Watermelon Growing

I don’t want to derail the topic but, when I grew the pumpkin in my avitar I self pollinated it with a male flower from the same vine. I had no other pumpkins growing, just one plant. The pumpkin quit growing at around 280 lbs . When I carved it into a jack-o-lantern I saved the seeds but none turned out to be viable. The vine was open to polinaters and I picked a male flower and removed the petals then wiped it all around in the female flower. Where do you think I went wrong?

We grow only yellow meats , dessert king every couple of years but since we got them there has always been pink ones once in awhile. That seed is very old and it’s true to type. Every year we grow crimson sweet which is rare we don’t grow dessert king. I have enough property where I can grow them1/2 a mile apart if necessary the way my property is laid out but I don’t do that. This is not great wstermelon country but we can grow some by adding manure to the soil. I’m considering bringing some river bottom soil to me. I have a close friend with a dump truck and bobcat and another friend with creek bottom property.

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I bet that river bottom soil would really work well. Not only because it’s so fertile, but watermelons just love sandy soil and usually river bottom soil is usually quite sandy.

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I feel much stronger about this one than the watermelon crossing each other thing, though I look forward to hearing how @fruitnut and others feel. All my life I’ve heard people say that if you plant watermelons and cantaloupes too close to pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, etc that they will cross. I’ve also very often heard people, when tasting a cantaloupe that isn’t good, say its because it was crossed with a pumpkin or cucumber. This seems absurd to me and I don’t believe it for a minute. I know they are all in the cubit family, but I have never, ever felt like I’ve had any crosses like that. I think its just old wives tales! And just so no one says I’m disregarding science based on my hunch, here is an article from a university saying about the same thing…
http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/2006/curbits.shtml

Now, if you asked the question not because of fear of cross pollination but because squash or pumpkins might harbor diseases or pests that would also effect watermelons, that’s a little more open for debate. Squash beetles have never bothered my watermelons, but they HAVE bore into and killed cantaloupes in my garden for sure. That being said, I doubt separating the two by a few rows (which is about all most people’s garden size would allow) would prevent bugs or diseases from moving between the curbits. But again, I’d be more open to that debate than worrying about cross pollination. That’s my 2 cents on your question, would enjoy hearing others.

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One year in my garden in Maine we had Zumpkinis! The pumpkins crossed with the zucchini. They were fun to look at but totally inedible.

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wow! So clearly some things are possible. I’ve never had any watermelons look or taste enough like something else to think they’d crossed, but that doesn’t mean other curbits don’t cross or even that someone else hasn’t had a water-pumpkin or whatever. haha. Just hasn’t happened to me. Too bad about your zumpkins (LOVE that name!) not being edible. If they had it might have been your ticket to owning a home in France or something…wait, you’re already doing that! :slight_smile:

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You are too funny! Its good to hear you laugh!!!

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I’m growing sugar baby in a 15 container… just sprouted the other day. We’ll see how this goes.

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Please keep us posted. I’ve tried potted melons a couple times just for fun, and its been the same thing each time. They do great for the first month or so. Large vines, nice melons, etc. But when the melons reach about 1/2 of the size of a ripe melon of that kind, everything just sort of stops. The rest of the year they just sort of sit there- not dying and vines even continuing to grow a (very) tiny bit, but the fruit never size up and don’t ripen.

That being said, my pot has always been 5 or 7 gallon, so your 15 may make all the difference. I also am not very good at containers in general, so there is every reason to believe that my lack of success at container watermelons doesn’t AT ALL mean that you won’t succeed. Keep us posted!

I did it last year…i’d have to dig through my pictures. It worked. I just limited it to 2 melons. My son and I ate the melons in one sitting. They weren’t huge, but i think sugar baby isn’t that big of a melon.

I just bought Crimson Sweet plant at WalMart (already has a few set of leaves) and that is also going in 15 gallon. Will report back with any success.

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Would love to see the pic. Did you let the vines escape out of the pot?

Yup…they just ran into the yard a little. I remember having to move them to mow. I think i set the melons on a plate or something so they weren’t on the ground. 15 gallons is a big heavy pot so i don’t care to move it much. I have 25 gallon pots too that maybe i’ll try in the future.

I like the idea of letting vines flowing down the pot. It could be as beautiful as those flowering plants in a container.

I honestly had the thought in my head one time to put watermelons on my roof! I would probably fall and die trying to get a plant up there :wink: A blacktop driveway would work well.

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No you’d fall and die trying to get a ripe fruit down. Maybe a trampoline would come in handy for that job. One good bounce and into a kiddy pool full of ice water.

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Or you might die when the ripe melon falls on you head from the roof :wink:

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Knowing my luck that would happen. Then my kids would dig a hole and my wife would roll me into it :sunny:

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Wives can be helpful like that!

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Both early and late plantings are coming on nicely.

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Since this is my very first season growing watermelons here comes a beginner question:

Do you prune your watermelons after the first set of leaves to make them branch out more or do they branch out naturally? I would prefer shorter vines since I grow them in a greenhouse. Is pruning a good idea then?

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