I’ve been ad avid gardener since I was a kid, and generally speaking I have pretty good results. But I have always grown “the old fashioned way” - till the garden, plant seeds, control weeds with tiller and hoe, add fertilize to plants a couple times, apply some seven dust when and where needed, and pick. This year we’ve had a lot more rain than usual, which is good for crops but also good for weeds. I planted 205 hills of watermelon this year, and I’m loosing my fight with the weeds more than I ever have before. So next year I am seriously considering trying some pre-emergent herbicide. But I have never used anything like that and I know almost nothing about it. I have learned that if I can control my weeds long enough to let my watermelon vines spread out and grow large leaves, they shade out the weeds pretty much control the weeds themselves by out competing them. For that reason, I feel like a pre-emergent herbicide might give me just the headstart that would make a world of difference…but I don’t know. SO I thought I’d ask some of you gardeners…anyone ever try a pre-emergent, and if so how did it go? What did you use?
FYI, here is a good link about pre-emergent for cucurbits (including watermelons) and a list of some popular ones. I know I’ll probably need an ag chemical license, btw. I’m willing to do what’s required to get it if you all say its worth it. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wg029
City, Back in the mists of history, we grew 60 acres of vine crops. Melons always were grown on plastic after we got our plastic layer, I know too late now. For field grown melons and squash, we used Command. Dynamite on grasses and most broadleaves except for pigweeds. Command was like fertilizer for those things, never saw pigweed like that. You don’t say if it is grass or broadleaves which are troubling you most but for grass, Poast is a very effective postemergent on most grasses. At this time of the year, it probably won’t kill but stunt enough that your wms can grow well. Be careful with command, it bleaches chlorophyll out of plants giving them a yellow or white appearance. Wms take the low rate and command is a ppi herbicide, spray on bare dirt and shallow harrow it in 2-3 days before transplanting. Transplant below the herbicide zone as you may get some white watermelons. Broadleaves can be controlled by wicking on roundup. Do you have a tiller with a hilling attachment? If so, with a lillte work you can lay plastic. I’ll explain if you have the hiller. Dacthal and prefar are a waste and expensive, if you can set up a shielded spray, prowl h2o works in rows and between hills. Best
TCM, I don’t know anything about pre-emergents because I do my gardening on a much smaller scale and in even more “old-fashioned” ways than you. It’s just me, a glove, shovel, scuffle hoe, hand trowel, and bucket. I carry my compost one bucket at a time.
I have added a couple of more modern items in recent times. One is heavy duty hooped row covering for the winter and early spring. The other was some heavy netting placed over the garden this spring. That netting kept new weed seeds from entering and protected against birds, rabbits, and heavy rain/hail. That would be too much effort and investment on your scale, though.
Maybe pre-emergent is the way to go for you, but I was wondering if you’d considered the black plastic ground-cover, maybe combined with a drip irrigation system for the times it is needed. The drip system can also give you controlled applications of fertilizers. It’s work and $ to install, but could give you some infrastructure for the future.
You guys just reminded me why I love this place so darn much! The expertise and just plain good thinking is so enjoyable. For whatever reason, I hadn’t even thought much about using plastic!!! The sad part of that is a year or two ago I read an article somewhere about using it for melons and thought it might be a worth a shot and then forgot all about it. So thanks sooo much, both of you, for that great suggestion.
And phil, your information was also the kind of thing I was looking for! I thought 200 watermelon plants was a really large amount…I don’t even want to know how many you used to grow. Your level of expertise is clearly far ahead of mine…I’m embarrassed to tell you this since I just said I’ve been gardening all my life (and I have), but not only do I not have a “hilling attachment” for my tiller, but I don’t even know what that is!!! Worse yet, while I do have a small tractor, I don’t even have a tiller for it. I get a neighbor to till my garden at the first of the season. The rest of the year I control it with a cultivator (with no teeth in the middle so I can go over rows of plants and still break up the soils on both sides) and with a troy-built tiller. Maybe this is why the weeds are winning. As far as what kind of weeds…grass is probably the biggest problem, but it is closely followed up by hog weed/pig weed, and as you said, that stuff can be a bear! Strangely, morning glories are also a major, major problem in my garden.
Thanks again for the suggestions and info!
I use a permeable commercial grade of black plastic and leave about 2 inches between the rows of plastic
and plant the seeds in that two inch space. Then I lay out a number of joined garden hoses along the 2 inch gap with an emitter at each plant. The only weeds that I get are in that 2 inch space and they are easy to remove. I can water and feed my melons just by turning on the spigot. I’ve been using the same black plastic for 7 straight years, so the extra expense for quality plastic is worth it. I harvest well over 100 melons every year with very little effort.
