The fact that we can produce watermelons in our backyards seems almost too good to be true. Watermelons are a lovely and refreshing summer staple. It can be quite challenging to decide which of the amazing choices to choose from, of course.
Watermelons come in more than 1200 varieties worldwide! About 300 of those are frequently farmed in North and South America. With so many different types of watermelon available, you may be wondering where to start.
We’ve selected 22 varieties of watermelon that you may try cultivating in your garden this year or next for a distinctive fruit that you’ll adore.
1. Sugar Baby
Introduced in 1969, the Sugar Baby melon type is renowned for its small size, weighing 8 to 10 pounds per fruit. It’s the ideal watermelon for personal use.
Because they are about the size of a little ball and readily fit inside the refrigerator, these little watermelons are frequently referred to as “icebox watermelons.” Its flesh is densely scarlet, and its rind is a solid, dark green colour.
2. Crimson Sweet
The generously sized red treat is well-known for its luscious, vivid red meat. A hybrid of the peacock, Charleston grey, and mile types, it has a honeyed flavour that nicely balances the feta and mint.
3. Black Diamond
Black Diamond is a round, heritage picnic watermelon that originated in the 1950s and is one of the biggest watermelons, weighing between thirty and fifty pounds. The meat is brilliant red and crunchy, while the rind is thick and dark green with no stripes.
4. Allsweet
The Allsweet is another watermelon with a traditional appearance. Its luscious, crisp crimson flesh is shielded by a thick skin with green stripes. This type is good for chopping into bits for easy eating because it produces comparatively few seeds.
Allsweet watermelons weigh at least 25 pounds and have an average diameter of 17 to 19 inches. There is a lot to share because of this!
These watermelons take longer to mature because of their size. Allow 90 to 100 days for them to transform all that sunshine into vibrant, new magic.
5. Charleston Gray
One exceptional heirloom variety is “Charleston Gray,” which has huge cylindrical fruits with consistent greenish-grey skin.
This crisp and fiberless open-pollinated picnic variety, sometimes known as “Charleston Grey,” has sweet red flesh. Because of their tough rinds, fruits store well.
You had better be prepared to enjoy some watermelon this summer if you choose this kind, as they often reach a maximum weight of 28 to 35 pounds each when harvested!
6. Blacktail Mountain
As one of the earliest known watermelons, Blacktail Mountain thrives in both heat and drought and is excellent for growing in the north.
Lovely round green-black fruits range in weight from 1.3 to 5.4 kilograms (3–12 pounds) per piece. Its rich, juicy, and crisp flesh has a deep scarlet colour. It thrives in hot, humid regions and is ideal for short-season locations.
7. Jubilee
Developed in 1963, this well-liked, super sweet cultivar is considered a giant since it may weigh up to 45 pounds at full ripeness, which is the maximum weight allowed for watermelons.
8. Oh So Sweet
This type is well-known for its delectable sweet flavour, as its name would imply! Fruitful plants produce an abundance of medium-sized, striped fruits with high sugar content.
9. Carolina Cross
Carolina Cross is a great option if you reside in a region with a long growing season and wish to win a ribbon at the State Fair.
You may grow these oblong picnic melons up to 200 pounds in weight. The flesh is brilliant red and crunchy, and the rind is light green with deeper green stripes that are resistant to bruising.
10. Golden Midget
You’ll notice right away that this isn’t your typical watermelon. It has a golden-yellow rind. However, it is still a watermelon, so don’t confuse it with other melons. Its flesh has a stunning salmon colour within.
The Golden Midget cultivar is a little watermelon, as the name would imply. Fruits weighing between three and five pounds can reach maturity in just seventy-one days. Ideal for packing for picnics and keeping in the refrigerator.
Golden Midget is a fantastic choice for cooler locations with fewer hot days because it only takes 70 days to mature.
11. Cream of Saskatchewan
Cream of Saskatchewan Watermelon seeds is black and really stand out against the light flesh; the interior hue usually ranges from creamy white to pastel yellow.
