20 September 2009

Watermelon spots.

Lewisburg.

I'm growing some watermelons, with some measure of success this year. Blacktail Mountain is a short-season variety - relatively - which gives me a little leeway at this latitude, especially in an often cool and wet summer.

Also cool: the ones I've grown have these occasional, fascinating patterns of spots and spirals.

Blacktail spots

I've no idea why, but they do make for an interesting sight. As near as I can tell, they're not indicative of a problem, since it doesn't match the symptoms of any watermelon diseases I know of. Plus, the fruits are mighty tasty. Perhaps I'll have more melons, more spots, and more of an idea next year.

2 comments:

Ben said...

Great picture of the spirals. Whether a disease, crop circles, or natural for that species of watermelon, this is a hip area in math (pattern formation, esp in math biology). Keep that picture; you may earn a citation someday.

Alison said...

Could they have been caused by snails or something? I put up a note on the wall by some lilies, hoping to keep passersby from picking them. I came back several days later and found that snails seem to like eating paper, because my note had become a sheet of beautiful lace!