I’m interested in hearing from some of you first time watermelon growers! How are things going for you this year. @mamuang , did you end up thinning yours down to one plant per hill or leave them at 2 per hill? (I think either is fine) How are they doing ? @UnderDawgAl , @wildscaper , @northof53 , @warmwxrules@Mpigg , and others that are new or fairly new to watermelons, lets here some reports or better yet, see some photos!
As for me, its my worst year ever, mostly due to abysmal germination rates that I think was because my soil was downright waterlogged for weeks on end due to extreme rainfall.
But I’d like to hear from those who are growing for first or second time and having at least some success. As I’ve said before and in spite of my experience this year, I think watermelons are pretty easy to grow, very rewarding, and just a lot of fun. Hopefully some of you newbies will agree!??
I have more watermelon plants than I can keep up with and they have blooms and small melons. I planted seven varieties this year plus the Carolina cross for kicks. Watermelons seem to grow like weeds here
I am no expert but I have grown all kinds of gardens for years often unsuccessfully. I had never grown those giant Carolina crosses before last year. The kids loved them
Ahhh…I got you…and suddenly I’m embarrassed because I now remember seeing and even commenting on how wonderful those photos of your kids and melons together were. I think I added you name to the post above calling out new growers because I saw a post you made about your efforts to grow the Carolina crosses for the first time and just assumed that was your first melons in general. Let me also say how much I appreciate your modesty and honesty- not everyone is so willing to admit that they have been “unsuccessful” as you just did. I try hard not to be “that guy” and readily admit to my failures as well. I’ve been growing watermelons every single year- I even found vacant lots in large cities when I lived there for college and work- since I was a young boy. Yet this year out of more than 230 hills of watermelons that I planted, I have less than 50 plants! So I think we can all have failures- no matter what our level of expertise.
Speaking of which, the one watermelon that has ALWAYS had poor germination rates for me IS Carolina Cross. I don’t know why. But even in good years when I get near 100 % seed germination, my Carlina Cross seeds are the lowest seed to plant rate of all. I usually get them from Baker Creek I don’t know if I can blame them or not. Its just odd that one particular variety would consistently have lower germination rates than all other watermelons I grow. Did you grow CC again this year? Did you have any germination issues?
Those are a few Sorbet seedless melons I threw in a pot in my back greenhouse. They are growing like gangbusters and have a few melons set! Looks like a few more may be setting. I’ll see tomorrow. I started them very late because my time is so limited. I don’t know anything about this variety. I have some Crimson sweet and more Sorbet at my Urban Farm plots and a few in my backyard. At my house some are doing really well but are just getting around to a good bloom and some are not doing much and I’m afraid they are not getting enough sun. I also have a few Cantaloupe in my Urban Farm plots. The melons in my farm plots all look great and I wish I started more now! Kevin if you find me on Facebook under Drew Demler I post pics of stuff that I am growing at my farm periodically. There is also a cool photo gallery on the State Fair of Texas Facebook page with great pics of my farm if you are interested. I’ll try and remember to post more pics tomorrow. It has been a few years since I have grown melons and I’m really glad to be doing it again. Thanks for the inspiration!
I think they all came up. About 90 plants. I am not sure which is which (except moon and stars) my 6 year old was in charge of the seeds. I will know soon as melons are setting.
That is a great photo and project. I am anxious to see if you are able to get good melons out of your potted ones. I’ve tried it before and what happened to me was that I got really nice, healthy looking plants like yours and they set well and the watermelons grew normally until they were a little bigger than a softball. Then everything just sort of froze. Plant lived the rest of the summer and melons stayed on and didn’t rot, but also never got much larger and never ripened. So I am interested to see how yours do. PLEASE don’t let my experience dissuade you in any way. For one thing, I know I had a poor dirt mixture in my pot. I also know that my pot was considerably smaller than yours. And finally, it was in the shade at least 3 hours of the day. SO in many ways mine never had a really good chance.
