Introduced in 1956, 'Sugar Baby' watermelon is a type of icebox or picnic watermelon. It produces small fruits that are 7 to 8 inches across—just the right size for fitting in the fridge or a picnic basket. Red flesh has a high brix value, which measures sugar content.
Description/Taste
The juicy inner flesh ranges from red-orange to magenta and is dotted with small dark brown seeds. Its consistency is crisp yet juicy with a classic sweet watermelon flavor.
Sugarbaby is a heirloom watermelon that produces sweet, red-fleshed, round fruit to 20cm diameter. Smaller fruits means that sugarbaby watermelons will ripen quicker than those of other varieties. 10-13 weeks to harvest.
This widely adapted heirloom variety is solid, dark green on the outside with a bright red, firm and fine-grained flesh that is super sweet. Watermelon contains high levels of healthy antioxidants, making Sugar Baby a great sweet way to pack in good nutrition. Vines are compact. Plant about 4 feet apart.
Sugar Baby Watermelon Seeds - Heirloom, Open-Pollinated, non-Hybrid Victory Seeds® – Victory Seed Company.
'Sugar Baby' Watermelon Slice
Red flesh has a high brix value, which measures sugar content. Like many icebox types, 'Sugar Baby' ripens 8- to 12-pound fruits in 75 days (compared to 120 days for a full-size watermelon). Even though fruits are small, they're packed with full-size flavor and sweetness.
Sugar Baby watermelons are known for their small size and round shape. They typically weigh between 6 to 12 pounds, making them significantly smaller than other watermelon varieties. This compact size makes them ideal for small gardens and allows them to be easily transported and stored.
Vines in the standard "Sugar Baby" form reach almost 12 1/2 feet long, which is the average size for most vining types of watermelon. To save garden footage, these vines can be trained up a trellis by tying the vines along the support structure as they grow.
"Sugar Baby" melons are pollinated by bees. The plants produce yellow male and female flowers. Bees distribute pollen from male plants to the female plants, causing pollination and fruit development.
The sugar baby watermelon takes only 75 days to ripen. Other watermelons need at least 120 days for full maturity. They're easy to grow.
Plant 1 inch deep, 6 seeds per hill, hills 4 to 6 feet apart; or 1 foot apart in rows 5 feet apart. Can plant at closer spacings if trellised. Thin to 2 to 3 plants per hill. Prefers warm, well-drained, soil, high in organic matter with pH 6.5 to 7.5.
“Sugar Baby” (Citrullus lanatus “Sugar Baby”), for instance, has sweet red flesh and seeds, while “Yellow Baby” (Citrullus lanatus “Yellow Baby”) has characteristic bright golden flesh and also has seeds.
WSU found that the personal watermelon with the highest Brix value is the Pony Yellow, a lovely yellow-fleshed melon that scores a sugary 12.3 Brix. The icebox category tops out with another yellow-fleshed melon called Super Gold, which achieves a 12.8 Brix.
Underripe watermelons are safe to eat, but they aren't particularly enjoyable. Unripe melon tastes diluted and watery, instead of sweet.
The nutrient lycopene produces the more familiar pink or reddish-colored flesh and is more present in these riper watermelons and other fruits. Regular watermelons take up to 120 days to ripen; if your red one is white inside, it is not ready to eat.
YaraLiva® Calcium Nitrate is the top choice for fertilizing watermelon during Vegetative Growth, Flowering and Fruit Set. YaraLiva calcium nitrate supplies readily available nitrate-nitrogen for fast growth and high productivity.
Root damage – Stunted watermelon growth might be the result of damage occurring during transplanting. You may have damaged the roots irreparably and they just can't take sufficient nutrients up to support further growth. Cultivating around the plant can also damage roots, which can affect fruit size.
The 'Sugar Baby' variety generally reaches maturity in 80 days, so first harvest can fall as early as late May and run into June.
Variety Info. Variety Info: 8–10 pound fruit about 9" long with bright red, sweet flesh, and fewer than average, very small seeds. The rind is dark green with thin, mottled, darker green stripes. 'Sugar Baby' was introduced in 1959.
Sugar Baby watermelon care requires consistent irrigation. Drip irrigation is recommended as Sugar Baby varieties, like all watermelons, are susceptible to a variety of fungal diseases. Crop rotation and fungicide applications can also reduce the risk of potentially deadly disease.
Like other melons, they won't continue to ripen once you've picked them off the vine. If you don't take the time to learn when to harvest them, you might end up with inedible fruits and a lot of wasted time.
Densuke is a Japanese fruit known for possibly being the world's most expensive type of watermelon, reaching prices up to $6,000 at auctions for top quality produce. The watermelon is black in color, crisp, and hard, with a different level of sweetness than other watermelons.