on but only by a small part of the vine. So I figured it was time to pick this melon to see what it looked like inside.

The description on the seed packet claimed early 3 lb melons and 70 day maturity. My melon weighed just over 3 lbs, was just under 6 inches in diameter, and counting back on the calendar... 70 days seems about right also (I can't recall exactly when I planted this one). Despite the size, I thought this melon was a write-off. But when I cut into into it I was pleasantly surprised. It was juicy and solid. The white on the rind was not overly thick and internally there was lots of symmetry. All the seeds had matured. I counted 38 in just one quarter. Visually it looked like a good melon.

The taste was ok, but not perfect. It certainly had a nice watermelon taste with some sweetness but with another week or two to ripen, and perhaps if the plant had not aborted so early, it would have been sweeter. Still, I have purchased melons from grocers that were no better and even worse. I wish there had been more of these on my plant. A 3 lb watermelon doesn't last long around here.