I will absolutely look you up on facebook, Drew. Your urban farm plot sounds wonderful to me. I may have told you this before, but the town near me that I used to work for had a little plot of land in the middle of town in sort of a rough area. The entire piece of land was probably about 1/2 an acre. They tilled it up and divided up into plots that were REALLY small- I’d guess no more than 15 feet by 18-20 feet. THey put up a board and put the number of each plot and the person or organization who was “farming” it. You wouldn’t believe what wonderful, cute little gardens people made, I’d heard of such things in big cities, but I’d never seen one myself and didn’t even know they were ever done in small towns (this town pop was about 9,000). It just had a profound impact on me. Really. Of all the public/private partnerships/projects I’ve ever seen, this one was far far and way my favorite. I didn’t have a plot but was so interested that I ended up spending a LOT of time there just talking to people and looking at the gardens. What touched my heart even more than seeing how well the gardens looked and how proud people were of them was the makeup of people who did them. One was an old, old man who had farmed his whole life but now was too old to do much at all, but since they till the soil at the start and its such a small area, he was able to use just a hoe and plant and grow things and he just loved it so much. Every time I’d see him I would stop and get out, and he couldn’t wait to show me his little plot and ask me if I was surprised how good it look (I actually was!). I just can’t tell you the joy this old man got from that tiny little plot in the middle of a city block. Another plot I loved to visit was “farmed” by a young Hispanic woman and her 2 young children. She and I could speak each others language just barely enough to communicate but we could do that. What got me about her was that she was growing that little garden because she really needed the veggies, not because she necessarily loved to garden. She was constantly telling me how much something would cost if she had to buy it. She would pick up 2 tomatoes and say “Almost two dollars at grocery story just for this, but free for me now”. She would sit her baby on a blanket and make her older child (7-8 yrs) pull weeds with her. It was a very touching site to see the family all working (dad wasn’t in the picture). I could go on and on. I know I’ve already bored you and anyone else reading this to tears, but I thought you’d understand since you apparently do this kind of thing yourself. I hate to tell the end of this story…but after 5 years of success and stories like I’ve just described, the city sold the lot to a church that bordered the property and the church built a storage building on the site and neither the church or the city ever did urban gardening again!!! Made me furious. They have countless other programs that are useless and cost much more, yet they did away with the best one they ever had. Sadder still, there was no public outcry- likely because the people who need a program like that don’t really know how to engage themselves in the political process (ie go to a City Council meeting as a group, tell stories and show photos of what it meant to them, etc). I had moved away by the time they closed it or I’d have become a Cesar Chavez of that one small town gardening group! Anyway, I hope you enjoy what you are doing as much as I enjoyed watching those folks and their little urban garden plots!
It was fun seeing your seed envelope selection. I’m not familiar with Top Notch seed. Is that a local business or were those ordered online? Based on prices (and handwritten variety names) I’m guessing you bought those locally. I’ve grown all those except Black Diamond Yellow- and to be honest I didn’t even know such a thing existed. I assume they have the same solid, dark green rind? I like the red B.D. In fact, I like every one of your selections with the possible exception of sugar baby, and that is mostly just because of how many seeds they have. In fact, I still grow it’s first cousin- Blacktail Mountain (to be clear, they are just really similar melons, I don’t mean to suggest they are actually related). Partly because of the short time required to go from seed to fruit, which may be why you choose sugar baby. Speaking of an early melon, I always find that Charleston Greys are one of my first watermelons to ripen and would be interested to know if you experience that as well? The seller descriptions usually list Charleston Gray’s harvest time as being pretty similar to other average melons, and some people here have said it isn’t much faster for them than other watermelons, so for some strange reason perhaps its just me and my dirt and climate and so on…but year in and year out, C.G. is one of my first ripe melons. Anyone else (including Mark) find that to be true (or NOT true). I’m quite curious about this.
BTW…glad to know I don’t have to be too embarrassed by my failures with you either. I must say that is one of my favorite things about this site. No matter how dumb of a thing I admit to doing, nor how bad I admit to failing at something (like grafting persimmons) most people here are understanding and encouraging. One more reason I think we have the best community on the internet.
