The Moment of Truth: Garden Leader Monster Melon
Even though I only got one good one, the five or six melons of all sizes that were growing on the giant vines were something to study along the way. I feel lucky, so to speak in regards to the fact I was able to harvest one giant watermelon. In theory, this watermelon isn’t as giant as some other growers may have or likely isn’t as great as some other varieties may offer in terms of growing size but there is still something to be enthusiastic about. I started these watermelons late for my gardening zone which recommends to usually plant your root balls in the ground by the middle of June. This goes for tomatoes and melons and especially larger size melons and plants like tomatoes that require a lot of water.
Take a look at the pictures below, which have captions to describe more about the melon but not the taste part quite yet. One of the most enjoyable things about this special Garden Leader Monster style watermelon is growing it! From germinating to harvesting, it has been a wild ride considering it’s my first time growing a watermelon in my life and also got to do so at work in professional melon mounds.
To say the least about taking care of the melons, it comes out to be a lot of extra work for the bit that goes into the fridge for one melon. There surely isn’t space to store as many beautiful seeds as you can get from this style of watermelon.
Even though the vines get super big, significantly larger than other kind of watermelon as well. The leaves are also larger as well as the overall square radius the plant covers.
I didn’t take any video or any other pictures for this first time project besides the ones you see here and also the very beginning stages of the melon plants on my Instagram highlights.
In terms taking care of these late blooming melon plants, I planted the 5 big seeds with the pointy end up in some potting mix with deep trays and once they germinated I moved them into medium pots. Something special I will do differently next season for everything I’m growing is making sure I have the right size cup for the plant roots. The biggest mistakes I made when growing the watermelons were keeping the seedlings transplants in big containers and was also over fertilizing them. By the time I was ready to plant the melons in the ground by the middle of July, the roots of the plants had widely consumed a medium size nursery pot. With that being said the holes I made had to be even more dug out and deeper. Also I think the amount of roots required more watering of course; but I ended up being okay with the amount of water I used.
Like I said I didn’t fertilize the plant at all once I put it in the ground but was doing so a few times when in the nursery pot. Other growers I have talked to were exclamatory about the fact, “putting the seed in the right size container makes planting time all that easier.”
After reconsidering this for days and looking at how the plant was growing I figured that it wasn’t the worst case scenario the roots were big this year because it was planted late.
Even though I had 3 watermelons out of 5 that germinated in the ground, there still were five to seven watermelons that got started. Ironically some of them just stopped growing and even one of the plants that had the first melon just gave up on me. All in all, out of the three plants it wasn’t anything special and I didn’t expect it to be; still happy that I got one large one that tastes so great.
It’s definitely a fact to me that there is a lot of extra factors that go into growing plants in order to make the year successful.
I have only been growing for two years and can say I have had “too high of expectations” off the bat. Either way, gardening is always exciting and even as I talk to more people there is always something that’s a challenge with growing plants. I noticed time and time again that rabbits and other animals, by side with insects, really can make growing frustrating.
The one primary factor that went into growing this one watermelon successfully was paying attention to the need for water. I knew first thing that since it’s late and my late plants missed some huge rain storms (even though they still got some as seedlings.)
All and all, from start to finish, the one thing I will remember to do differently in the beginning stage is to fertilize less and water more. As I was saying before, I didn’t fertilize these melons once they were in the ground. In most cases once the seeds are up you can move them to any size pot or a super soft and big hole in the ground, but the best thing to do is have a nice palm sized container for the roots. I have been paying attention to all of my plant roots from herbs to fruits or vegetables; and the most interesting thing to say is that there can be too many roots. It’s a serious deal to take note of this for growing anything.
So, how much water did I give these watermelons? The answer is pretty much a lot! A lot meaning gallons at a time. I figured that there was no way all of the roots would be watered, but then again, they might of because I poked holes around the side of the plant for watering. I had a bucket or two filled with water and pretty much gave each plant half every time. I’m not sure if I could of done the same thing for my tomatoes, which are still way behind the watermelons and were planted on the same day.
Theories about overwatering melons can definitely be true in my experience anymore but considering the fact it was super hot outside and all other conditions were right I wasn’t surprised to grow one big juicy one!
It’s easy to see for yourself just by taking a glimpse at the pictures above at how juicy this melon was. The seeds look magnificent and I was able to add about 75 to my seed collection for 2026 which now includes Lemon/Lime cantaloupes, Garden Leader Monster Watermelons and also Peach Tree Seeds.
Of course there will be more extensive and exciting information about the 2026 seed collection but let me tell you how good this watermelon was.
It’s hours after eating a good 4 slices of my own watermelon and my mouth still is tacked by the flavor of watermelon jolly rancher. It’s literally that good, no wonder everyone is so enthusiastic about growing their own food. At least if you don’t have space to store 100 watermelons after harvesting, you can enjoy one or two a season! That’s what I’ve been doing all summer. I only had a couple bites of the popular summer fruits and it was regular cantaloupe and also crimson sweet watermelon. That was up until recently.
Watermelon jolly rancher taste lingering hours later seems like some sort of dream land but it’s a reality. And this makes exciting news, perhaps jolly ranchers are sort of organic if you use the right melons!
The Garden Leader Monster watermelon I grew is most definitely my favorite kind of watermelon. Obviously I didn’t use any pesticides and thankfully didn’t have to because I wasn’t noticing any severe kind of insect issue. If anything, I was more worried about the moles taking away from this harvesting and cutting board moment but they didn’t!
And of course, you don’t wanna eat too much watermelon but considering my floor was in a puddle of watermelon juice and big seeds I kept going because it was like my first time having the best food I never tried! Pesticides really make the difference to me in taste so I recommend using organic methods to defend against pests. It’s not just spraying the leaves and fruits, there are also absorption methods.
To wrap up this article on watermelon, I have to say that the taste and the healthy factor is what made this growing and eating experience so exciting. In terms of growing next year, I feel like I will be able to get some quicker and with that being said will eat more watermelon treats next summer. I still have enough saved up from this one to last until the middle of winter most likely. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Plants and Gardening posts!
Comments
Post a Comment