Root Veggies Suck | Lettuce Seedlings | The Melon Race

I gave up on my root veggies in rows, again. For some reason, turnips and radishes have a nasty habits of throwing all the dirt off of their roots and not developing anything but top growth for me. 

So I dug up and saved the two-week old lettuces and potted them in cups. I'll let them get up to a month and then put them back out after they will make good transplants. The Parris Island Cos will probably be ready to set out at the same time. 

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce about two weeks old

The winner for this second melon season will probably be this Athena, pictured in the previous post, and now a week or so riper in this photo. It's putting on a pretty beige-yellow net, and starting to smell wonderful.

Athena from previous entry, now a week older and developing netting.

However, coming in close second is this Ambrosia melon, which is probably a week or 10 days out, and making my mouth water already.

The legendary Ambrosia muskmelon basking in 105 degrees. 

 Just meters away in third place is another Ambrosia (so affluent was the farmer Foppl!).

Ambrosia ripener #2 soon to be eaten. 

For a true description of the glory of the Ambrosia, and someone more obsessed with melons than I, check out Wayne Schmidt's Extreme Melon Growing page.

In all likelihood, any three of the twenty Early Silver Lines will ripen any time now, but due to size and the sheer quantity that would have to be monitored, are excluded from this particular race. 

Two more Athena in the same patch as the topmost, 10 days from picking. 

...and just in case we get hungry, there are two more four-pounders in the front 10 days from the pickins. 

So affluent. The farmer. 


Foppl.