whenever i post a watermelon question sooner or later you become part of the
information chain - thanks so much farmerdill for all your help over the
years

i have been in contact with WSU for a # of weeks, having written them after
reading the results of their mini-melon study last year. they are doing an
even bigger study this year, growing up to 50 mini-melon varieties using two
different watering methods (drip vs. overhead). the results are supposed to
be posted by the end of november, if not sooner. they promised to send me a
list of all the cultivars along with their source within the next few days.
one of the asian companies, after many emails back n forth, said they'd send
me a few sample seeds for free (bypassing their $100 minimum order
requirement) - i don't know if they were sincere or not but i called their
bluff and provided a ship to address.

in the 2003 WSU study, the variety "dark belle" outperformed the other
varieties in both # of melons per plant as well as avg weight of each melon.
additionally, this variety was highest rated for quality in their customer
feedback program. my beloved "yellow doll" variety performed quite poorly in
comparison. i adore the performance of this variety in the many years i've
been growing it, if "dark belle" is even better, we're all in for a real
treat when it becomes available on this side of the atlantic.


"FarmerDill" wrote in message
...
The dark belle is a hybrid ice box melon released from the the Known-You
Seed
company (Taiwan). It has been field tested by Washington State University
so
some one there may be able to supply more info. Seed quest only lists
Green
Seed. Known-You http://www.knownyou.com/english.htm seems to limited to
asia,
but some of thier cultivars like the Santa tomato have made to the North
American Market.