Brokenbar,
That is an interesting read. I agree on setting out young plants...about 21 days or even less if conditions permit.

I like your choice of good top soil, sand, peat, and horse manure. Deep holes are good, but kinda tiring unless they can be used repeatedly. Tell us about your disease experiences if any using old melon ground.

I don't prune vines but do believe in limiting the number of fruits to get good quality.

What varieties are you raising? I raise many different ones and find that certain spots raise better melons than other spots even though they look just alike.

I agree with adequate watering and don't have splitting or trouble getting sweetness.

Looking forward to hearing some more from you.

I have certainly learned the hard way that disturbing the tap root on melons is a disaster. With volatile continental weather I have decide upon a tactic I used with pole beans. I grew then in a green house in 5 gal containers. When they were a foot tall I moved them to a trellis and they were 8 feet in June. Many of my tomatoes had issue because of disturbed tap roots because I had to hold off for weeks.
Since I don't have the room, I grow icebox melons anyway like Minnesota midget and sugar baby. So I will direct sow in 5 gal containers in a green house and will move them out in June with no transplant shock ever. Cucumbers and melons just don't like to move...

Thanks Brokenbar, I will incorporate your idea of the well dug area for the tap root next year as well as some manure. You did not state whether you use black plastic or not? I have found the plastics extra heat in the early part of the season beneficial as well as reducing moisture loss and weeding. I also tried mounding the soil and planting the seeds on the south side of the mound only, as I direct seeded this year, it seems to work great. Wasn't sure with our short season if I'd get anything this year with direct seed, but I did.

Funny thing...I have pulled up hundreds of my melon roots to lessen disease possibilities. I don't recall ever finding a taproot....always horizonal roots...even when extra healthy. I don't have sandy soil, but even when I have dug some hole for the melon, they have not taprooted the hole.

Wayne, I pull up a big one and the laterals go out as far as 6 to 8 feet. I was particularily careful the first year I used this method because I wanted to see for myself.
The slope mine are growing on is probably 10 feet deep of really old horse manure(like 10 years old) and dirt we brought in. It has never been walked or driven on so it's pretty loamy. We even dug up the original ground underneath
with our backhoe and then rototilled it a gajilion times. Lots of bentonite in the soil here a lot like georgia clay.
Who knows...maybe I have the perfect dirt in a perfect spot and that's the secret!

Brokenbar, tell us more about why you think California is the best place to grow watermelon. We certainly can't purchase tasty watermelon here. When I decided to grow them, my nay-saying husband couldn't google any good reason why California had lousy watermelon (do they need acid soil, humidity, etc.) and therefore continues to insist my watermelon project is a waste of time. So far I picked one unripe, and a second one was only as good as store-bought but that was a volunteer in a huge container out of the sun so I didn't expect much (did have excellent texture). The others are grown in place on a south-facing slope fed with composted manure and don't appear ready to harvest. Please provide me with more logical experience about why my DH is FOS on California watermelons :)

I think Brokenbar should have been more specific rather than saying "California". I am sure he was refering to the Central Valley or Imperial Valley of California when saying California is best area to grow watermelons. To get good sugar accumulation you need a good difference between day and night temperature. I see you are in zone 10 (on coast?). If your day and night temperature is only different by 10 degrees you will have a hard time growing melons with good flavor/sugar.

In my experience the best thing to do when growing melons of any type is not overwater after fruit set. I stop watering "melons" completly 1 week after 1st fruit set. I stop watering watermelons 20 days after 1st fruit set. I usually get 2 melons per plant. I also practice "deep" watering during the entire season and typically water once or twice a month for 8-10 hours with a soaker hose.

Jonny

The best growing advice I can give [not concerning soil and fertilization] is: To grow the very best quality melons in the full sized category, allow only 1 fruit at a time on the plant at least until that first one is nearly done sizing up. Then allow the second fruit. Of course 2 fruits at a time will be ok oftentimes when the plant vigor is high. And sure someone will recall 3 or more good ones at a time [me too] but that is the rare exception for most plants, gardens, and years.

