NiceGuy, It is a bit challenging to grow watermelons in Spokane, WA. The season is rather short and watermelons need time and heat. I found that my vines could usually support 3 melons each. More than that and melon growth would stall out and quality would be poor. I suppose a longer growing season would allow the vine to get bigger and possibly support more fruit, but that was never an option for me. Also, my vines would try to set all of the fruit at one time which resulted in them all ripening at the same time. Then I would pick them and a new crop would set and I would have to wait another 33 or so days for my next melons and by the time the second crop was close to ripe, it was getting pretty cold in Spokane.
So…, I started letting one fruit set, then wait 10 days and let a second fruit set, wait another 10 days and let a third fruit set, 10 more days let a fourth fruit set, pick fruit number one at approx 33 days and keep going on that schedule until frost killed my vines. Fruit quality was always top notch and I got to enjoy melons all season long.
It is not uncommon for leaves at the base to die later in the season. I found I could keep them alive the longest by not getting them wet and not over watering. Hope this helps!
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