Young Blonde Girl On The Beach Eating A Watermelon

Charles Fredric Andrus, a horticulturist at the USDA Vegetable Breeding Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, set out to produce a disease-resistant and wilt-resistant watermelon. The result was "that gray melon from Charleston." Its oblong shape and hard rind made it easy to stack and ship. Its adaptability meant it could be grown over a wide geographical area. It produced high yields and was resistant to the most serious watermelon diseases: anthracnose and fusarium wilt.
Today, farmers in approximately 44 states in the U.S. grow watermelon commercially, and almost all these varieties have some Charleston Gray in their lineage. Georgia, Florida, Texas, California and Arizona are the USA's largest watermelon producers.
This now-common watermelon is ten large enough that groceries ten sell half or quarter melons. There are also some smaller, spherical varieties watermelon, both red- and yellow-fleshed, sometimes called "icebox melons."
In Japan, farmers the Zentsuji region found a way to grow cubic watermelons, by growing the fruits in glass boxes and letting them naturally assume the shape the receptacle. The square shape is designed to make the melons easier to stack and store, but the square watermelons are ten more than double the price normal ones. Pyramid shaped watermelons have also been developed and any polyhedral shape may potentially also be used.