Yumamelon, I'm growing atop an 800' hill on the inland side of downtown and have a day/night temperature variable between 25-40 degrees. So our situation is very different from the coast. I have never read any suggestion that temperature differential was significant for watermelon and find this is interesting. I'm working on reducing watering overall, and watering deeply when I do so, and recently installed and have begun using a drip system. Because I'm growing on a 45 degree slope and can't dig (to check dampness) much without erosion or root damage, and obviously the water seems to just run off alot - reducing watering is still a work in progress. Tomorrow I may harvest my first charentais, and soon my first ripe watermelons, from this patch, and we'll see what they reveal about cultivation in these weird conditions. That is if the big one doesn't have a stem malfunction and go crashing down the hill like a bowling ball and smash in the road.

Jonny, YEP...El Centro-Imperial Valley. I was born on a cattle ranch near there. There & Texas, Georgia and Mexico are the leaders I think.

I can't overstate the adding of compost or well aged manure. Watermelons are hardy feeders. I don't use plastic because my slope has so much compost, etc and is so loamy and fluffy that it heats up rapidly. I know you all think we live a big icecube here but I am actually high desert, surrounded by the Big Horn Mts. Prior Mts., Absorkas and the Beartooths, so go most of the year with no snow on the ground (so "heaving" of perennials is a problem.)

In a NORMAL year (one of those about every 5 years...BAH)
We are safe to plant out after May 16 and usually do not get frost until the middle or end of Sept. This years SUCKS!!! 27 degrees on Jun 11 and cold and rainy the whole month so I am into the big growth spurt/ripening of everything as I type. Mother Naure is on my "hag" list this year.

I really think the not disturbing them and not starting them too early is HUGE.

Hey Brokenbar,
It is always good to run into some one from the desert. I assume from my screenname you know I am from Yuma. The leading states are FL, TX, GA, CA for production acres in US. Mexico is around the size of GA in acreage.

Tomatozilla,
I dont' know what to tell you. It sounds like you aren't in ideal conditions for growing watermelons. The slope and water management sound like issues. Can you terrace your slope with raised beds?

Jonny

Yumamelon...I miss the desert! It's high desert here in Northern Wyoming so some parts are similar. Miss the canals and the catfishing and "going to the River" for fourth Of July! We bought a house down on the Yucatan penninsula in Mexico and I dream of the day when I can garden year round. 5 more years! Not only do I vegie garden but I have a sun-dried tomato business to all the restaurants and I have nearly 200 orchids indoors (My hubby loves me a lot!) Wyoming is just tough...you have to squeeze a year's worth of work into 6 months! And I really do think that NO WHERE grows melons like the Imperial Valley. Alfalfa as well. Only get 2 cuttings here and they can't believe it when I tell them they get 6 or 7 in the Imperial Valley. Being from Yuma...you know 'bout melon!

The supermarket watermelons look like a box of cannonballs. I suppose many shoppers pick a smallish one...."I don't need a larger one"........not knowing that larger melons of a variety mean more oomph to the melon. The growers plant them close together to get the maximun yield...just like the corn growers do which means smaller ears but more ears and a higher yield overall.
I find that the commercial varieties of watermelons are pretty good when raised by the home gardener.
The first year growing watermelons can be very good in the right growing conditions. After that disease seems to slip in unless one has disease free seed and/or saves their own seeds from disease free melons.

I should have added that if one has a lot of good rotational growing area for melons, disease can be more minor....but most of us don't qualify there.

The best melons are grown in a rich sandy loam. The best fertilizer to use is composted manure and while horse manure works, rabbit manure outperforms it in every way. Soil PH should be in the range of 6.0 to 6.5.

