Striped Klondike Blue Ribbon produces very large, elongated fruits with a thin peel. The peel is light green with thin dark green stripes. The flesh is dark red and very sweet. The fruits can weigh up to about 9 - 13 kilo each. This variety can be grown on a very sunny and sheltered plot outside. The best results are accomplished with this variety when it's grown indoors in a greenhouse or hothouse. The delicious, sweet juicy and tasty flesh is very well suited for the use in salads, salads with ham, as dessert and as juicy snack in the summer.
Indoor sowing: April - May
Germination: 7 - 10 days
Germintion temp.: 20 - 25 °C
Sowing depth: 1 cm
Plant distance: 50 - 60 cm
Transplanting: half May - end of May
Plant position: sunny, warm and sheltered
Harvest period: July - October
Sow indoors from April on in a propagator or hothouse. The temperature must be about 20°C or warmer, this to ensure a better germination. The temperature must be as constant as possible to ensure a better germination. Use individual pots of about (7 cm Ø). Sow in each pot 1 seeds about 1 cm deep in moist, well-drained potting soil and cover the seeds with a layer of soil. Keep moist, but not to wet to prevent rotting of the seeds. Replant the seedlings, when they've their first pair of true leaves, in larger pots of about (13 cm Ø).
Let the seedlings harden of in the middle of May, when there's no longer any danger of nightfrosts for about 10 days. Then they can be put outdoors on a very sunny, warm plot with some free draining soil. Put them in a greenhouse or hothouse for a better harvest. Give the plants enough water, but don't let them get waterlogged and give them every 14 days some liquid fertilizer.
Melons bare fruits on their side shoots. Water melons differ from this: their main shoots has to be cut of after the fourth leave counted of the middle of the plant. The side shoots who grow from this main shoot are the fruit baring ones. These fruit baring shoots can be directed on the ground or a screen (be careful with heavy fruits) to give them enough space to grow. In a greenhouse you can pollinate the plants manualy to ensure the growing of fruits.
The fruits ripen after about 10 weeks. When you tap the fruits they should sound hollow.
