ATTN: 2018/2019 MMMM recipients - Yellow Morrow Watermelon ID

[Scooty]

If you received "Yellow Morrow" watermelon from the 2018/2019 MMMM, you should add a notation to your seed stash. My tentative ID for this watermelon is Desert King.

Originally Posted by beasl004

Sorry for the delay in responding to this, I haven't been on the site in a while. My wife named it the Yellow Morrow in honor of her Grandfather. He grew this melon exclusively for 50+ years in Northern Alabama but never had a name for the variety. It has a darker yellow meat and is pretty sweet with a really good flavor.
I sent seeds saved from 2016 in last year. Let me know what questions you have and I'll try to be a little more prompt in responding.

This watermelon was originally supplied by beasl004 and named "Yellow Morrow." My original hope in growing this was that it was a landrace watermelon. It doesn't appear to be.

I had about 7 seeds from the MMMM. I had put off growing it to this year, last year I had too many other things to try. Seeds were labeled 2016, and I threw 3 in the germinator, and got nothing going even though all my other watermelon/melon seeds came up. I ended up throwing the last 4 seeds in, but two days later I ended up having the original 3 all sprout up, so I'm out of the original seeds. I ended up planting 3 "Yellow Morrow" since it was someone's heirloom and I felt inclined to generate seeds if this was going to end up being someone's landrace efforts.

Fast forward to this week. The watermelons are growing and I'm getting a light pea green skin. This is a recessive trait, so it's quite rare to see in watermelon. Very few watermelon cultivars look like this, which made me think this wasn't someone's landrace melon. I have cracked open a ripe melon, and like beasl004 described, it's a relatively dark yellow-fleshed watermelon. This narrows the list considerably.

I'm 98% positive at this point the mystery "Yellow Morrow" watermelon is the same as "Desert King." The yellow flesh, pea green skin, size, all match. I'm still need to compare seeds from a full sized "Yellow Morrow" to those from Desert King (I have to find my own stash to compare), but that's the last bit to get me to 99% positive.