Follow up on this.
As of this writing, Sugar Baby has set two fruit! I have three vines in a 7-gal. felt grow-bag pot. (The Blacktail Mountain is two vines in a separate 7-gal. felt grow-bag pot. No definite fruit set yet.)
The regular vine (not bush) Sugar Baby watermelon has lots and lots of flowers, both female and male. I'd thought I would have to hand pollinate but this summer the bees seem to be present and active and doing their thing (funny to watch a honeybee burrow headfirst into a watermelon blossom and dig, dig, dig like someone trying to grab spare change fallen between the cracks in the sofa cushions). Neighboring flowers are: grape ivy (fence above the garden), catmint, and catnip, as well as the Honey Rock and Sugar Cube melon blossoms. The grape ivy is popular with the bees but the other flowers below draw them in as well. Never knew how good it was to have catnip blossoms as a bee draw.
One Sugar Baby fruit is approaching tennis ball size, another ping pong ball size. I hope I can expect a yield of two good melons per vine if all goes well. Perhaps basketball sized? I can hope!
|