[sunshineband]

Has anyone ever grown water melons? The big green ones with the red flesh?

I have seen an ad for some seeds but the info is a bit sketchy.

Any success from anyone before I part with 99p 

(intention is for next season of course, no this one  )

[mumofstig]

They were easy to grow in Greece Sunny 
I've not tried over here, have you got a cold frame you could grow them in?....If not there's a perfect winter job for the OH 

[sunshineband]

A coldframe is on the list 

Do they sprawl wide like pumkins?

[mumofstig]

Yes, but I'm sure I've seen a smaller vine version somewhere.........I'll have a mooch around later to see if I can find it

[sunshineband]

Oooh ta 

Encourage my laziness 

[Weeble]

I am growing 2 water melon plants on my plot.
Their growth habit are a bit like squashes (spread everywhere, runners average 2 to 3 metres long), but the leaves are smaller.
I started them off in small pots and planted them out at the beginning of May, each under 3x2 ft plastic cloches on heavily manured beds the same size.
As the weather here has been hot and dry the cloches were removed in mid June, (they had out-grown them weeks before). Just the fruit I had chosen to grow on were left covered overnight/dull days with plastic bell-jars.
They were restricted to 2 fruit per plant, the largest of which is about the size of a football and weighing about 4-5 kg.

[sunshineband]

That sounds very promising, Weeble 

[mumofstig]

found the Sugar Baby ones on Amazon, .........I'm sure you can find them elsewhere though.

linky thingy

I says that the vines are shorter

[Kristen]

I grew them last year ... pretty much like I've grown pretty much ever vegetable ... but the family doesn't like them that much so I'm not sure why I bothered! Curiosity I suppose ... decided to put the space to things that the family prefer in future