Native American watermelons

What's happening friends and family! I wanna address some Native American watermelons that have originally been grown in the Midwest and the south from the Cherokee which is what I'm concentrating on to honor one of my grandparents from Oklahoma in the 1800s. I'm growing watermelons for the Potawatomi, Miami and Illinois tribes this year with Potawatomi and Illinois red seed watermelons to give back to those three nations and to the Native American community. I need your help in finding more watermelons that use to belong to the Illinois which use to have more than one type according to the French settlers. I'm also looking to obtain more of the same types from the Illinois and Potawatomi as well as from the Cherokee to build a better agricultural future in this modern world. Much love!

Hello! Anybody here? Looking for assistance for historic tribal watermelon from the Great Lakes besides red seed watermelon.

Greetings! I just wanna let you all know that my Illinois watermelon has vined well and my Potawatomi has been slow this year. I'm looking for types of watermelon from the Illinois tribe as well as one from the Miami people. Any regular or musk melons that are from the Great Lake tribes? This board has been dead for weeks and I'm looking for somebody to give me some historic documents and stuff to best help and Identify ones that historically fit into the timeline for my neighborhood and region. Out!

Another thing to ask. You all heard of Potawatomi red seed watermelon? I'm searching for more to trade in return to grow again for next year for my community farm.

I haven't heard of any of these but they sound interesting.

We ate these exact watermelons at a Native American student graduation event when I was in college. I saved the seeds and gave them to my grandpa - oops. They came from a farm in Gun Lake, Michigan.

Well if your grandparents or anybody you know has them, then let me know cause I wanna still invest in watermelon next year for my farm.

Anybody heard of C.S white flesh watermelon a modern version of the old Illinois white flesh watermelon?

Hello Blake, my name is Luke Moreno and I was wondering if we can have a chat about water melons? Thank you

Absolutely! I'd like to talk more about watermelons and how the Spaniards brought them in the 1500s.

Hi Luke,
Do you have any Native watermelons? If so I would love to get some as I only recently found out that my birth father was actually Native/ Mexican and I’m trying to reconnect to the culture that was lost to me!
I’d be open to any Native melons but especially if there are any grown among the Apache, Chichimec, Miwok, Navajo , Aztec, Huichol, I have  intertribal ancestry as well as Peru and Puerto Rico. Thanks!

Hello Kim, I'm Blake not Luke. I'm concentrating on the Potawatomi, Miami, Illinois, Ho-Chunk and Kickapoo locally in Chicago, and Cherokee, Natchez and Gullah to help remember my family's ancestry in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana . I've got two types of red seed watermelon from the Illinois and Potawatomi and Moon and Stars watermelon from the Cherokee. I'm concentrating on growing some watermelon first and then decide to go from there. Could we please continue to talk in private to talk about our interests in watermelons and stuff and we'll see what I can do for you in the fall. Check back then. Does anybody know of any more types of watermelon from the Illinois people or more Potawatomi watermelon as well as that Potawatomi muskmelon? If anybody grows that stuff, please let me know so I can help with restoring native culture in my gardens to aid my community and region. Good to see you all!

Greetings! Just made instant progress on one of my watermelons so far. I have a Cherokee watermelon the size of my hand and a tiny one. How can we make watermelons larger from their smaller size? Thanks!

The size of watermelon fruit depends on genetics and environment. More soil fertility, adequate moisture, and thorough weeding tends to lead to larger fruits. They tend to like open sandy/loamy soil better than heavy clay.

How can we enrich our soil and weed around the already mature watermelons in our gardens? Is there some weed block or anything to help us reduce more weeding time? I wanna have large and beautiful watermelons before the year's out. It's August and there still time to get more watermelons? I'm in almost zone 6 in the Midwest and is there any way to gain more fruit by then?

Blake Lenoir wrote: It's August and there still time to get more watermelons? I'm in almost zone 6 in the Midwest and is there any way to gain more fruit by then?

I have only read about microclimates here on the forum though that is maybe something that would work for what you want to do.  

This book might be of interest:

This methods are not innovation and they have been used for a long time, but it is usually about the application of one method rather than a combination of all factors in one place and the maximum improvement of the microclimate conditions. Theoretically speaking, the effect of combining all factors in one place could create the microclimate conditions which are significantly more convenient than those in the surroundings of the selected place.

https://permies.com/t/138107/Permaculture-Ideal-Microclimate-Aleksandar-Stevanovic

And this thread might be of interest to you or others:

https://permies.com/t/171230/permaculture/Simple-illustration-microclimate