Outdoor School students Tyler Green, 16 (left), Samantha Wise, 18, and Alexa Davies, 16, peek at the underside of a watermelon they helped grow at the school greenhouse at Eugene's Northwest Youth Corps. The kids plan to eat the giant at a school fund-raiser later this month.

GOLIATH IN THE GREENHOUSE 

By MARK BAKER

The Register-Guard

It weighs about the same as a seventh-grader. Or maybe a fashion model.

Students of the Outdoor School, an alternative program for high school students at Eugene's Northwest Youth Corps, have grown a watermelon that is 4 feet long, 5 feet around and weighs 110 pounds.

And it's still growing. ''Wow!'' said Pat Patterson, a master gardener at the Oregon State University/Lane County Extension Service. ''That's a very significant watermelon.''

In fact, Patterson, who often judges watermelons and other horticultural orbs at fairs, said she's never heard of one that large in Oregon. ''Not even close,'' she said, recalling a 50-­pounder she saw once. Most large watermelons in the United States are grown in the South, she said.

But 110 pounds is still 152 pounds short of the world record, held by a B. Carson in Arlington, Tenn., who grew a mammoth 262-pound water melon in 1990, according to the 2004 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Will this one get a chance to break the record?

Nope. It will be devoured by the very students who grew it during a spaghetti feed fund-raiser Oct. 16, said Beth Wheat, field science instructor for the Outdoor School.

''We're not going to go for the world record,'' Wheat said. ''We're not patient enough.''

That, and the fact she just doesn't think it would survive in the school's greenhouse during the winter months because it's unheated.

''It's kind of funny to think this is what this used to be,'' said 16-year old Tyler Green, rolling a baby watermelon the size of a candy Easter egg in his fingers and gesturing toward its 110-pound cousin.

Students planted watermelon seeds donated by Territorial Seed Company of Cottage Grove in May and a few large ones resulted, Wheat said. What happened to the others?

''Well, we ate one,'' she said of a 60-pounder;'', and another one was stolen she said of a 45-pound watermelon.

But 110 pounds? How'd they do it?

They're not sure.

If you want to grow a large watermelon, pumpkin or other fruit or vegetable, the No. 1 thing is genetics, Patterson said. That's why champion pumpkin growers keep the seeds of their winners, she said.

These watermelon seeds, however, came from a package, Wheat said.

Water and fertilizer are the next two key elements, Patterson said. Students watered the greenhouse's watermelon patch all summer long and did a lot of composting in the greenhouse's all-organic garden, Wheat said.

Watermelon is a fruit native to Africa and was brought to America in the 1600s. There are about 112 varieties of watermelon, Patterson said.

Asked what variety the monster in their garden is, Wheat said: ''I have no idea.''

Student Elan Barone had something other than records on his mind. ''I hope it tastes as good as the last one,'' he said.