Here are the things I do to raise terrific melons. I prepare the soil with lots of manure worked into the top 6 inches. I put down woven plastic mesh 15 feet wide by 300 feet long to suppress weeds and to heat the soil for early growth. I start seed indoors in cell trays about 10 days before transplanting. Cut a slot into the woven plastic mesh about 4 inches long by 2 inches wide and set the plant into the hole with a cup of water to settle the roots.

Of all the things mentioned above, you failed to mention variety. I've grown the very best melons from carefully selected seed such as Jubilee, Orangeglo, Black Tail Mountain (extra early for the north), Luscious Golden, and a few heirloom varieties popular in this area.

DarJones

fusion,

I agree that variety can be important. For example I tried JubileeII several years ago. It was a vintage year here and only JubileeII didn't do well nor taste good...so I scrubbed that one. Another year I tried Blacktail Mt. and they both died before harvest...so I scrubbed that one....probably too much disease pressure here.
The point is that different places are, well different I guess. As I said above, I find that several of the commercial recent varieties do do well here....and taste great. I also like Organgeglo too. It is large and delicious AND a good grower here.

I find that watermelons do really well in the best spots but I have a lot of middlin performers too. Sometimes plants will look great one day and the next day several plants will start a wilt down process in unision the very same day in lockstep...go figure. Oh to have all new rich sandy loam every year with no disease organisms!!

Fusion, Is that woven plastic mulch the more common weed barrier. 15 feet wide is sold? Also, if it really warms the soil as you say, that would be good too as it needs it here early on. Can it be reused?

Okay...here is what I grow and I have not been dissapointed in any of them:
Black Diamond Red
Black Diamond Yellow
Desert King
Charleston Gray
Moon & Stars
King & Queen(this melon is one of the few that stores well.)
Rattlesnake
Orange Glo
Carolina Cross
FLorida Giant

If I had to say, I think that most of my melons have averaged about 35 pounds.

Update & Questions: So I finally harvested some charentais and ripe watermelon from the slope under discussion. The charentais were quite good, though not revelatory as reputed. The first one was nearly three times normal size (that's grapefuit size). The first ripe watermelon could be better, but is better than anything I've had in the last few decades. It's about the size of three large bowling balls and yellow-fleshed, either a small Desert King or large Yellow Doll (more likely). Yes I tagged them but the vines are a spaghetti farm and I can't follow them now. I forgot to point out that I didn't put the seeds in the ground until early June, and we have had a freakishly cold summer this year, so the melons were growing and ripening in much cooler temperatures than normal or necessary (if I had started them early like I should have). So for my first melon effort since childhood this showing is satisfactory, to be improved upon in future. DH argues that in Florida, where he ate tastiest watermelons, it rained every day which should have left them tasteless. Yesterday I read on the dragonfruit list the statement that use of soil sulfer improves brix (sugar at harvest) - which was very interesting to me because our soil needed it and I had just done it, though not early enough to influence this crop. I'm really glad to hear you'all praising your moon & stars - they are beautiful and I really wanted to grow some but can't afford the space unless somebody says they taste great. Vall3fam, I'm waiting for the legal disclaimer on the 30lb. watermelon that says "do not attempt to swallow whole unless professional"! Far as pretty tasteless food grouse, you are preaching to the choir!

Wayne, The woven mesh fabric I use is sold by shawfabrics under the Lumite brandname. It runs about $1 per ft delivered on a 300 ft roll. I buy 3 or 4 rolls at a time to reduce average shipping costs. Typical durability is about 4 years though the website says 5.

DarJones

I live near Oakland, CA is this a good area for growing melons?