Ray, I hate to sound like a broken record, BUT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SITE AND THE PEOPLE ON IT! That was a GREAT idea and explanation and I’ll almost certainly be trying that next year. In fact, I think I’m going to do several test methods- including all 3 of the ones mentioned on this thread. For sure. Thanks to you 3 (and probably others yet to chime in) I am already excited about next year’s watermelon patch- even though my current year’s patch has just now started to set small melons. I had a HUGE number of seeds that didn’t come up this year. Its the first time I’ve had that problem with more than a few seeds, and I’m perplexed at what happened. Soon after I planted my H2O melons this year we got a flash flood and huge amounts of rain for several days. The seeds basically just sat under water for a full week and probably rotten. THen it got real hot and dry which made the top 1.5 inches of my dirt like concrete, so perhaps seeds couldn’t break thru. Oh well. Like Alan and others have said in other threads, Mother Nature is a fickle mistress and we should expect her to challenge us and should appreciate what bounty she does provide. And in my case, I honestly plant about 8 times more watermelon than I could ever use and I never sell any-just enjoy giving them away. SO I will still have more than I can use and even some to give away. So I’m not complaining so much as just wondering what my problem was.
Meanwhile, thank-you again for all the WONDERFUL suggestions and information. Just because I’ve been gardening about 35 years longer than I’ve been growing fruit trees doesn’t mean I’m an expert or that I don’t have anything to learn. To the contrary, I have lots to learn and this one short thread has taught me very, very much. SO thanks-you for that!
I had a similar germination problem and ended up replanting some spaces 3 times. Not all seeds
will germinate and you have to plan for that. It’s really a good thing, because it extends your harvest
at least a month or more. I have some vines with melons almost ready to harvest, while other vines
are just now flowering. I’m a BIG watermelon eater, and I hate to sound like a glutton, but I’ll usually
eat a whole melon every day. It’s a good thing my bed is close to the bathroom. I grow several varieties,
so I never eat the same melon all the time That way, I never get tired of eating watermelons, and I enjoy
giving them away also.
If you decide to do the black plastic, I can give you the name of the manufacturer, so you can buy direct
from them and save the mark up.
I have a very old 8hp horse tb tiller also. I can’t tell you if the new ones can attach or even handle a hiller. A hiller looks like a center buster but with wide wings. All my wms this year had fruit blotch. I had never seen that before but when I saw the seedlings there was no doubt. We only grew enough melons so my help could enjoy at lunch breaks.
Poast will really help w/ the grass. You can spray right over the top of broadleaves and only kill the grass. I can’t to strongly suggest that weeds not be allowed to set seed if at all possible. I can tell in my garden exactly where a foxtail or pigweed set seed last year.
We had a tractor mounted plastic layer that shaped beds, laid and streched the plastic, and buried drip in one pass for $1400…that was a bargain piece of equipment. I always transplanted any melons to avoid not having seed germ. Squinties took alot of seed too so we transplanted everything at the end. Plastic is the way with melons.
Have you ever seen a wick roundup applicator? Just a soft rope, a tank of 50% ru/water/soap mix that rubs on tall plants, and kills just the plants the wick(soft rope) touches. We used it between rows and planting holes in plastic. I think they are called a red weeder,>$20.
Ah Ray, I think you and I would get along really well! Its nice to meet a fellow watermelon lover. I, too, eat a whole watermelon a day when they are coming in. One of my favorite things in the whole world is to just take a knife out in my watermelon patch with me very early in the morning, pick out a big juicy melon and cut it open right there in the patch. Sometimes if I’m feeling especially gluttonous I’ll just eat the heart out of the melon! I know- its terribly wasteful and self indulgent- but its soooo darn good !
Phil, you continue to remind me why I check this site 100 times a day. ha. Its so fun learning things like you just told me. Seems like every time I read one of your e-mails I have spend the next 20 minutes doing google searches to learn more! Today I’ll be googling wick applicator. But you described it well and after thinking about it, it sounds simple but ingenious and effective and I don’t know why that isn’t more popular. My only fear is that it seems like you’d get some dripping down onto the underlying melon plants? Also, how do you keep the “wick” wet with the round-up/soap/water mixture? Seems like you’d have to re-wet it every 20 feet or more? But I love the idea and want to try it. Same with the plastic. and t hiller! You are just full of good information, phil!
I hear you, but I prefer mine ice cold. I have a spare refrigerator in the garage and it
stays packed with melons. I’ll take one in the house, filet it from the rind, and place the
meat in a LARGE covered bowl, and eat from it all day. Sometimes that’s all I’ll eat.
