You might be interested to know you can graft watermelon to pumpkin in those situations http://cals.arizona.edu/grafting/sites/cals.arizona.edu.grafting/files/Translation%20of%20Tateishi%201927.pdf
May your watermelons produce abundantly and the diseases and insects be confused this year :0)
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I need to read that paper when I have a minute. Squash grows like crazy where I am, but for whatever reason every time I try melon it just puts out a few leaves and then slowly croaks.
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perhaps the melons are in need of some intangible condition which they used to have, growing in their native africa. Squashes and watermelons are both cucurbits, but the former are native americans, and the latter african.
while both grow very well here in vegas, sadly, squash bugs love to raid and deform the plants and fruitsâŚ
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If we can graft apples to pears, why not!! I will read that article closely.
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Just bumped up this topic since I am interested in grafting watermelon to pumpkin. My rational is that I can grow a large healthy pumpkin vine but my watermelon are sadly lacking in vigour. I thought maybe it could be a root growth problem. I found this you tube video Watermelon grafting video and am trying it. So far the orangelo grafted to my no name pumpkin is doing well but it is only 2 days post graft. Sadly many plants sacrificed their lives for this experiment ,they do not handle decapitation and live.
I plan on planting a number of non grafted plants as a control, I would not like to assume success or failure when other environmental factors could be the problem.
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How is your graft doing now that itâs been a little while? This is another interesting article USDA ARS Online Magazine Vol. 53, No. 7
Thanks, It was doing well till I needed ( needed is not the word, impatient is more to the point) to examine it closer and dislodged it. Hands off my next grafts. It never even missed a beat, I was impressed that the leaves showed no signs of stress, I expected a few days of wilting. I only did a few because I did not expect success and it is very early for our area so my new seeds have not germinated yet. I will post pictures of my next grafts.
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âCream of Saskatchewanâ might be a watermelon that is grow-able in areas where growing watermelons has been limited or nonexistent. Iâm no watermelon guru it should be noted. This one grows wonderfully here and if I recall it does well in the cool summers of the PNW.
Dax
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Thanks for the suggestion that is one I havenât tried yet, I will certainly look for some seeds. And as I live in Saskatchewan I assume that it will feel the need to do well for me LOL.
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Thatâs great writing. Itâs difficult for me to stop chuckling!
Dax
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An update on my watermelon grafting
The ones at the back have the tinfoil on, the front ones are the controls.
This is after the pumpkin leaves were removed. You can see that the tinfoil seems to cut slightly into the stem, I find this happens as the watermelon grows. To alleviate that I loosen it just before I sever it from itâs roots and then wrap it with parafilm to stabilize. I canât wrap first with parafilm because to make it stick to itself and create a tight bond the pulling crushes the stem.
Roots removed, this is the step where you find if your graft has taken. It doesnât take long for the watermelon to die when the roots have been cut off.
I will note, that my pumpkins emerge with very thick stems compared to the watermelon. The literature suggests grafting at the cotyledon stage and when the first true leaf has not enlarged, so waiting for the watermelon stem to get thicker is not an option.
This factor poses a problem, the cut into the pumpkin is about 1/2 way, the corresponding cut into the watermelon is way too small when done 1/2 way due to the thinness of the stem. I lost a few grafts and I suspect this was part of the problem so now I cut 1/2 way into the pumpkin and make the cut in the watermelon longer up the stem, not deeper into it. This gives me a long thin wedge to insert into the pumpkin.
Now I hope there are no graft incompatibility issues but I am sure I will find out soon enough. These will probably not make it to the garden as they are started way to early. But at least I have ironed out some issues before I need transplants.
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Some of my grafts are wonderful, but not without many losses. Here they are today, the three at the back (slightly higher ) are the grafted ones the three in front are the non grafted.
Clearly the grafted are doing way better, could be an issue with the potting soil. It could be that the night time temps in the greenhouse are not conducive to growing good roots on watermelon plants but are not as detrimental to pumpkin roots, I donât know . I also planted 2 of each in the ground in my greenhouse. The grafted ones are doing good, but I have since had to rip out the 2 non grafted, they seem to grow for a couple of weeks then stall, wither and die.
I am saving these 6 to plant in the garden later, mulched with black plastic.
It remains to be seen if the non grafted will catch up and possibly produce fruit, or maybe none will.
Not a scientific study to be sure, but I think I can reliably conclude that something is going on here. 
It might be safe to say that those people who have major soil issues with watermelon growing, might have better results if they graft onto pumpkin.
ETA _ they all emerged within a timespan of 4 days of each other.
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OK I was just on the Watermelon thread and cityman ( who knows his watermelon stuff) just commented that watermelon are more fragile when transplanted and they can get stunted. Possibly that is the cause of the growth difference? Watermelon roots are more tender than pumpkin?
So maybe grafting is useful in colder zones where you have to pre start watermelons to get good growth.
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Pumpkin roots are more tolerable of the cold soil. And they probably are more vigorous as all pumpkins do. Really cool, please update on results.
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I will keep updating as they grow. I love to experiment, grafting allows me to explore, this forum allows me to share with others who do not find this type of thing weird LOL.
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Thanks for sharing your experiment with us.
I have not been able to grow watermelon successfully in our climate, even though I was able to get some early cantaloupe to grow well enough. Maybe Iâll try grafting watermelon in the future.
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Just noticed my first watermelon and I think it has âsetâ. I wonât count my chickens but it is about and inch and a half long. The first plants to bloom with female blossoms are both grafted, one on Howden pumkin roots the other onto a giant pumpkin that we saved the seeds from. Actually the only plants to bloom are the grafted ones, the ones on their own roots have yet to blossom.
All of these plants were in 1/2 gallon nursery pots by the time I transplanted them. The roots were solid and had just filled the pot, but were not overcrowded.
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Pumpkins are strong plants so I bet they will produce some watermelons! Do you have pictures?
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I will tomorrow, darkness and mosquitos are keeping me inside.
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