Grow your own juicy watermelons this year with these easy Watermelon Gardening Tips and Tricks!
Check out these tried and true tips and tricks to grow your best watermelon ever this year!
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Watermelon Gardening Tips
Best Watermelon Seeds to Plant?
Michelle said: “The Sugar Baby (icebox) Watermelons are small round watermelons. They’re easy to grow and have a nice flavor. Just make sure you allow room for the vines to spread.”
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Where Do You Plant Watermelon?
Dana said: “My husband grows lots of big watermelons. Of course the deer and wild hogs eat more of them than we pull!
1) Plant them 6 ft apart in a place that will stay damp.
2) Drop 8-24-24 fertilizer in a 6 inch deep hole
3) Put a couple of inches of dirt in, then put 2 or 3 seeds in, then cover the seeds lightly.
Jen said: “I started my seeds indoors and have some good sized sprouts already.”
Seed Starter Pots
Lisa said: “Plant near your air conditioner. The condensation does wonders!”
Cassandra said: “Watermelon need lots of room to spread and roam, and plenty of sun. Keep the dogs away, at least mine liked to use mine as pillows. LOL.”
Jamie said: “Don’t plant next to cucumbers… it messes with their flavors.”
Beth said: “Keep them away from squash too! We ended up with these crazy half watermelon half squash things… total waste!!”
Melissa said: “Do not plant them anywhere near your patio if you plan on going out on your patio this summer!!! I learned that the hard way.”
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Neita said: “Plant then underneath an inch or so of hay. It’ll stay wet, and before you know it… red sunshine happiness!”
Cindy said: “Plenty of room, because they spread like mad! My father-in-law liked to turn his often to get nice round melons and no soft spots.”
Julie said: “Plant one plant in a large pot and let it grow where it wants. My father-in-law always does this and has great results.”
How to Grow Watermelon:
Dana said:
1) Keep the ground around them loose, either disk it with the tractor or break it up with a hoe if you have a small area.
2) When they’ve vined, but have not bloomed yet, you can add some ammonium nitrate as fertilizer a couple of feet from the plant.”
Sarah said: “My grandpa always says that they like heat and sun. He did use straw to keep some moisture in.
He grew delicious watermelons for years, in Gaylord, KS – home of the Watermelon Day festival.”
Frugal Tip: Skip the watering can, and make your own budget-friendly watering jug! It’s quick, easy, and works like a charm!
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Sheri said: “Don’t let your soil dry out.”
Dee said: “Be sure you give it lots of water. Once a melon forms, I put either straw or newspaper under it so it isn’t sitting in the wet dirt.”
Soil Moisture Meters
Sarah said: “My grandpa always says that you shouldn’t keep them too wet, that they like heat and sun. He did use straw to keep some moisture in.
He grew delicious watermelons for years, in Gaylord, KS – home of the Watermelon Day festival. Good Luck!”
How Long Does it Take for a Watermelon to Be Ready?
Once you plant your seeds, plan on approximately 3 – 4 months for your watermelon to be ready to enjoy!
Amanda said: “Our kiddos sit on the back porch and eat watermelon. Several months later we noticed a vine coming up with watermelons! We actually got to eat one from a spit out seed that landed just right and grew by itself.”
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Do YOU have any Watermelon Gardening Tips or tricks for Growing Watermelon??
Leave a comment & share!
Christie says
I love watermelons and this will be very helpful when we decide to plant some because we always buy them in store!
Heidi says
Oh yes… nothing beats a homegrown watermelon! 🙂
Amanda says
As a little girl my parents always had a garden which us 3 older kids helped out with picking and taking care of. We never grew watermelons though. My fiance and I did our first garden together last year which was when we moved into our own house and we planted our watermelons on a mound which 3 plants grew out of each mound and were in a triangle formation. It worked well and was easy to manipulate the vines so they weren’t twisting together. Just be sure to do so at least once a week otherwise port won’t go so well.
brenda says
I am definely interested in trying the plastic over the mounds
deb popson says
to grow melons we always dig a hole about a foot deep,fill it with manure,then water the manure till sopping wet..mound the soil over the top,stretch black plastic over all. make an x cut on top of each mound and set your plant into the soil. mounds should be about 2-3 feet apart. i do not feed or water after that and harvest 12-15 inch ice box type watermelons.cantaloupe and honey dews are grown the same way.
Martha says
I put black plastic under my plants and have always had good melons.
KayleneP @ The Links Site says
We had some plants come up by themselves recently and some are right next to the cucumbers! I will be interested to see if it does have any influence on the fruit.
Nina says
I have to disagree that they will not cross pollinate with cucumbers. We planted 2 cucumber plants, a yellow watermelon, and a regular watermelon all in pretty close proximity. Our yellow watermelon was a pale pink and tasted just like a cucumber and our regular watermelon was a yellowish white. The seeds in them were huge as well and made them almost inedible. Now I have no degree in horticulture but I can tell you this really happened. It was our first time gardening and we were shocked.
Savannah says
You should contact the place where you bought your seeds. The problem with cross pollination isn’t that the present year’s fruit will be off, it’s that the next harvest will. When a flower is pollinated, the fruit begins to grow, but the genetics for that fruit are already in place. What causes the fruit to grow is the maturation of the seeds. The fruit just protects the seeds. It’s the seeds that need the genetic material from the male blooms to grow, and it’s those growing seeds that will hold the crossed genetic material. Basically, what I’m say is: it sounds like you got a batch of bad seeds. That happens sometimes, though most seed producers take better care not to let it happen. As long as you aren’t trying to save seed, you don’t need to worry about cross pollination.
Songbird says
You didn’t let your watermelons mature enough. I thought I was having the same problem last year until I eft them alone to ripen.
I am taking a master gardening class and can back up what all the horticulturist are saying. The fruit is a byproduct of the seed. The seed is a result of pollination. So the fruit you get is not a result of that years pollination. The ant you get next year and it’s fruit would be. Hope that makes sense.
Teresa Clark says
I have been gardening for 20 years and I have always planted cucumbers and watermelon together, no issues. I find it strange that cross pollination happened. Heirloom vegetables are the best.
Donna says
It is impossible for watermelons to cross pollinate with cucumbers and squash. The two can be planted right next o each other. Too much wet weather will prevent the flowers from properly pollinating and the fruit will be malformed and taste bland. I have a degree in Horticulture and worked for a large seed company on the vegetable trials for a few years.
lee A says
Thank you that clearing that up because I just did that same thing yesterday. My thinking they are all in the dame family and they would work well with each other.
Barbara Van Dyck says
Actually they are all from the Cucurbitaceae family and will all cross with each other but not the first year, you have to save to seed and replant to get crazy stuff and unetible crosses. The only reason that they wont cross now if they don’t, is because they have been genetically altered or rendered sterile. Ask Monsanto.
sandy says
It has been raining for 1 month will that hurt them
Fabulous Fay says
We had cantaloupe and cucumbers in the same garden & some interesting things grew. It looked like a cucumber, taste like a cucumber but the inside was the color of a cantaloupe. Explain that can u?