FRUIT-MOON & STARS-WATERMELON

Citrullus lanatus FRUIT-MOON AND STARS-WATERMELON is a legendary heirloom watermelon, a very unusual variety with a dark green rind that is speckled with bright yellow spots ranging from pin-hole to 50c piece in size, giving the impression of the night sky. The small specks resembling stars & the larger ones like moons. The leaves of the vine are alight green colour & also speckled with yellow. Large oval fruit with sweet bright red flesh, 7-14kg. Spectacular appearance. Good long keeper. Harvest after 95 days. It was grown sometime prior to the 1900s & was listed in seed catalogs until the 1920s. It then vanished for decades & was believed to have died out. A search for the melon began in the 1970s. In 1981, a farmer in Missouri, Merle Van Doren, contacted the Seed Savers Exchange (USA) & gave them some of the seeds from the melons he was still growing. Plant seed not over 2cm deep 4 to 6 to the hill, pressing soil firmly over them. When plants are well established thin to 2 to each hill.