Wow Kevin that was a great story! I hope everyone reads it. Darn I hate it ended that way. I could share a thousand more stories just like yours related to my project. Both the good ones and the bad ones. I have only been at it for a little over a year now and I can tell you that it has been far and away the biggest blessing ever in my life aside from having children. Back on the melon front I am expecting the same result with these melons. They will grow and stall. But man they are growing strong so you never know! I will keep you up to speed. I am going to start a few Canary melons tomorrow in my farm plots. At the listed seventy days we still have plenty of time in Texas. I once started Black Diamonds in July in the Austin area and harvested my last ripe melon a week before Christmas. It was really good too! You never know in Texas. Sorry to high-jack your thread for a second. Thanks for the stories sir!
I enjoyed hearing that your urban farm plots have had such a major impact on you as well. If you are comparing it to having kids, then you really do understand the depth that I said it affected me. Just a wonderful, wonderful project that should be much more common! Good luck with the melons
Some of my seeds came from a local store. One wooden scoop for a dollar, not many places like that around here anymore. We are growing Charleston Grey because my wife’s dad grew them when she was a kid. It is my first experience growing them. I will report back which one is earliest.
Thanks for the nice story about the urban plots. It didn’t bore me you sound like a really decent man it’s nice to hear about people that care about others.
Thanks, Mark. Now I just had to comment on what you said about there not being many places left where you can go by seeds by the scoop like that. I couldn’t agree more and have said that many, many times in the last couple years. Growing up in TN, most hardware stores sold seeds like that. Some of my oldest and fondest memories were driving my MOPED (haha- back when they actually had peddles on them, not the fancy “scooters” they have today) to my hometown’s old hardware store. They had this really neat wooden structure that looked like it was custom made for selling seeds like that. Each slot/small box had a glass front so you could see the seeds and they had the name written on them. You’d tell them which sized scoop you wanted them to use and they’d put them in an envelope and write the variety on it. I can clearly remember the joy I’d feel when they put all my envelopes in a brown paper bag (no one even uses those any more) and I’d head home. I couldn’t wait to get in my little garden (I lived in a subdivision but dad was good enough to have a little garden spot tilled up just for me). So yea…its sad that very few places sell seeds like that any more, but I had to tell you how much I can relate when you mentioned missing it as well. You know, not all progress is good!
I have to echo Kevin’s comments about planting melons in pots.
The vines will grow and fruit will set, but will never get beyond
base ball size. Watermelons roots grow horizontally not vertically,
and therefore will become pot bound and stop growing.
You picked some good varieties, Tender Sweet is a very good
yellow fleshed melon and Yellow Belly Black Diamond is a top
melon and one of my favorites, but it needs LOTS of room to grow. Anything less than 20 lbs. will not ripen.
Getting your kids involved is a fantastic and smart thing to do, but give them
a chance to really succeed and they’ll be hooked for life. Not trying to
be critical, because you’re just learning, so keep posting and the more
experienced growers on this forum will help you all they can.
It’s my first time this year, and I’ve got one about the size of a football, not sure if it’s ripe yet. I didn’t know you’re supposed to try and pollinate the male and female flowers. I put two seedlings, one died, and after the fact I was able to get some landscape fabric and cardboard under the one that was left. It’s a nice looking melon, and a good size to be able to fit in the fridge.
My melon ( we named him Bob) is well loved and cared for. As I posted above, my husband takes pictures and gives the family updates as to Bob’s progress. Heaven forbid a tragedy strikes Bob!
Here he is as of today, a nice sized Orangeglo melon.
Here is a picture of some of the other Orangeglo, these are planted outside and on the right. On the left are Petite Gris. If you will note, in the foreground both the first plants of Orengeglo and Petite Gris are my grafted ones ( on Howden pumpkin) and the ones in the back are all on their own roots. Apparently, for reasons I cannot determine, grafting works for me.
I don’t have much of a patch this year, grafted onto gourd and pumpkin for the same spot I planted 2 years ago to try and avoid disease… It still needs work though. Neighbor let me plant a watermelon and train it up onto her kitchen roof! Trying a couple in compost socks also…
