Carolina Cross Has Ruled Carnival Contest Since 1999

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There was a notable shift in the Watermelon Carnival lore in 1999. This was the year that watermelon growers started planting a different melon variety known for its massive size as all three top melons in the 1999 Largest Melon Contest were Carolina Cross melons. Marty Bost claimed top honors that year with a 100-pounder.

Prior to 1999 there were few triple-digit melons entered in the contest. In 1982, Taylor resident Quitman Smith entered a 90 pound Cuban Queen that remained the measuring bar until 1995 when Troy Keel had a big melon that weighed 122.75 pounds. Keel was also the winner two years later with three Cobb Gems that weighed a total of 218 pounds. With no information in the archives about his 1995 melon, you can only surmise that the 122.75-pounder was also a Cobb Gem. Joe Black was the official Chamber measurer that year, and his best recollection is that melon was probably a Cobb Gem, a variety known to grow as large as 150 pounds.

But the introduction of the Carolina Cross in 1999 was a game changer. The Carolina Cross was developed in 1961 by Charles Andrus, a farmer in South Carolina who named the new variety after his state. The melons are known for their massive size, often weighing over 100 pounds with some coming in at 200-plus.

The shift to Carolina Cross melons led to bigger and bigger watermelons entered in the annual carnival competition as local growers fine-tuned their expertise with the new variety. Jerry Vaughn raised the bar in 2005 with a 183.9 pound melon, a carnival record at that time. The record would only stand a year, as Marty Bost had the biggest melon ever entered in the contest in 2006 with a 210.2 pound melon. There has only been one other time a 200-pounder was entered in the contest, and growing one that size is the benchmark.

The intense competition in the carnival ultimately led to the current state record set by Jerry Vaughn in 2013. Vaughn grew a 239.5 pound Carolina Cross that year. He planted his Carolina Cross seed in April, several weeks behind the normal planting time due to a late spring. When carnival time came in August, his melon was still growing and he left it on the vine.

Perched on PVC pipes, that state record watermelon never touched the ground and even had a little company on some of the cool nights early in the growing season as Vaughn kept a radio blaring to help deter a coon’s interest in the delicacy. A local pastor, Vaughn said he dialed in gospel music on the radio to help keep varmints outside the wire enclosure protecting the prized melon.

Vaughn did not pull that state record melon in August that year for the carnival weigh-in, as it was still growing on the vine. Instead he waited until October 3. The melon was weighed the next morning on state certified scales at Sayle Propane with multiple witnesses and deemed the state record. Vaughn attributed unusual weather in the spring and summer as a contributing factor for a long growing season for his big melon that year. The summer months in June, July and August were mild, with more cloudy days than usual, followed by a hot September. He credited those hot September days for keeping the melon growing, calculating that it put on anywhere from one to three pounds each day.

During the last decade, it has not been unusual for local growers to keep their biggest watermelon on the vine past the August carnival in hopes to surpass Vaughn’s 2013 record melon or perhaps even set a world record.

The current world record watermelon was grown in 2013 by Christopher Kent. His 350-pound melon is officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest ever and was, of course, a Carolina Cross.