There is NOTHING better than an ice cold sweet and crunchy watermelon.
I don’t know what guy you’re talking about, but I always plant my two
favorite yellow meaters, Orangeglo and Gold Strike and they’re
both doing well. I’ve grown many different yellows but IMO these are
the best two, hands down. They’re similar but yet completely different
melons, in taste, texture, color and looks.
No, the seeds were like $25 for 10 seeds, which is ridiculous.
There’s no such thing as the sweetest watermelon in the
South or anywhere else for that matter.
Rayrose, Have you ever had Wilhite tendergold wm? When we had summers hot enough, they were my favorites. I always had a soft spot for yellow/orange wms. AU golden Producer was also a very strong , good taster too. Can’t find it anymore. Isn’t big stripe a Wilhite melon?
City, Before you had GMO roundup ready soybeans, you’d mount a 20 gal. tank and a wiper bar on your super h and go wickin’ beans.If you set the bar right. you’d kill all the weeds and not touch the beans. 20 gals. would last 160 acres but it was slow, set the wick right and you’d get no drip. Good ol days, breathing h exhaust for 10 hrs on a metal pan seat. RU weeders work on a vacuum and you lift the wiper above your waist, it breaks a vacuum and the wick rewets. Found them on the net as weed wipers.
Guys, if I ate that much watermelon I 'd never get out of the toilet!!
Chikin,
I’ve grown Tendergold, and while it is a very good melon, the two that I
mentioned are much better IMO. The reason why you can’t find Golden
Producer any more, is that it is inferior to other melons and Wilhites
stopped selling it. Yes Big Stripe is sold by Wilhite’s. The pic that I posted
was a BS volunteer that some how grew through a crack in my driveway last year
It was one of 8 melons that grew from that one plant, and they averaged
47lbs/each. The one pictured was the biggest at 67 lbs. They were some
of the best melons I’ve ever eaten.
Ray, I couldn’t agree more with you on Orangeglo. In fact, its my absolute favorite including both reds and yellow. I remember you mentioning Gold Strike last fall and I meant to try it but forgot all about it until now. Since you are obviously an experienced melon grower, I respect your opinion and will try Gold Strike next year. I try about 5-7 new (new to me I mean) watermelon varieties every year. I’m doing 2 new yellows this year. One I’m excited about is Desert King. Have you tried it?
I was curious about the “sweetest watermelon in the south” but the more I read, the more skeptical I became. For one, I remember the Brix it listed didn’t seem anything extraordinary. I think it was 12 and I’ve seen lots of tests on Orangeglo higher than that. There were lots of little things that left me wondering about that melon and the claims.
I’ve never grown Desert King and have not had a desire to grow it.
Orangeglo was my favorite yellow meater, but was looking for another
yellow as a complement, because I wasn’t really thrilled about the other
yellows that I had tried. I spoke to the watermelon expert at Wilhites and
he told me his best yellow was Gold Strike. So I tried it, and by golly,
he wasn’t kidding. Keep in mind that they also sell Desert King. That’s
how I discovered Gold Strike. If you remember Farmerdilla from the old
Garden Web, below is his description of Desert King. He’s about 60 miles
from me, but we have different tastes.His favorite yellow is Tendersweet.
Let me know what you think of it.
This is a pea green melon with bright yellow flesh. It does not sunburn. The rind is sufficiently tough to move to local markets. Dependable yields. Not quite as tasty as Tendersweet or Orangeglo, but is quite worth growing.
Never have even heard of any one else who knew of Wilhites. I have troubles getting most wms fully mature here. This year got stopped with fruit blotch on my transplants. I’ll give Gold Strike a try next year. My nephew has gold results in S. Montana with a Gurney’s wm, Orange Crush. I have found Wilhites’ Carole to be an exceptional cantaloupe. Tremendous crown set, up to 11 melons.
I’ve heard rumors regarding they’re continuing business, their catalog was very small this year and they didn’t offer commercial seed quantities either. Their products are good, hate to see them leave the marketplace
Are you sure that they still print a catalog? I was told several years
ago that they decided to only offer the catalog on line. I used to look
forward to getting mine in the mail every year, but I haven’t gotten one
in several years. In this year’s on line catalog, there are 5 pack limits
on many of their wm varieties. I’ve always been told that was due to
crop failures. I noticed their prices have gone up quite a bit. Hope you’re
wrong about them going out of business. They are the only source of
some of the varieties that I grow.
Speaking of catalopes, have you tried their Super 45. It is outstanding.
Everyone that I give one to tells me it was the best cantalope they’ve
ever had, and they weren’t just being polite, when they said it.
