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Strange Watermelon Vines


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watermelon patch
 

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I live in a strange world. I could give you many examples. For now, I'll give you just two.

1. Recently, I posted an article giving a detailed account of my experiences with using vinegar as a fabric softener. In the article, I stated that vinegar was a very good fabric softener. I also stated that because of it's lingering scent, no matter how thoroughly I rinsed my clothes, I would not be using it. I know it's hard to believe my clothes could have a lingering vinegar scent after rinsing them in a vinegar solution. It seems this strange phenomenon happens only in my world.

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2. Example number two involves the picture you see at the top of this post. It's not a very good picture. Why would I enter it into a contest? Because it is further proof of just how strange is the world in which I live.

Everybody knows watermelon vines only grow from north to south. This fact was even documented right here on ThriftyFun in a post titled 'Growing Watermelons'. In feedback to this post, Joan Pecsek (in 2007), clearly points out that watermelon vines grow from north to south. I quote Joan: "One oddity about watermelons: the vines always go north to south so plant them so they can spread that way".

Well, people, the watermelon vines in the picture are growing from east to west! You might say this cannot be. Normally, I would agree. But, remember, these vines are growing not in the real world, but in my strange world.

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Prominent geophysicists tell us we can expect north and south magnetic poles to switch places again sometime within the next few thousand years. The poor watermelon vines won't know which way to turn! And they never said anything about east and west. Golly, I wonder what else they're keeping from us!

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My Strange World

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Gold Post Medal for All Time! 523 Posts
June 19, 20150 found this helpful

June 19, 2015

Sometimes my watermelon vines grow a foot and a half overnight. I went out to my little patch just before dark to see if I could detect any movement. A foot and a half in eight hours is pretty fast. I stood very still and waited...and waited. Too bad, I couldn't detect any movement.

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I did detect one thing, though. Direction. My Armenian cucumbers are not growing north, south, east, or west. They are climbing the wires I gave them and growing straight up, reaching for the moon.

....And those watermelons....just like last year and the year before. They're growing from east to west! I'm telling you, children, it's a sign of the times...a sign of the times.

 
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Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 131 Feedbacks
June 26, 20150 found this helpful

Hello !

The Lilly of the Valleys always tries to grow in the direction of the North. Water melons tries to grow to the South and if given anything to climb on, it will climb on it, trying to receive the maximum light. Lilly of the Valleys needs shade that's why it grows in the forest where it is protected from the sunlight by the trees and that is why it grows to the North.

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The Water melon needs a lot of heat and light and that is why it grows to the South towards the maximum sunlight and it will chose to grow towards West rather than East because it gets more hours of sunlight when facing West than when facing East. Plants do not need a compass they need the heat and the light of the sun. That is how the sunflowers follow the sun.

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Gold Post Medal for All Time! 523 Posts
July 2, 20150 found this helpful

Well, Catherine,

My watermelons are growing in an open field. There is nothing to restrict their path of growth. They are growing due west. Not north, south nor east, but west.

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After reading your feedback, I started thinking. When you mentioned some plants being what I call heliotropic positive (meaning they follow the sun), I had an idea. Now, I think watermelons could grow either north, south or west, just not east. It all would depend on where on our little spaceship you were growing the melons and the time of year.

You see, I live in North Carolina. Here, at this time of year, the sun rises near the center of the eastern horizon. It travels straight overhead, in the center of the sky towards the western horizon. It sets near the center of the western horizon. It only stands to reason the melons would travel not southwards but westward seeking the heat and light of the sun. The fact that they are shaded by trees til about noon, only reinforces their westward path. You can imagine all these factors would be different at different times of the year and at different places on Earth. Makes me wonder which way they grow in the southern hemisphere, say, Sidney, Australia. You know, I guess we all could be right.

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Catherine, you have caused me to do a bit of thinking and I have gained a bit of enlightenment. Thank you! This is one of the good things about ThriftyFun. We all can learn from each other.

You are correct on another matter, too. Plants don't need a compass. Plant a vine in a clean circle. Drive a stick in the ground near the plant. Place it to the east of the plant, the plant will travel east to climb the stick. Place it west, the plant travels west and so on.

You would think after many thousands of years of agriculture, we should know a lot about plants. We don't. We are just beginning to learn, for example, the complex ways in which plants communicate with each other and other species. Plants are like animals in many respects. One is, we need them to survive. They don't need us. (Sorry, People, our spaceship called 'Earth' is not the center of the Universe (there is no center), and Humans is not what it's all about).

Plants are sensitive to light, heat, cold, proximity of other plants and what kind. Many are sensitive to touch. Many have developed complex ways to insure pollination. Some actually rage war with each other. Many can cause agonizing death to humans. Many can bring joy to our hearts with their beautiful scents and colors.

These are the days.

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Anonymous
October 22, 20160 found this helpful

It loOKs to be the vines grow north to south but the fruit grow east to west or west to east. I learned this only due to my friend grew some on an above ground vine with them hanging. Only to find that both poles of the fruit are competing for sun light. The fruit supposed to be 35 lbs, only made it to 1 1/2 lbs and both poles within inches of each other. So there fore I believe the fruit wants the morning and evening sunlight

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