The flowering thing is normal. I haven't pruned watermelon, but I have pruned pumpkins. I generally wait until the vine sets the number of viable fruit I want and then prune the growing tip to stop further growth. I do this to conserve space, but it has a potential cost. Reduction of photosynthesizing mass which means less energy for the plant.

In practice this probably isn't a huge thing, but if you have the space I would just let them run.

Thank you for the reply.

Dale

The female flowers will be further out on the vine [near the end] several days after male blooms begin. The female bloom will usually be paler in petal color and green in the center instead of gold.

This is good information. I'm growing melons for the first time this year, and this info will be helpful to me. I'm getting tons of blooms on mine, but didn't know what to look for in a female bloom - or that they were typically toward the end of the vine. Thanks for sharing, all!

The female bloom will also have a little baby watermelon at the base of it, which when pollinated by the male blooms, (via bees, flying things) will become a nice big, juicy watermelon. This is the same for most all squashes, melons, gourds, etc. The blooms also have a different stamen/center thing inside the blossom, take a good look and compare them when you're sure you have both.
And per the original question, yes, the guys always come first before the ladies, and I've never pruned/pinched watermelon, but I do pinch back gourd vines.

Right now I have many many female blooms and am trying to pollinate them. How can you tell if a female has been pollinated.

Dale

If your watermelon continues to grow then it most likely is pollinated. If it seems to stay the same size for 2 to 4 days most likely it did not get pollinated. I ended up hand pollinating mine...... so far so good. good luck and happy gardening!!

Karl

How do you pollinate a female watermelon flower?
Thanks,
Wanda

OK so it's not good to cut back watermelon vines. Is there anyway to "contain" them because my plant is growing like crazy and going into the horse pasture.

I've got a very small space i only want 1 melon 1.5 feeet x 1.5 feet should i dig it up completly. thanks