On my nitrogen poor soil I push fertilizer from planting until late summer. A little about every two weeks. The plants have to keep growing to keep setting fruit. Best nitrogen is not to much or too little. Go by vigor of the plants.
On good soil they may not need any after planting. Too much nitrogen and too much water, like most fruits, can lower sweetness.
My limited experience with zinnias tells me a makeup brush is superior to a paint brush. I don’t know why, but I am guessing it’s designed for powder over creams
Have had a terrible time with zucchini and cukes germination this year. I have replanted twice. We’ve had wild temperature swings and very irregular rainfall. The two watermelon seeds I planted are both doing great, though!
I bought all new seeds this year and have had very good germination.
Only had to replant once on certain spots. The quality of the seeds and
the particular variety has a lot to do with germination, along with soil temps.
That’s why I always plant late. I also use black plastic, but mainly for weed
control. OG and Big Stripe were my fastest germinators, with Gold Strike
and cantalopes being a little slower.
The few times I’ve hand pollinated, I just pick a male flower and rub it onto
the female flower and have yet to not get a match. Forget the brush.
That’s how I do squash!
The primary cause of failure to germinate seedless watermelons is rewetting the seeds before emergence. They need evenly moist not wet soil. I doubt your soil was all that cold in May but it sounds like it was wet. Did you get rain soon after planting?
I’ve seldom had any issues getting melons up since adapting the methods outlined here Seedless watermelon emergence 6 days outdoors mid March
That includes many yrs of planting seedless watermelons outdoors in March when our average air temperature is 54F. Warm and evenly moist soil is the key. I never water after the initial watering at planting until after the plants have emerged. If it works for seedless, normal melons are a breeze.
Found a bumblebee nest today 20 ft. from my newly planted melons, convenient 
Never seen one before, they picked a pile of oak leaves I was still getting around to using as mulch, heard loud buzzing and then about 30 came boiling out when I pulled a weed. They don’t seem aggressive though. Guess I should stick a big terra cotta pot over the nest…
Mother Nature provided you with a gold mine. Pollinators have been
a scarce commodity for me this year.
Yes, I should have mentioned that I did have rain right after planting…tons of it. I felt like that was my problem this year…the seeds were practically under water (meaning the soil was completely saturated for many days after planting). You may be right about my soil not being too cool, but it was unseasonably cool for almost 2 weeks after I planted. I guess I was just searching for anything that was different this year. As I said, for 30 years I’ve always found watermelons to be one of the best seeds for germinating (2ed only to beans I think) so it was very strange to have so many fail this year when I didn’t do anything different from all my past years. But I don’t want to give anyone new the idea that you need to use plants instead of seeds to grow watermelons. Just like most people on this thread have said, I normally would argue that planting seeds is a perfectly fine way to grow watermelons. Of course there is nothing wrong with plants, but they are a lot of work and I usually don’t feel like they give you the head start that you would expect- but that’s just my own experience and I know others feel starting seeds indoors is a big advantage.
I dd appreciate you telling me that you had good germination with your March planting when it was avg of 54 degrees. Thats about what it was here during what I called a “cold spell” so it probably had more to do with water than temp- just as you said yourself. I also saw 2 of my plants yesterday that had just come up and had much of their first leaves eaten off by something. So it is possible that birds or bugs or something was eating my plants as soon as they popped up. But again, it seems strange that I’ve never had that problem in a lifetime of growing watermelons and 6 years at this location. Oh well…I’ve taken enough of everyone time on my germination problem. I’ve replanted and though I’ll have a very late harvest, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of good melons. Thanks all.
I don’t want to give anyone the idea that an average temperature of 54F is good or adequate for melon emergence. It’s not. I took measures as indicated in the thread I started.to increase soil temperature dramatically. 54F ave is a low of 38 and a high of 70, that’s not melon weather. But it gives folks in short season areas that want to grow melons an idea of what’s possible.
According to your posting above you finished your first planting May 20. The period since then in Nashville has only seen three nights with a low below 60F with highs in the 80s. That’s no where near an average of 54, more in the range of 70+.
I get that. And if I’d known you were going to take the time, which I appreciate, to check the records I’d have been much more careful in my dates. While it is true that I finished my planting around may 20, I planted the bulk of my seeds- the ones that did the worst, durring the first week of may. My planting schedule is very strange because I usually till a row and plant it rather than tilling the entire 1/2 acre and planting all at once. So my planting was spread over many days. But again, most were the first week of may. Sorry for the confusion…I should have been more precise and saved you the trouble of check on the wrong dates. The cold spell I spoke of had ended by the dates you checked. Still, even if you go back and check the first week of may, I’m doubtful it was in the lo 50’s too many nights if any. BTW, for future reference Nashville is usually about 4 degrees warmer than me. Bowling Green, KY is closer and usually the same temp as me.
Either way, I think we both are in full agreement that warmer soil is MUCH better for germination, and whether the slightly cooler temps that did exist at the time I planted were the cause of my low germination or if it was the rain, or bad seeds, my chickens eating them when the first popped up, or whatever. Doesn’t much matter…just had some bad luck this year for some reason. But as I said, I’ve replanted and am on track now, albeit a belated one! Thanks again for taking the time to check and try to offer an explanation. Its just one of natures mysteries I guess.
I’ve had some very bad luck with seeds this year too. I got loads of pill bugs running around. All the rain hasn’t helped the situation . They love moisture. They eat all the seeds and young plants. Don’t bother big plants. But chew up newly emerging seedlings in one night. I had to finally give up on direct seeding and start everything in plastic containers. When everything is about 6 inches tall I move them to beds and sprinkle with DE. That seems to be working so far.
The word “consistent” is the important element in soil temperature
for proper germination conditions. I wait until night time low temps
are well into the 60’s and are forecast to be that way for a consistent
period of time. The same thing applies for wet conditions. I never plant
in wet soil or when the forecast calls for periods of rain.
Sometimes, we get impatient as the seasonal clock keeps ticking and
we think we’re going to miss the boat.
Perfectly put. I honestly knew I was planting in poor conditions with it being wet and cold both. But just like you said, I kept telling myself I was running out of time and eventually just felt like I HAD to get them in the ground. The reality is that I’ve planted as late as mid June before and still got good harvest before frost (not that I’d ever recommend that late of planting) but still, just like you said, I felt the pressure of the clock and made bad decisions and it cost me!
Few pics of my watermelon as of today. Tiny seedling is Orangeglo. Thanks Mamuang for seeds. Slightly bigger plants are store bought Sangria.
Length of that black landscape fabric is what I’ve allocated to them. Should be enough for 3-4 plants right?
I don’t like the fence/shade that close. If all they have is the room on the fabric that’s not much. Will probably work.
What is the white stuff?
It’s food grade DE( diatomaceous earth).
This year I got tons of pillbugs. DE helps s lot.
I hope so…
