Few things are as refreshing on a hot summer day than the juicy fruit of fresh from the garden watermelon. Homegrown watermelon can be served in fresh cut balls, slices, or chunks and added to fruit salads, sorbets, smoothies, slushies, cocktails, or soaked in spirits. Summer melon dishes can delight the eye, as well as our taste buds, when different, colorful varieties are used.
Yellow watermelons can be used with or as a substitute for pink and red watermelons, for fun summer treats, or cocktails. This summer, if you feel like getting adventurous in the garden and kitchen, you may enjoy growing a Yellow Crimson watermelon plant, or even two.
Yellow Crimson Watermelon Info
Yellow watermelons are not a new hybrid fad by any means. In fact, watermelon varieties with white or yellow flesh have been around longer than pink or red-fleshed watermelons. Yellow watermelons are believed to have originated in South Africa, but have been so widely cultivated for so long that their exact native range is unknown. Today, the most common variety of yellow watermelon is the heirloom plant Yellow Crimson.
Yellow Crimson watermelon closely resembles the popular red variety, Crimson Sweet watermelon. Yellow Crimson bears medium to large 20 pound (9 kg.) fruits with a hard, dark green, striped rind and sweet, juicy yellow flesh inside. The seeds are large and black. Yellow Crimson watermelon plants grow to only about 6 to 12 inches (15-31 cm.) tall but will spread about 5 to 6 feet (1.5-2 m.).
How to Grow Yellow Crimson Watermelon
When growing a Yellow Crimson watermelon, plant in good garden soil in a site with full sun. Watermelons and other melons can be susceptible to many fungal problems when located in poorly draining soil or inadequate sunlight.
Plant seeds or young watermelon plants in hills that are spaced 60 to 70 inches (153-178 cm.) apart, with only two to three plants per hill. Yellow Crimson seeds will mature in approximately 80 days, providing an early harvest of fresh summer watermelons.
Like its counterpart, Crimson Sweet, Yellow Crimson melon care is easy and plants are said to produce high yields throughout mid to late summer.