I never prune runners. I am fortunate to have the space to let my melons sprawl. I drip irrigate, and don't fertilize because my soil is plenty rich in nutrients from top dressing each season with fully composted organic material and straw mulch. Last summer I had one Crimson Sweet watermelon vine produce about 25 gorgeous delicious melons. My tomatoes loved sprawling all into the watermelon vine and I didn't prune them either. I had the biggest bumper crop of tomatoes I ever had off one plant by letting them do what they wanted. I planted my seeds, put the drip irrigation on timers, and got too busy to fuss around in the garden, even had to leave town for a month. When I came back the weeds were up to my chest in some places, but my garden produced like crazy! Since I left my lettuce to bolt, I now have about 200 heads of lettuce growing all over, even in our lawn haha. The bunnies are happy! :)
Ha, I enjoyed your comment! It kept getting better. Interesting info. I believe in letting gardens go wild without much help from me. It seems to help them get better. I had a crimson sweet as well, it only produced one per plant, but it was pretty good sized. Also, only watered them 5 times, but that was during major drought. Never fertilized either. Talk about sweet, very juicy melons!
I have grown watermelons for over 50 years. I don’t prune my vines. I keep them “turned in”. And I space my vines further apart. This new thing about planting watermelons and other vining crops so close together, I can’t get with and don’t do.
Watermelon plants do not put down roots along the vine like pumpkins do. The only root system that watermelon is back at the base of the plant. So the only fertilizing that you do should be back around the base of the plant.
He's right, one of the things these watermelons love is Boron....A cheap way to do this is to ...get some 20 mule team borax...Put a tablespoon in a gallon of water mix well before putting it in a watering can...This will make your melons sweeter. I always use this when my plants are just starting out and growing about a foot long.....Hope this helps.
Lack of pollinators ruined my garden last year. This year used Mason bees and leafcutter bees....better pollinators than honey bees....Garden doing great this year. just a suggestion.
I didn't leave enough room on mine cause I didn't expect them all to live. Lol. I'm just gonna run them up and down the fence and let the melons stay on the ground.
I'm from Litchfield county in CT. I plant my watermelons in a 25 ft. raised row covered with IRT plastic film. The row has 5 'hills' spaced 4 feet apart. Each consists of a hole 18 inch deep made with a post hole digger. The hole is filled 3/4 the way with composted cow (stuff) and a handful of bone meal is added. This is mixed thoroughly and then the hole is filled level with topsoil. A drip line (0.6 gal / hr.) is placed with bright yellow markers to indicate where the holes are. The row is then covered with IRT film and the soil is allowed to warm for about a week. The watermelon seeds are started in 1 quart plastic pots filled with Promix BX. There are 3 seeds to a pot. After about 2 weeks, the young plants have their secondary leaves and are ready to plant. Openings are cut in the plastic film where the prepared holes are. Sufficient soil is removed to accept the plants. The plastic pot is slipped off the root ball which is placed in the hole. Soil is replaced around the plants and firmed in place. On either side of the raised row is placed a 5 ft. weed blocking fabric. This keeps the weeds out and the melons clean. The two varieties of watermelons I plant are Sweetie Pie and Sangria. These perform well in my growing zone (6) with some melons getting larger than 20 lbs. They are exceptionally sweet and delicious, better than you can buy at the supermarket. I will try pruning the vines that run beyond the weed block area. I started growing watermelons as a challenge to the claim that you can't grow good watermelons in CT. Thanks for your gardening tips. I really enjoy your channel.
I have a 35 acre organic farm in CT. I grow thousands of watermelons. Alot of farmers in Ct dont grown watermelons for some reason. I did 25 varieties ast year. This year Im doing about 15. I also do orange and yellow. I plant in plastic and use drip lines. A farmer close by said I didn’t even know you can grow watermelons in CT! We sell alot in our farm store. They are a good seller. They are so much fun to grow! I like your method and would like to try a few.
Hey Hoss I sprayed spinosad on my tomatoes because they are eat up with worms and I even mixed it stronger and it hasn’t made any difference. What do you recommend I do?
Can you fertilize at the original point of planting (raised bed) or do you need to fertilize all of the vines where they are sprawling out at? I’ve grown watermelons up a trellis and supported them, but would prefer to let a dozen plants run out of my raised beds, with the raised beds acting as the main water/nutrient source.
Ive got a question?? Im gonna start the watermelons this Saturday with the youngsters.. We live in arkansas ive not ever grown my own garden in my dads memory who passed last june this june we started one in hia memory so any tips to be successful would be so greatly appreciated.
