Shooting For A Record, Melon Growers Report Strong Start
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Hal Vaughn provided a sneak peak at one of his massive watermelon growing behind his house last week. Vaughn has five big watermelon in his patch.
WATER VALLEY – Excitement is brewing as two dedicated watermelon growers could have the most massive melons ever produced in Yalobusha County. Hal Vaughn has five giant watermelons growing in his garden, and several are already estimated to be well over the 200-pound mark with the potential for almost two more months of growing season remaining. Rogers’ top melon is only 20 to 30 pounds lighter than Vaughn’s biggest. Both men report their melons are gaining between four and six pounds per day.
Vaughn and Rogers plan to enter melons in the Watermelon Carnival’s Largest Melon Contest on August 3, melons that could rival the 2006 carnival record that was 210.2 pounds. But they will leave their biggest melons growing well beyond the carnival with a mind-boggling goal of producing a 300-plus pounder by mid-September.
Vaughn is cautiously optimistic about the potential for his big melon.
“Anybody can run the first 20 miles of a marathon. It is the last six miles that count,” Vaughn, a former marathon runner, explained.
The challenge is to keep the melons growing and healthy until mid-September. Their plan is to pull the giant melons just before September 21, the date of the Great Pumpkin Pursuit and Watermelon Weigh-off at Roberts Family Farm in Guston, Ky. They will be competing against top growers in the nation and last year Vaughn’s biggest melon, a 211-pounder, placed seventh in the contest.
If everything goes according to plan, there is strong potential to shatter the record for the largest watermelon in Mississippi. The current record came in 2013 with a watermelon grown by Jerry Vaughn that weighed 239.5 pounds.
The strong start comes after Rogers learned to graft watermelons, a tactic used by some of the top growers in the nation. He grafted 11 watermelon seedlings, attaching each one to a bushel gourd vine.
The gourd vine gives each seedling a bigger root system to draw nutrients to feed the melon. Rogers started with six grated watermelon seedlings, and Vaughn started with five grafted seedlings. Rogers also has four non-grafted watermelon vines and reports there is no comparison as the melons on the grafted plants are growing much fast.
Rogers reported there is still a lot to learn about growing the giant Carolina Cross watermelons. He returned from a quick trip to Kentucky Monday for a visit with one of the leading growers in the nation.
“I thought I knew a lot, but there is a lot of learn,” Rogers said after his visit with Frank Mudd.
Mudd has won the Kentucky State Fair 11 years in a row with his melons and his biggest is 290 pounds.
“I have a lot prep to do for next year,” Rogers said.
Like Vaughn, Rogers is aware that the weeks ahead will be challenging as both men carefully nurture their melons. He reports that the growth rate will slow down as the melons get bigger and there is always the risk of losing a melon.
“I had to pull one off Tuesday morning, it had a soft spot,” Rogers said.
