Watermelon growing and Melon growing thread of 2018

Well it has begun. The first moon and star and early moonbeam. These where both volunteers I let grow from composted watermelons last year.

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happy kids!

They look great!

Here in northern VA, the melons have just begun setting fruit in the past two weeks. I’m at least six weeks away from a harvest.

Meanwhile, we’ve been eating the seedless watermelons from the store. So far, about 2 of the 10-12 we’ve eaten have been good. The rest have been nice and juicy, but bland.

No melons setting here. No bees

In the morning early you can hear the bees working the melons from 20 feet away. Lots of bees and lots of melon sets

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I have only 4-5 plants. I don’t want to wait for bees. I’ve cross pollinated them myself.

I rarely have good luck with that

I must have had a beginner’s luck. (I’ve rely on @thecityman for a lot of advice),

I monitor female flowers closely in the morning. When they open, I pick male flowers, strip their petals off leaving only anthers and stigma area and use them to cross pollinate female flowers. It worked well last year. I have done the same thing this year. It looks like it is working again.

The morning time when flowers are just open is the time to do it.

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How many watermelons a plant should carry? I see that my Blacktail Mountain has two melons on one vine and one melon on another, all from the same plant.

The same thing is happening to the hybrid plant (seeds) you gave me.

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Blasted gopher got a melon plant the other day, and wouldn’t you know it, it was the only Bana melon that grew from the seeds a kind member here sent me, and the only one-of-a-kind out there.
Such is life. Most of the plants are taking off as the summer rains have been happening. Everything is growing, but nothing faster than the WEEDS!
TO THE BATTLEFIELD!!! …er …I mean the garden and nursery.

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they can carry as many as you like but with more than one at a time the energy used is divided per melon and will be a smaller size than if you only had one,
i didn’t really have to thin my plants this year, but have in the past. i like to let my melons set one melon per plant until the first is nearly finished (main melon) then let them carry as many as they like until winter (bonus melons).

you can garden any way you wish and i’ve seen big vines put off one melon and small vines put off tons of melons so is all dependant on how many fruit your melon have set and if they can sustain that many melons.

is probably dependent on how much sun they recieve and how fertlie the soil is.

I have the same issue. I wonder where all the bees are this year?

I see a few showing up now - they’ve found the echinacea and the milkweeds, and I saw one working the cukes today

Not that you could hear them for inches, but it’s something

Hey everyone, I just have a small melon patch going, as I DO live in Minnesota and can’t get too carried away. :wink: I’m attempting to grow this year:

Hale’s best muskmelon, was a free seed packet from some seed catalogue. Tried it last year, it got shaded out by corn and didn’t produce.

Vert Grimpant (green climbing) Charentais type small melon. Tried it last year, I don’t think I gave it enough compost, and it got shaded too. It’s in a better spot this season and starting to climb and flower. I got the seed from Baker Creek, but I’ve noticed they’re not selling it this year.

Wilson’s Sweet, from Baker Creek, produced for me last year in MN. I was thrilled to have it and it motivated me to try melons again.

Zatta, also called Brutto ma buono, which is Italian for “ugly but good,” from Baker Creek who is not selling this variety any longer. Another small climber that I failed at last year, in a sunnier, better amended spot this season. Flowers are abundant.

You may not know but I thought I would ask. Is it ok to fertilize with blood meal while melon is on the vine?

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from what i gathered on blood meal, its a nitrogen fertilizer which will give your plants a boost especially right when the melons set, but be careful not to over do it and use it at the recommended rates to avoid nitrogen burn for best results

just an update i will be harvesting my white wonder x orangeglo in a week, keep posted for pics and taste result, it should be perfectly ripe then, also let me know if anyone wants f2 of these seeds,
unsure if they are true f2s because i did an open pollination but the only other watermelon varieties i have growing are hime kansen, kaho and gold in gold. i will hold onto a few of these and am still happy to give

Chainmail armored watermelons:


Working so far. I’ll be harvesting this ‘expensive’ variety tonight.
Is there a general time frame from when the watermelon stops physically growing in size and it becomes ripe? Or does a range anywhere from a couple days to a couple months?

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My White Wonder/ Oraneglo are doing fantastic IMO. I just don’t know when the hell to pick them? I know to soon is bad and to late is bad. I planted them May 16 th. And the first melon showed up around June 2nd. The two biggest we’re on the 2nd. Basically exactly the same day.! BTW there are 16 melons on right now

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Spotted my first fuzzy of Diplomat melon today