Hi, everyone. Last year I grew some heirloom melons and watermelons, mostly Noir des Carmes, Jenny Lind, Cream of Saskatchewan and Blacktail Mountain. Although in different beds, the vines mixed up and some fruits remained undetected underneath the foliage.

This year, early in the spring, a lot of seedlings started to grow on these beds. Since they sprouted early I didn't think they would survive any cold night, but they did.

There are two kinds of seedlings, some with dark green leaves with some white and the others, a lighter plain green.

Since melons and watermelons don't cross, what I have is probably crossed melons and crossed watermelons.

Do melons and watermelons have different leaf color? Are the green and white seedlings, watermelons? And the plain green melons? There are too many crowded seedlings and I would like to keep only the watermelons. I got Blacktail Mountain very early last year, but Cream of Sask had a better crop, so I would be interested to see if I got a cross of these two.
Thanks for any help.
Fran

The watermelons are likely the darker ones. You will know for sure when they get bigger, the watermelon leaves are variagated (in/out as you go around the edge) and the melons are not. Also chances are good that they pollinated themselves so you will get the identical melon as last year. Melons have male and female flowers so the male flower on your Blacktail could have pollinated a female flower. Melons are more likely to cross naturally than tomatoes so the odds of a cross are a bit higher than the 5% or so odds on tomatoes; I never saw a number in writing but depending on how close the plants are it could approach 50-50 self- vs cross-pollinated.

Scott