I’m with Ray…I grow watermelons in the same area for many years and don’t think it hurts one bit. But lets think about it. 90% of a watermelon patch is the vines, which of course produce plant energy from the sun. The actual point of contact with the ground- the base of the plant, is very small and watermelon plants dont send out many roots or long roots. So the amount of nutrients they pull from the dirt are limited to a small area for each plant-I’d say as little as 1 ft by 1 ft. So even though I use the same general patch area, the chances that I’m putting each plant exactly where a plant was last year are very small. ANd besides, I till my patch a couple times before planting, so the dirt between each plant (which wouldn’t have lost nutrients to the plants the year before) gets mixed in with the little area where the plant base and roots were and which possible is a little depleated from the prior year. SO what I’m saying is watermelons aren’t like most crops where there are large numbers of plants taking nutrients from the soil. A watermelon patch has relatively few actual plants uptaking nutrients. And each plant sends out a great amount of vines that use the sun more than the dirt in terms of area used.
Thats a long and probably not well explained reason that I don’t think planting watermelons in the same general area is nearly as bad as it is to plant most other things in the same spot. I also know that in Cordell Georgia, the watermelon capital of the world, they have grown watermelons in the same fields since right after the civil war (really).
Last but not least, I do fertilize my plants quite a bit. I especially try to go out and sprinkle some triple 15 general fertilizer around each plant base right before a rain. About 3 days later you see a dramatic increase in new vine growth and melon size. I’ve seen a few people claim frequent and heavy fertilize is bad for watermelons and if some of you feel that way then you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I am a strong believer in the frequent and heavy use of fertilize to grow big, sweet, healthy, proper shaped watermelons. Of course you have to be reasonable enough in application not to burn the plants up, which isn’t hard to do. But I firmly believe anything less than a burning amount is great, especially in combination with rain.
Climate matters. I’ve never been able to grow decent watermelons here in northern Wisconsin. Aldis grocery store has great watermelons and muskmelons for low prices, so I don’t waste garden space trying to grow them any more.
Kevin I agree with you about tilling every year. It not only keeps the soil
loose, but it also helps to keep it aerated, which is key to holding down
pests and disease, which I never have. I also keep the PH at a high level, by
the addition of lime. One of my patches is on top of a large decaying tree
root system, which used to always plague me with extremely hard petrified like fungal growth. Three years ago, I limed the heck out of that patch, and the fungus has since disappeared, and has not returned.
I only fertilize, when I till,and again when the plants start to run. You’re staying away from high nitrogen, which is very important. Too much nitrogen will lead to white hearts
The roots spread far and wide and they pull nutrients from the whole area. If plants are spaced say 4ft by 10ft, they draw nutrients and water from that entire area.
Apparently you guys don’t have soil borne disease issues. Maybe I don’t either. Rotation is just an insurance policy against problems developing.
Hey Ray, just to bug you- well, maybe just to mention what I believe is the science- my understanding is that a lower pH discourages fungus. Of course, that is no proof that a higher pH in your particular soil with your particular fungus wasn’t knocked out by the lime- I’m not qualified to pass judgement on that.
Potato scab is controlled by keeping soil quite acid.
It’s neither here nor there in terms of how to grow watermelons, but I think one reason so many are grown throughout the southeast is because they are one of the few marketable field crops that thrive in a long, hot, humid summer season. Then they are out of the ground before frosty weather arrives. There’s only a handful of crops that do well in those conditions.
Ah, but I care. Scab is a fungus and fungus is reduced by acidity. Therefore I believe your experience with limestone may have been coincidental. I assume you posted your experience as a tip- so mine is a caveat to your tip. It might be helpful, even to someone that grows potatoes.
Around here where our soil is acidic and our biggest weeds are pine trees (said tongue-in-cheek), liming is a normal step in prepping garden soil. However, if truckloads of composted manure and sand have been added, who knows what the pH of the mixture in the root zone will be? I don’t.
I have rotting wood and stumps all over the place. All sorts of interesting fungi grow on them. If those types of fungi are harmful, I’ve been unaware of that. I’ve always thought they were doing their job of breaking down the decaying wood, and didn’t think of them as harmful to living vegetation.
The blossoms in the photo are now mature butternut squash and the mushrooms are nowhere to be seen in the summer heat.
Edit to add: Neither the mushrooms nor the squash were intentional plantings. The mushrooms sprouted from the decaying stump and the squash (plus tomatoes and watermelon) from the dressing of kitchen compost.
Thank you very much Clark, not sure if i will have time for a seed crop this year in last year’s patch but I will give it a go and just incorporate into the soil if not.
Ray it sounds like you had reishi mushrooms, or some other woody polypore species growing from the buried roots. Stumps and roots can produce mushrooms for many years after the tree is gone.
Muddy, those are a type of inky cap mushroom. They get their name because after sending out spores the caps will rapidly turn into an ink like liquid and disappear.
The growths aren’t really mushrooms, but several different types of
strange rock hard growths that kept appearing every year. I’ve had
professionals look at them and they couldn’t identify them. All I know
is that the heavy liming has cured the problem
Hoosierbanana,
I like the looks of your watermelon patch. That looks like you could take it easy with that plastic down. The weeds don’t have a chance. Does water ever build up on the plastic and cause the melons any problems? I’m not sure it’s necessary but I’ve set my melons up on 2x12 boards before to get them up out of the mud on wet years.
When I used it in with plasticulture raised beds to keep weeds out of the walk rows I did have some problems, mud actually filtered up through the fabric in low spots where water ran under it. Plasticulture beds really need lots of straw to keep the vines from sitting in water and getting muddy. But the ground cover is woven and water goes through easy enough, more so after it is a few year old or walked on a bit.
I can’t even imagine what that patch would look like without it, it is full of bindweed and canada thistle. Even if it is well kept soil the cover is great though, because all of the weed seeds that blow in all year long are easily collected and disposed of instead of going into the soil.
Something is taking my melons out this year. Have never seen this before but it is heartbreaking. They are getting the largest ones that are the closest to being ripe. It’s as if they know which ones are ripe. My guess is an armadillo because the are getting worse and worse every year. growing up, we did not have them. I could be wrong, could be something else. Not sure what I can do to stop them. Yesterday, I covered what I could with old pots, large wash tubs and 5 gallon buckets.
In the words of Flo from Good Times - “Damn, Damn, Damn”
WOW! Now that is a new one on me. I’ve had lots of things get into my melons, even coyotes, but never one that made a small hole like that. It sure looks like a mouse/rat or other small rodent, but that’s purely a guess that you’ve undoubtedly tried to make as well. You should consider some mouse and rat traps along with one of those box traps like tractor supply sells. I’d love to hear if you figure out what this was. I’m also sorry its happening, because that is heart breaking.
I’d be interested in hearing if @rayrose has any thoughts on this. I’ve never had holes that small. Good luck.
BTW…one thing I could relate to was how you said they seemed to just know when melons are ripe. Coyotes are JUST like that! They will walk past 20 watermelons and go right to the ripest one in the whole patch, very often just a day or two before I was going to pick it! The damage is much different from yours so I know coyotes aren’t your issue, but its interesting how animals can pick out just the right, just ripe melon!
While armadillos have the snout for that, I would think that once they started they’d go beyond that tiny bit. That would be a meal for a small rodent, as has been suggested. I have to trap chipmunks here to prevent some similar type of damage to tomatoes this year. Wildlife seems especially hungry in my neck of the woods this season, although I’m in SE NY so it probably is unrelated with your situation there. These things vary from year to year, but this year things are being eaten that have not for the last 25- and we are not particularly having a drought. Yet.
