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.
can a watermelon grow well in 55 degree weather year round ? What can I do to help it along.
No. Pumpkins need warm soils (65°F at 2” soil depth) to germinate or transplant.
I was excited to see 5 small watermelons starting on 3 different plants a few weeks ago, but most of those turned black and dried up. Two of them are growing, but still small like a baseball. I have seen more start, but turn black and shrivel up as well. Today I noticed a few more starting, so I am hoping they survive. What causes them to turn black and dry up? I was surprised, since some of them had been golf ball size, though most are very small, like marbles.
Thanks for your help!
Few things are as disappointing as seeing fruit shrivel and die on the vine. Hearing about it is almost as bad. Sorry to say, your watermelon is infected. The disease that your fruit appears to have is Anthracnose. It is a fungus that occurs most often when the season has been warm and there has been a lot of rain (or, possibly, watering). There are numerous steps to take to avoid this—but nothing you can do now. In future, rotate your crops (did you plant this in the same place in last year or in recent years? That is a common mistake.). Do not cultivate or touch the plants when they are wet. If, possible, grow cultivars that have a resistance to this disease. In a move to eliminate any traces of the fungus, you should completely clear the area of this plant——now or at harvest time.
Sorry the news is not better . . .
–Almanac editors
My watermelon has rough skin is dull and the tendril is dead as well as the tendril on both sides of it. However, the bottom of it is still white. It is growing on black weed blocker could that keep the ground spot from turning yellow. I do not want it to get to ripe
If the tendril is dead, the melon is ready ripe. As we suggest above:
• If the tendril is green, wait.
• If it’s half-dead, the watermelon is nearly ripe or ripe.
• If the tendril is fully dead, it's ripe or overripe; it’s not going to get any riper, so you might as well pick!
It is not uncommon for the bottom to be white; it doesn't get any sun!
Enjoy your fruit.
–Almanac editors
This is my 1st year growing and I have some pretty robust Georgia Rattlesnake vines with one fruit that is yellowing on the bottom so getting ready to pick. No other fruit has set except this past week now I have one that has began to grow. My question is how is the best way to pick the ripe one and keep the other growing? More specifically, reducing the watering to sweeten the ripe one without killing off the other? I'm in the high desert of California, and we see temps in the upper 90s, low 100s in the day and upper 60s at night. Thanks!
Wow—lucky you! By most accounts, Georgia Rattlesnake is on the best tasting watermelons. We suggest that the best way to pick your near-ripe melon is...very carefully. As advised above, use a sharp knife to cut the stem close to the fruit. Be careful not to cut the vine, as it will support the next melon.
As to keeping the new fruit growing: One of our sources suggest that one fruit on the vine inhibits the setting of another plant on the same vine—as if the plant knows that it can only grow one at a time! It sounds like your plant knows that its first harvest is near. Carry on with what you are/have been doing: reduce watering when the new fruits are about the size of a baseball; when the fruit achieves that size, water only when the plant is completely dry.
It sounds like you are having a great summer, with the garden and the weather.
Thanks for the response. Great advice and it looks like I'll have another watermelon to refine my skills (watering & harvesting).
After i pick all my watermellon what do i do with my plants? This is my first year to grow watermellon.
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