Okay, so i'm going to share my most current project and the one i am currently most interested in right now. And even though it is still early in the project i feel like i am already having a lot of success with it so far. Bear with me as i try to copy some of the more interesting info and pictures from the other forum.
But basically in a nutshell i started letting citron melons naturally start crossing with my watermelon landrace and at the point i saw that citron melons no longer had red seeds i knew they were either F1 or F2 hybrid seeds with domestic sweet wateremelons. My main objectives for this project are:
1. to breed a genetically superior watermelon that thrives in poor (often clayish nutrient lacking dry) soil here in Northern Colorado, USA.
2. to breed a watermelon that is frost tolerant if possible
3. to possibly start a sub-project of breeding a "winter watermelon" or "storage watermelon" that ripens fully in 3-5 months and reaches it's peak sweetness and color at that stage.
4. to breed cool flesh-seed color combinations and rind combinations not commonly seen in domestic watermelon.
https://keen101.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/new-watermelon-breeding-project-2018-and-beyond/
Oct 29, 2017 at 9:09pm:
Embarking on a new breeding project. Finally have confirmed crossed seeds from some red-seeded citrons with the landrace watermelons. Had a few red seeds collected from the ones i planted last season. This season the seeds were NOT red. They were all crazy colors and patterns. Some black-red, some pure black, some gray, some mottled brownish, etc. Originally wanted to do this cross because i wanted watermelons with red seeds and watermelons with frost tolerance. The citrons are supposed to be frost tolerant, though not edible. The fruits really are white rock hard flesh with no flavor. But i'm optimistic i can select something cool out of these eventually. I noticed the citrons did very well this year in my climate and soil and even produce nice full size fruits even when crowded by other watermelon plants. I think these are genetics worth folding into my watermelon landrace and/or creating a separate breeding project. Looking forward to seeing what these do.
20170927_175812 by
Andrew Barney, on Flickr
20170927_175805 by
Andrew Barney, on Flickr