Citrullus lanatus
Origin: Xinjiang, Western China
Improvement status: Cultivar
Seeds per packet: ~18
Germination tested 01/2026: 83%
Life cycle: Annual
Yixuan' is a sweet, dark-pink-fleshed watermelon from Xinjiang, the westernmost province of China, and long a center for the breeding and production of excellent watermelons and melons. This one is round, medium-sized (3-5 pounds), with solid light-green skin. Under optimal conditions (dry and hot), it can ripen to become one of the sweetest watermelons you'll ever taste (this is confirmed by USDA testing). Our seeds were grown by EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman at the EFN flagship farm in Elmer, New Jersey. The first time he grew them, a year earlier at The Seed Farm at Princeton University, the ripe fruit were one day demolished in the field by some unseen varmints (probably groundhogs). Thankfully they left a few seeds so we could try again the next year.
Xinjiang is the homeland of the Uyghur people, a Turkic-language-speaking Muslim community struggling under intense government repression. Despite its remote location, Xinjiang is one of the most surveilled places on the planet. Particularly since Russia's war in Chechnya and the September 11th attacks in the United States, the Chinese government has used the specter of Islamic extremism as a pretext for overwhelming domination of the indigenous people there. Many human rights activists fear the Chinese government — and, far too often, the multinational corporations they hire to assist them — are using the Uyghur people as guinea pigs as they test various systems for round-the-clock surveillance, facial recognition, detention camps, forced labor, involuntary sterilization, family separation, and even population-wide DNA profiling. More than a million people are said to have been imprisoned in "re-education" camps. The US and many other governments have said that China's behavior in Xinjiang amounts to genocide.
We are hopeful that by sharing these seeds, we can help raise awareness about what's happening in Xinjiang, and do our little part to help preserve a part of their ancient culture, before it is wiped off the map. We dream of a day when we will be able to return these and other seeds to free people in a free Xinjiang.
GROWING TIPS: Direct-sow after soil warms in the spring, when you might plant cucumbers, beans, or sweetcorn, or else start in flats a week or two before last frost. Leave plenty of room for them to sprawl.
