​The ‘Red-N-Sweet’ Watermelon: How It All Started

• 2024 National Heirloom Exposition | FULL Table Tour! (Red-N-Sweet is visible at 33:46)

• Ark of Taste • Slow Food USA

• Visiting an Heirloom Watermelon Patch in Virginia | The Key Ingredient with Sheri Castle

• The Key Ingredient | Watermelon Vibes | Season 3 | PBS NC

• Heirloom Hunters: Louisiana's Calhoun Watermelons - Southern Grit MagazineSouthern Grit Magazine

• In Each Seed: The Story of America's Sweetest Heirloom Watermelon - Southern Grit MagazineSouthern Grit Magazine

• Red-N-Sweet Watermelon

• Red-N-Sweet watermelon nominated for boarding on Slow Food Ark of Taste

• NLSPP Plant Highlight Red N Sweet Watermelon

• Determining Peak Watermelon Ripeness

‘Red-N-Sweet’ was the last of five watermelons developed at the Calhoun Research Station. It was released in 1987, some fifteen years after the first crosses were made. It is highly disease- resistant, especially to Fusarium Wilt, as are the other Calhoun watermelons.

Seeds of ‘Red-N-Sweet’ surfaced in February 2020.Mrs. Lula Shurtleff of Marion, Louisiana, had obtained seeds from a retired extension agent and truck farmer in West Carroll Parish. Mr. Jessee Peterson (1919 – 2015) was hired as assistant county agent in West Carroll Parish after finishing his master’s degree in horticulture at LSU in 1945 under the direction of Dr. J.C. Miller. In addition to his work with the extension service, Mr. Peterson was instrumental in bringing rotary telephone service to the parish and in organizing the West Carroll Produce Association. He also truck farmed for many years after his retirement in 1980, and among his crops was the ‘Red-N-Sweet’ watermelon. Mrs. Shurtleff had three small paper bags of seeds kept in a cracker tin in her freezer. Mr. Peterson gave her seeds in 2001, 2003, and 2006.His handwriting is on each bag. When we obtained the seeds from Mrs. Shurtleff, we weren’t sure they were viable. Ten seeds from each bag were put between moist paper towels in labeled Ziplock bags. To our surprise, most of the seeds started germinating within a few days. The strongest seedling from the 2006 lot was planted out for production. That single vine produced six exceptionally large melons and another dozen melons that fell within the reported range for the variety (18 to 22 lbs.). Weights of the six largest melons ranged from 30 to 46 lbs. and Brix scores were in the 12 to 13 range. Seeds were saved from these largest melons.

Social media posts in 2020 about ‘Red-N-Sweet’ were seen by two food writers in Virginia. Joshua Fitzwater and Deb Freeman are based in Richmond and, in 2021, contacted us about coming down to Louisiana to see this watermelon.“Fitz” and Deb devote space in their magazine, Southern Grit, to an article about tracking down heirloom watermelons (as The Heirloom Hunters), and drove all the way to West Monroe (during the hottest part of the summer of 2021!) from Virginia to see ‘Red-N-Sweet.’ By that time, ‘Red-N-Sweet’ was in production at Belle Haven Kids Farm and Indian Village Harvest Farm, both in the Indian Village area of Calhoun. During their whirlwind visit to Louisiana, Fitz and Deb not only saw ‘Red-N-Sweet,’ but also saw two additional Calhoun watermelons, ‘Calhoun Sweet’ at Compton Farms of West Monroe and ‘Calhoun Gray’ at Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo. They returned to Virginia with a good-sized ‘Red-N-Sweet’ melon and seeds that were grown out in 2022.They shared melons with local culinary talent in Richmond, Hampton Roads, and Williamsburg. In addition to publishing two feature articles on the melon, Southern Grit has successfully reintroduced ‘Red-N-Sweet’ to commercial trade. In 2024, ‘Red-N-Sweet’ has been boarded onto the Slow Food Ark of Taste, was on exhibit at the 2024 National Heirloom Exposition in Ventura, California, and is currently grown at the Tides Inn Resort in Irvington, Virginia, where it was featured, with Fitz and Deb, on a season 3 episode of The Key Ingredient with Sheri Castle, produced by PBS North Carolina.

We grew ‘Red-N-Sweet’ out again in 2024 at the LSU AgCenter’s Northeast Research Station. The reintroduction of ‘Red-N-Sweet’ was the major impetus for starting the North Louisiana Seed Preservation Program.