Amending soil for watermelons

13 years ago

I am getting my garden ready and am doing the melon section, i can not seem to find the thread on soil amendments for growing watermelons. What do you experts do to your soil to prepare it for growing watermelons.

Dale

Featured Answer

milehighgirl

13 years ago

There's something called "Earl's Hole Method"

I found this on another site, which I cannot link to:

"I ran across Earl's (CHOPTAG Earl) method on the ville. I think I may try it on some in ground tomatoes.

Earl's "hole planting method":
Dig out about 1 1/2 - 2 cubic feet of soil into a wheelbarrow.

Add:
3/4 cup TomatoTone (4-7-10)
3/4 cup Bone Meal (0-10-0)
3/4 cup Epsom Salt
10 lbs premium composted cow manure, or sheep or rabbit manure
20 lbs of soil conditioner (sandy soil full of peat, pine bark mulch, etc. to loosen up clay soils)
Mix throughly and return all of this to the hole.
Transplant deep so just the top leaves are showing.
Lightly tamp down the soil and make a "well" about 1' across so water is retained.
Mulch
Sprinkle a bit more TomatoTone on top."

Here is a link that might be useful: Where is 'Earl's hole method'?

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Comments (9)

cyrus_gardner
13 years ago
melons can thrive in just about any soil. They are not that picky.
You give them more sun, more heat, they will grow bigger. But if they don;tget sun, heat and fairly long growing season soil, amended or not is not going to make a Big difference. JMO.

CYRUS
dancinglemons
13 years ago
OK I've got the heat and the sun but what should I put in the soil to make them happy. I have read the Ag websites but personal experience from home growers would be nice.

DL
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
13 years ago
Watermelons like loose and deep sandy loam soil. Since my soil was not sandy, it helps to add loosing agents like sand, peatmoss, compost, and perhaps extra well rotted manure. I fertiliZe also.

Cantaloupes are not so picky.
growinidaho
13 years ago
YAY! My first ever watermelon seed popped up today and its not time to plant them yet. I am experimenting with a few seeds (maybe they will beat the frost). My soil was just tilled for the first time. I added some old horse manure. The rest of the melons will get compost, old manure and sand. Garden gets at least 10 hours of full sun and cooler nights. Yesterday I planted 8 cantaloupe seeds in tires. Thought I could easily cover them if it frosts again before June. If melons all freeze...no loss, cuz its too early to plant in my area.
thepodpiper
Original Author
13 years ago
I remember reading a thread a couple of years back and the poster said how he dug a hole about 3 foot deep and put in some of this and some of that so that when the roots grew down they were getting what they need as the vines got bigger well the year i read that i decided to follow that advice and the pic below was the end result. Now I do not have a problem with all the other growing necessities of a watermelon Ijust can't remember what i threw in the hole.

{{gwi:8331}}
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
13 years ago
Surely, Dale, you would remember somewhat more what you had put in about a dozen gigantic holes? LOL
namfon
13 years ago
Dale,

I have to ask, am I reading the date stamp correctly ? Jan. 24th 2000 and a baby in diapers, in Michigan ! LoL

But seriously, was your mix close to Earl's above ? I am getting ready to prepare my Melon area and would love to get just a few the size of those puppies, also do you recall the variety you grew ?

Nam
Lydia Winrow
3 years ago
Well I’ve done just everything to ensure a good watermelon crop but they have grown bigger than a baseball bow all trills are turn brown which make me this the plant is starting to die sorry for bad typing Any help?