Image Credit:
Pixabay
Botanical Name
Citrullus lanatus
Grown as
Toxicity
Sun Exposure
Water Needs
Height
Spread
Soil pH
Bloom Time
Flower Color
Special Features
Resilience
Plant Type
Planting
When to Plant Watermelons
- In cool climates with short growing seasons, start seeds indoors 2 to 3 weeks before your last frost date. Plan to transplant seedlings into the garden about 2 weeks after that date or when the soil has warmed to at least 65°F (18°C).
- In warmer climates with long growing seasons, sow seeds directly outdoors 1 to 2 weeks after your last frost date, as long as the soil temperature has warmed to at least 65°F (18°C).
- Young watermelon plants can also be bought from nurseries. Plant these after there is no longer a chance of frost; they are very tender. Watch the local forecast and err on the side of caution! Consider laying black plastic over your planting area to warm the soil even more.
- Tip: Starting with young plants can result in an earlier harvest (usually up to 2 weeks earlier), so consider buying young plants, particularly if you live in a cooler climate.
Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site
- Amend soil with aged manure, seaweed, and/or compost before planting. Watermelons are heavy feeders, meaning they need soil that is fertile and has a high nutrient level. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.
- Watermelons do best in loamy, somewhat sandy, well-drained soil. They can struggle in soil that contains too much clay and doesn’t drain well.
- Watermelons prefer a soil pH between 6.0 and 7.5 (“slightly acidic to neutral”).
- Watermelons need A LOT of space—up to 20 square feet per plant. Their vines need room to sprawl, so plant them in a place where they won’t crowd out other crops.
- Growing the vines in raised rows, known as hills, ensures good drainage and will hold the sun’s heat longer.
- Plan to space the plants 2-3 feet apart in a 5-foot-wide hill.
- If you’re growing in traditional rows, space them at least 6 feet apart.
How to Plant Watermelons
- Sow seeds 1/2 to 1 inch deep outdoors or 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in seed-starting pots indoors.
- Tip: To allow for more root growth, use larger starting pots than you would for most seeds. Also, consider using compostable pots that can be cut away or planted directly in the garden, as this will minimize the risk of damaging seedlings’ tender roots during transplanting.
- If direct seeding outdoors, sow 4 to 6 seeds per hill, eventually thinning to 2 to 3 seedlings.
Transplanting Seedlings
- Handle watermelon seedlings with extreme care when you transplant. Their roots are very fragile, so try not to disturb the soil when removing them from pots.
- After transplanting, cover the plants with row covers to keep pests at bay. Remember to remove the row covers when you see both male and female flowers on the vine, as pollinators will need to access the flowers.
- Find even more tips for planting melons in your home garden.
Growing
Watering Watermelons
- Watering is very important—from planting until fruit begins to form. While melon plants are growing, blooming, and setting fruit, they need 1 to 2 inches of water per week.
- Keep soil moist but not waterlogged. Water at the vine’s base in the morning, and try to avoid wetting the leaves and avoid overhead watering. Reduce watering once fruit is growing. Dry weather produces the sweetest melon.
Fertilizing
- If you choose to fertilize (and many do), make sure it delivers more nitrogen than phosphorus and potassium, as this will encourage leaf and vine growth. However, after flowering begins, use a fertilizer with less nitrogen to instead encourage flowers and fruit. We like to use a seaweed-based fertilizer.
Flowering and Fruiting
- Vines produce male and female flowers separately on the same plant. They often begin producing male flowers several weeks before the females appear. Do not be concerned if the male flowers fall off. The female flowers (which have a swollen bulb at the base) will stay on the vine and bear fruit.
- Blossoms require pollination to set fruit, so be kind to the bees!
- As the fruit is ripening, prevent rotting by gently lifting it and putting cardboard or straw between the fruit and the soil.
General Watermelon Care Tips
- Mulching with black plastic or straw around the plants will serve multiple purposes: it will warm the soil, hinder weed growth, and keep developing fruits off the soil.
- Pruning generally isn’t necessary for watermelon plants, but vine productivity may be improved if you do not allow lateral (side) vines to grow and stick to the main vine. When the plant is young, just cut off the end buds as they form (before the side shoots become vines). You can also pinch off some blossoms to focus the energy on fewer melons (though it’s challenging to kill off a potential fruit).
Types
- ‘Golden Midget’: 70 days to maturity. Bears petite, yellow-skinned, 3-pound melons with pink flesh. Good for northern gardeners.
- ‘Sugar Baby’: 80 days to maturity. Produces 10-pound melons with bright red flesh. This variety of smaller fruit can be planted just 4 feet apart.
- ‘Sweet Beauty’: 80 days to maturity. A 2004 All-America Selection. Bears 6-pound, oblong melons with red flesh.
what color seed do u need too grow them?
Amanda, I too have a very impatient nephew who just cant wait too eat "his watermelon" so what I did was played a little trick on him. I kept him out of the garden for a few days & went to the store and bought a small melon and put it in the garden, then I took him out to "harvest his melon" Amd explained that it's going too be a while until another one is ready to eat..WORKED LIKE A CHARM !!
Its a hard thing to say because there are many variables involved. If the fruit that you see gets pollinated and starts growing from my experience you can try to pick the first one that started to form around the beginning of September or late august. My grandparents parents and me have grown watermelons and that's kind of what we've always did.
I am growing watermelon for the first time and I have a bunch that have turned black on the ends. Why is that? Thank you.
Blossom-end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the fruit and occurs when the plants are subjected to drought stress or too much water. Too much nitrogen rich fertilizer may also cause black spots.
Can someone please help me? I'm fairly new to growing fruit and as i'm in the UK i'm trying,yet again,to grow watermelon in my greenhouse.The plants have grown well again this year but the fruits aren't as big as a pea.What do i need to do? Getting very frustrated now.
Have you hand pollinated the flowers? In a greenhouse, you likely will not have enough pollinators, so you need to do hand pollination to get fruit. The larger female flowers will have a slight bulge at the base (perhaps the pea fruit that you see?), even though they are not pollinated. They will not grow further, however, until pollinated. In the morning (best time), take a small male flower and rub its pollen (on the anther) onto the stigma of the larger female flower (the top of the central structure in the female flower). You can use a small paintbrush for this, or just gently rub the two flowers directly. Do this for all female flowers (using several male flowers).
A watermelon vine came up in my back yard. I just let it grow and is huge. have watered but have fed it only once. Tons of blossoms. no fruit. Where it is growing was at one time a compost heap a few years back. It has been blooming for about a month but I do not see any baby melons. What should I do?
If you do not see flowers of different sizes (small and large), then they are likely all male flowers (the small types). The larger female flowers should start to appear soon. If pollinated, the female flowers will form the fruit.
If you do have both male and female flowers, it could be that you do not have enough pollinators. In this case, you might want to try hand pollination. To do this, in the morning (best time), take some of the smaller male flowers and rub some of their pollen (on the anther) onto the top of the tall structure in the center of the larger female flower (top part is called the stigma).
My watermelon plants have grown quite nicely. I have six plants each of red and yellow varieties. The yellow ones all have one watermelon in each plant while the red ones have one on two of the plants. However as I live in MALTA we are now experiencing scorching heat (average 31 degrees celcius). Should I cover the plant or watermelons to protect them? Some watermelons have already grown to tennis ball size. Also, shall I water them every day and how much water (in Litres please) by water can. Final query. Can the plants have more than one watermelon? Thank you.
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