Mega melons

GREENBRIER — Billy Vann of Greenbrier knew what it took to grow big watermelons in his area, but he had to see if he could do it himself.

“I knew how to raise watermelons and what it took to raise watermelons, but never had,” Vann said. “I wanted to see if I could remember how.”

Vann’s father grew watermelons in the 1950s, and Vann used many of the techniques that he learned from his father.

“Most people make a lot of mistakes, so my dad tells me,” said Vann, who retired from Alltel in 1998 after 34 years with the company. 

To grow watermelons, sandy soil is necessary. 

Vann said he found a great place on his farm on West Republican Road. However, it took him some time to find the seeds he wanted to plant. Vann planted Cobb’s Gem or Kolb’s Gem watermelon seeds. This seed was developed in the 19th century by Reuben F. Kolb of Alabama, according to an online seed catalog, Anioleka Seeds USA.

The Cobb’s Gem seed is known for growing big watermelons, according to Vann. 

“I had a piece of ground I knew would be good ground for watermelons,” Vann said. 

He found the seeds he wanted in Damascus. In addition to the Cobb’s Gem melons, he grows Jubilee and Black Diamond. 

In 1951, Vann’s father grew a 115-pound melon that he sent to Atlantic City to the Miss America Pageant with Miss Arkansas. Vann said his father also had a 95 pound melon that year. The farm where Vann grew up was on Horseshoe Mountain. 

“He picked all the others off so that melon got all the feed from the vine,” Vann said.

The largest melon that Vann has grown was an 85-pound one last year. His largest this year has been 80 pounds.

“It was a job to carry that out of the patch,” he said.

Although smaller melons are normally what most people want for eating, Vann said this not necessarily the case with the Cobb’s Gem variety.

“They are good eating melons. Small ones are usually better, but that is not necessarily so with these,” Vann said.

Vann’s father sold his melons for a penny a pound, but Vann gives his away to his neighbors, friends and golf buddies. 

“I just like to raise them,” he said. “Some people are in awe of them, but I grew up with them.”

For Vann, growing melons is strictly a hobby, but he recalled growing and harvesting melons with his father as a youth.

“Daddy would cut them and roll them to the middle. I would come by and pick them up on a trailer,” Vann said. “The melons would be stacked under a tree and mostly sold by the truckload.” 

One particular time, Vann said two men from Batesville brought dump trucks to get melons. Vann had to hold the melons over his head so that the man on the back of the dump truck could take the melon and put it in the vehicle. 

Vann said raising watermelons is not easy. Vines have to be turned, so that the rows in between can be plowed. He said the rows are 15-20 feet apart, but that many of the vines run completely out of his garden. He usually harvests four to five watermelons per vine. Crows and other creatures can also problems for the crops.

Vann knows how to stop crows, but raccoons are a different story. He said to stop crows, he deals with their superstition of string by tying two strands of string from the panels around the garden. Vann said crows won’t go into an area with string. It is a trick he learned from his father. 

“Coons are a pain, and coyotes are pain if they ever get in,” he said. 

Vann’s wife Margaret said they will probably save the seeds from the 80-pound melon, dry them and place them in the freezer for use in next year’s crop. The watermelon plants are started in a tub and then transplanted into the Vanns’ garden in May. 

Margaret Vann said her husband uses a four-wheeler to haul his melons to their house and usually picks every other day. 

The Vanns then weigh the melons under a tree in their front yard. Vann writes the weight of each melon on it. 

“I use the same scale as we did when I grew up,” he said. 

However Vann made a cradle to hold the melons while they are weighed. The scale and cradle is hung from a tree for measurement.