Last summer I bought a few unique melons from the farmer’s market. I had no clue what they were called or what they would taste like. As I recall, they had white to yellow flesh and were all very sweet. I saved the seeds from each, without knowing what I was doing at all. I vaguely remember placing them in a tupperware container in the refrigerator for a few days (maybe a week?) before I had time to clean, seperate, and dry them. I saved them in a mason jar, stuck them on a shelf in the garage, and then promptly forgot about them. While looking for something else the other day, I found the little jar of seeds. Next to the melon jar was another container of unidentified squash seeds. Maybe pumpkin? Maybe acorn squash? The plot thickens.
Although it’s late in the summer now (possible too late for these mystery seeds) I decided to go ahead and plant them anyway and see if they would sprout. The garden is totally experimental right now, so why not? A few days after planting, I visited the seed bench and was suprised to see that they had indeed sprouted. The mystery squash seedlings (the middle row of the photo) are quite large and healthy looking, although only the initial leaves have opened so far. (I will wait until the second set of leaves emerges before putting the seedlings in the ground.) Most of the melon seeds sprouted, but not all.
I am reading Amy Goldman’s wonderful book Melons for the Passionate Grower, and gleaning a ton of information from it. Melons are unique and varied, but slightly complicated when it comes to pollination and growth. You have to keep melon plants far away from each other if you don’t want to risk cross-pollination, for example. But one step at a time for me. I have to see whether or not these seedlings even survive transplanting before I worry too much about future problems.
Time will tell what these strange seeds do and become. And maybe this will teach me to start labelling my seeds? Let’s hope so…
Wildest Horse on the Ranch 