We think we can get some limited number of seeds of the family heirloom 'Schochler' Watermelon from the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in Saint Petersberg, Russia.
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus 'Schochler')
We couldn't find a sample of them from any commercial seed vendor, breeder or association we could find, but Stacy Schochler and a bunch of other ATP members would like to conserve the variety.
So we'd like to propagate the Vavilov sample cleanly and then offer some seeds to the USDA ARS seed bank in Griffin Georgia, and the North Carolina State University watermelon breeding program. And SSE, Baker Creek, Victory Seeds, the Sustainable Seed Company, Sand Hill Preservation Center and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
My problem is that my summer nights are much too cold to expect watermelons to do well. So
I'm asking for some volunteers who would each grow 1-2 hills of 'Schochler' Watermelons and share seeds back with Stacy Schochler and the seed banks and vendors who've expressed an interest in conserving the strain. Stacy will also try to grow them out, but it would her first year growing watermelons.
Please?
Watermelons are insect-pollinated, so in theory an isolation distance of 1/4 mile to as much as 1/2 mile would be desirable for multiplying this first generation out of the Vavilov seed vaults, on its way back to breeders and the USDA seed vaults.
If we have more volunteers than seeds from Dr. Irina Gashkova, the seeds would go first to someone who has grown watermelons before and thinks their near neighbors are probably not growing something that would cross over. Or to anyone who knows how to hand-pollinate!
I'm hoping to go back to Irina in Saint Petersberg and say "we have volunteers to propagate it at this many sites, can you spare 10, 20 or more seeds for each site?"
We would pool multiplied seeds from as many volunteers and as many plants as possible before offering them forward to breeders and preservationists.
From what I read, inbreeding depression is not a problem with this kind of inbred strain, so small numbers of plants at each site, or even hand-pollinating a few blooms, would be OK.