The flesh of the watermelon has an exceptionally crisp texture, and even in comparison to other varieties, it has a very sweet flavour. Pale green rind with dark green lines that is thin and brittle.
Because of the extremely thin rind, it does not have a lengthy storage life. Depending on the growth environment, each vine can yield two to three melons. After the first sprouts grow, these juicy goodies will be ready to harvest in around 80 to 85 days.
12. Moon and Stars
This heirloom species, which can weigh up to 40 pounds and is adorned with a constellation of lemon-coloured dots, was introduced in the 1920s and was almost completely eradicated a few years later. However, it has just made reappearance.
13. Georgia Rattlesnake
This heritage kind boasts vivid pink, delicate flesh, and a rind patterned like a snakeskin. It’s among the original types of heritage watermelon that are still around. It is distinguished by its rind’s green and white stripes, which mimic a rattlesnake’s pattern.
In Georgia, this cultivar was created sometime in the 1830s. They have a maximum length of 2 feet and a maximum weight of 35 pounds!
14. Yellow Baby
This watermelon type features vivid yellow flesh and thin skin. Taiwanese horticulturalist Chen Wen-yu created it in the middle of the 20th century. Throughout his lengthy career, Chen—also known as the “Watermelon King”—personally created 280 different types of watermelons, not to mention many other flowers and vegetables.
He was in charge of one-fourth of the world’s watermelon seeds at the time of his death in 2012. When the resultant fruit was brought to the United States in the 1970s, it was initially viewed with considerable skepticism but eventually won.
15. Tiger Doll
Tiger Doll is a fantastic option for locations with a short growing season because it matures in just 72 days. The icebox is the ideal container for the eight- to nine-pound size. Vigorous vines yield melons with bright red flesh that is crisp and exceptionally sweet and a light green rind with thin dark tiger stripes.
16. Tendersweet
This melon is not traditional in appearance or flavour, despite being an heirloom. When you cut into a tender sweet watermelon, the flesh is soft and vivid orange.
It tastes gentle and sweet, like honey, despite having high sugar content. This type takes 80 to 90 days to mature and yields huge, 35-pound watermelons.
17. Mini Love
Watermelons of the Mini Love kind are little, perfect for a person’s hand, firm, sweet, and resistant to cracking. There are few seeds and a rich, bright crimson flesh with greenish-black streaks on a bright green skin.
You can plant Mini Love watermelons outside in the spring when the weather is warm and the night-time lows are regularly over 55°F (13°C). They are small and simple to grow.
18. Sweet Siberian
A Russian variety that Peter Henderson & Co. carried in 1898. It yields oblong fruits that are ten pounds in weight. The flesh has an apricot colour and is extremely juicy and sweet.
19. Secretariat
Secretariat is a seedless watermelon that matures quickly and produces large amounts of fruit. This 16–20-pound oval watermelon is seedless and has green stripes on its medium-green surface. The meat has a rich red color. It grows seedless and has a lovely, rounded oval form. The meat has a deep crimson colour and is firm and crunchy.
In order for the seedless fruit to develop, you must plant a seeded watermelon type beside the seedless ones in your garden as a companion planting source of pollen. Watermelons without seeds are typically cultivated from seedlings bought from a nursery, and their seeds are underdeveloped.
20. Sangria
Sangria watermelon is an oblong or oval-shaped hybrid watermelon with deep crimson flesh and bright and dark green streaks on the rind. Accessible from summer too early fall, it’s regarded as the benchmark for watermelons with seeds.
Along with having a smooth texture and high sugar content, sangria watermelons is a great source of lycopene, an antioxidant that gives the flesh its red colour.
21. Orangeglo
The Willhite Seed Company began selling this cultivar in the early 1960s. The fiery orange flesh is crisp, sweet, and wonderful. The average weight of a large, oblong fruit is 25 pounds. A trustworthy creator.
22. Bush Sugar Baby
Bush Sugar Baby is ideal for tiny gardens with short growing seasons because of its short 3-foot vines, which can yield two 12-pound melons per vine. An early-season fruit with brilliant red flesh that resists cracking is the icebox melon.