Eric, there are many microclimates in the SF Bay area, but the fog and powdery mildew can make melon growing tough around there. Here's some suggestions from the CA forum:

Ambrosia (M)
Earlidew (H)
Earliqueen (M)
Early Hanover (M)
Earlygold (M)
Fastbreak (M)
Flyer (M)
Galia (G)
Haogen (M)
Jenny Lind (M)
Minnesota Midget (M)
Sweet 'n Early (M)
Tropical Passport (G)

G = Galia type melon
H = Honeydew
M = Muskmelon ("cantaloupe")

borkenbar
thanks so much for sharing that bit of info. I have a stupid questions I wish someone could answer for me. Can I plant those white seeds you find in watermelons? Or can you only plant the black seeds? I understand planting from watermelons may be risky because of hybrid. But I just want to give it a shot (I'm a beginner gardener). If anything grows I'll know to purchase seeds next go round, oh also, I can't seem to find any watermelon seeds anywhere - guess I waited to late to buy, which is why I'm looking at planting my watermelon seeds.

Anyhelp would be useful.

sldeal

If you mean a melon that has both dark and white seeds, the white watermelon seeds are immature and will not grow melons! But unless it's a hybrid watermelon you've eaten, you can save and plant the dark seeds from any ripe watermelon. Many are open-pollinated or heirlooms, which means they'll grow to be just like the parent you ate!

Anney thanks for your reply.
No, there weren't any dark seeds just the white seeds. I kinda figured that but I was so hoping I was wrong. Guess I gotta keep looking around to see if I can find a pack of seeds or at least an old fashion watermelon with dark seeds. :-)

Sldeal, If a watermelon has both white and dark seeds, the white seeds are immature ones. If you have very many immature seeds, melon quality suffers greatly. On the other hand many of the antique melons have white seeds. Examples are Dixie Queen, Stone Mountain, Orangeglo etc. These are perfectly good to plant, germination wise.
{{gwi:40846}}

sldeal,

Most supermarkets and large retail stores have vegetable seed racks with watermelon seeds....today.

If you are refering to the small white immature seeds in seedless melons, they will not grow...ever.

sldeal

farmerdilla is right, of course. I thought you were talking about watermelons that had dark and those almost transparent light-colored seeds, the immature ones.

If the melon you ate had all white seeds, as he notes, you should be able to grow them (the big white seeds, not the immature ones) if the melon isn't a hybrid.

I live in FAR west texas and I have started to grow what I call magical watermelon...one day I was watering some marigolds I planted in my flower bed an noticed a strange leaf, I asked around found it was water melon. That was a few weeks ago and now my melons have grown to the size of my hand. Two questions, can watermelon survive in a narrow moon shapped flower bed? bout 5ft x 2 and are there such thing is unedible or poisonous wild watermelon?

I've been reading up on the watering...and some people say water deeply continuously, some people say stop watering completely and only water once in a month. So I'm hearing two sides of the story...water often and water sparsely. Which one is it and why?

Check out my watermelon growing from a topsy Turvy. I got a secret fertilizer you guys might be interested in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHME1jTB1hs

I can't say that I agree. I planted watermelon seeds directly in the ground with no amendments. Just watered them and fertilized them. We sure had some sweet melons that year. I planted the seeds under my muscadines.

Well Watermelon needs lots of water and fertilizer. That's what I'm learning. That's why they have so much water in them. Everyone I ever heard said that they are heavy feeders and what I've found is that it's very difficult to over water it but that's one thing good about the Topsy Turvy, you can't over water any plant because it drains straight out. On my videos, I'll keep you updated on the progress of my topsy turvey watermelon week by week, so check it out.

First time growing water melons right outside of Boston. I grew 2 types, Crimson Sweet and this other one in the picture that I forgot the name. The crimson sweets didn't seem to be growing as quick and vigorously, but 2 fruits did start to grow on a few vines. They are about the size of golf balls and on looks like it's not going to make it and will rot and drop. Not sure why as I am not doing anything different to these plants than what I'm doing with my plant growing the melon in the photo. Also, bot mellon plants started growing their fruits pretty much the same day, but the crimson sweet has only grow to the size of a ping-pong ball as opposed to this nerf-ball sized mellon. