Two days ago a neighbor check to lend us eight acres of fresh forage for a watermelon vine landrace upbringing project .
My son Ezekielhas been produce watermelonsfor about five year now , and recently read Joseph Lofthouse ’s bookLandrace Gardening .
Ezekiel ’s 2021 patch of watermelons comprise multiple varieties , includingCrimson Sweet , Moon and Stars , Orangeglo , Garden Leader Monster , Carolina Cross , Sugar Baby , Congoand more . It was a unsmooth year , with switch cold , drought , estrus , and bout of torrential rain . Many of the plant life failed , but some did very well . He saved seeds from the best survivors to replant in 2022 .
This year he will plant those , along with multiple new salmagundi , and allow them to interbreed .
Yesterday good afternoon we filmed this video together :
Then , yesterday evening , we bought more seeds for the project , include these fromSouthern Exposure Seed Exchange :
And these fromBaker Creek Seeds :
In spring , Ezekiel and I will implant all these varieties together with the seeds from the 2021 plot of land and allow them to crossbreed , and may the good melon deliver the goods .
After a few age of crossing melons , we should have a hearty landrace variety that can handle our conditions , bug , pitiable ground , heat and humidity . We ’re already one yr in , thanks to Ezekiel ’s 2021 garden .
Last year I arise a expert mix of pumpkin vine and am on the way to make a landrace ofC. moschatatypes and a second landrace ofC. maximas . The moschatas are based intemperately on Seminole pumpkin , and the maximas come from a Walmart pumpkin I bought at the final stage of 2020 . We saved the seeds and grew them in our 2021 garden , discovering that the pumpkin must have been a cross , as there were a wide scope of types that total from that one grey - green pumpkin .
Finally , I grew a patch of Hickory King clavus this year . It did okay , but not amazing , and the productivity was so - so . Some of those come were saved , and I will be mixing them up with a motley of different corns to make a landrace for this surface area . You ’ll see some maize in my purchase from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange . All of those will get mixed together and we ’ll see what we get .
With all the space we ’ve just larn , we have a tidy sum of room to plant . I am tempt to not annoy irrigating or fertilizing or even birdlime , and just to till and plant and let the strongest survive , as Lofthouse does . mayhap an Akka of melon vine , an acre of corn whisky , an Accho of moschatas and an Akko of maximas . Those that produce , produce – and get to go on to lash out two . Those that pall , die .
I like this method of garden much more than trying to keep seed lines separate and everlasting . May the best genetics win !
