Watermelons

[gary350]

gary350:
Very large melons are a 4 month crop, medium size melons are a 3 month, small melons are a 2 month crop. I will only grow small melons from now on we get a harvest 2 months sooner and we don't have 30 lbs of melon in the refrigerator for a week. I stopped growing in hills 35 years ago too many plants in the same location roots are in computation for moisture. I plant seeds 12" apart in a 30 ft long row then rake the vines in a clock wise circle. Vines shade out all the weeds and grass plants are almost zero maintenance. When vines get too long cut them shorter. My melons always have BER, I give them wood ash once a week, ash is about 30% calcium. Here is a pic of a 39 lb melon next to a 5 gallon bucket that was 8 years ago.

That is a beautiful watermelon!! Looks like my favorite to crimson sweet.
I was thinking I might need to start them from seed to give them a head start but my growing zone is the same as yours so if you can grow melons like that from seed I'll probably just plant the seeds.

Starting melons in pots is a good idea they are a hot weather crop and seeds don't germinate easy when we are still having 50° temperatures at night. I planted water melon seeds 3 times in the garden last summer before I finally got some plants.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Starting melons in pots is a good idea they are a hot weather crop and seeds don't germinate easy when we are still having 50° temperatures at night. I planted water melon seeds 3 times in the garden last summer before I finally got some plants.

I'm thinking I'll do both. I have never stared a watermelon or Cantaloupe from seed so I have no idea what I'm doing. I've been reading up on it and it seems that a couple of weeks is all it takes before they're ready to transplant into the garden. I'll more than likely plant them around the 10th or 15th of May so I guess I should wait a little bit before I start since today is only the 15th of April.

 

[Raymondo17]

4) Watermelon needs 1 to 2 inches of water per week while young, but after fruit set the water needs to be considerably reduced. Dry weather produces the sweetest melon, but you can't always control that.

At what point would you reduce watering? When the melons are something like grape size, or closer to full size?

 

[Mystic Moon Tree]

Man watermellons are HARD to grow here. Finally got them to not die, but didn't have any fruit last year. I immagine it was a lack of substantial food. We produce more chicken maneur now so I will try that. The rule with mellons is that they will change color from their immature state and develope a spot where they rest on the ground. That spot will calous and turn a differebt color & the mellon can then be tapped with your finger. When you thump it it should resinate & not feel as solid as when it wasn't ripe. For watermellon, the articles & videos say this should be at or around 190 days. They are like pumpkin and butternut squash. They have a long growth cycle. The day before you harvest give little to no water so the sugars concentrate. Hopefully this year will be a successful year for fruit fingers crossed.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

I believe im going to finally break my unlucky streak with watermelon and cantaloupes.
For some reson, I just could never have any luck growing melons like my parents did . They could just accidentally drop a seed onto the soil and it would end up making a humongous watermelon.
I never would have imagined these vines running like they have, they're reaching all the way over and climbing up my corn stalks.
Only thing worries me is, they're outside of my electric fence unprotected from the deeran other animals . I'm
Id tee totally die if the deer started eating on them .

 

[YumYum]

Only thing worries me is, they're outside of my electric fence unprotected from the deeran other animals . I'm
Id tee totally die if the deer started eating on them .

You have to give 10% to the animals which looks like you have plenty of. They do look great.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Heirloom farmer1969:
I believe im going to finally break my unlucky streak with watermelon and cantaloupes.
For some reson, I just could never have any luck growing melons like my parents did . They could just accidentally drop a seed onto the soil and it would end up making a humongous watermelon.
I never would have imagined these vines running like they have, they're reaching all the way over and climbing up my corn stalks.
Only thing worries me is, they're outside of my electric fence unprotected from the deeran other animals . I'm
Id tee totally die if the deer started eating on them .
They're finally starting to ripen .
First 30pound melon I've evergrew in all my years of gardening and farming and the best thing, it's one of the smallest . 4 or 5 of them suckers are huge !! now come next spring, I'll probably get carried away and plant half my little farm with and cantaloupes.

 

[gary350]

Watermelon roots like lots of water but the plants like the soil and weather hot and dry as desert. Watermelon belt in the USA is all the land along both sides of the, Ohio river, Wabash River, Mississippi river, soil is sandy and the melon fields are about 6 ft above river water level. I use to live in Southern Illinois near the melon fields now I live 30 miles south of Nashville TN. I have good luck planting melon seeds after our every day rain stops about May 20. I till lots of organic material and sand into 1 straight 30 ft row melons seeds seem to like that. I pour 2" of sand under each melon sand prevents melons from rotting the under side of the melons stay dry setting on sand. Melons are bad to get BER so I feed plants 15-15-15 fertilizer and calcium once a week. Most melons are 120 day crop, smaller melons are 90 day crops. My neighbor grows good melons he cuts his vines short so there is only 1 melon on each vine. I plant seeds about 18" apart that gives me a 30 ft row with 15 melon plants. Rake the vines into a 5 ft wide row 30 ft long. I put marker stakes there melons are when leaves become very large melons can't be found with no markers. TN soil if full of termites they can eat the end off of a wooden stake in 30 days so I have to use pressure treated wooden stakes.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Heirloom farmer1969:
I believe im going to finally break my unlucky streak with watermelon and cantaloupes.
For some reson, I just could never have any luck growing melons like my parents did . They could just accidentally drop a seed onto the soil and it would end up making a humongous watermelon.
I never would have imagined these vines running like they have, they're reaching all the way over and climbing up my corn stalks.
Only thing worries me is, they're outside of my electric fence unprotected from the deeran other animals . I'm
Id tee totally die if the deer started eating on them .
They're finally starting to ripen .
First 30pound melon I've evergrew in all my years of gardening and farming and the best thing, it's one of the smallest . 4 or 5 of them suckers are huge !! now come next spring, I'll probably get carried away and plant half my little farm with and cantaloupes.

This bad boy made that 30pounder look small.
I liked to never got him In the wheelbarrow.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Watermelon roots like lots of water but the plants like the soil and weather hot and dry as desert. Watermelon belt in the USA is all the land along both sides of the, Ohio river, Wabash River, Mississippi river, soil is sandy and the melon fields are about 6 ft above river water level. I use to live in Southern Illinois near the melon fields now I live 30 miles south of Nashville TN. I have good luck planting melon seeds after our every day rain stops about May 20. I till lots of organic material and sand into 1 straight 30 ft row melons seeds seem to like that. I pour 2" of sand under each melon sand prevents melons from rotting the under side of the melons stay dry setting on sand. Melons are bad to get BER so I feed plants 15-15-15 fertilizer and calcium once a week. Most melons are 120 day crop, smaller melons are 90 day crops. My neighbor grows good melons he cuts his vines short so there is only 1 melon on each vine. I plant seeds about 18" apart that gives me a 30 ft row with 15 melon plants. Rake the vines into a 5 ft wide row 30 ft long. I put marker stakes there melons are when leaves become very large melons can't be found with no markers. TN soil if full of termites they can eat the end off of a wooden stake in 30 days so I have to use pressure treated wooden stakes.

I planted these melons in an area that got flooded during the summer of 2022 and it was very sandy soil . Last September I added a lot of chicken manure and plowed everything under this past April.

 

[gary350]

35 years ago I had a 1" diameter auger drill bit it was for drilling deep holes in the soil. After drilling a 5 ft deep hole I filled the hole with sand then I planted 1 watermelons seed in each hole. Melon roots had an easy time growing roots 5 ft down where the water is. Plants grew lots of melons.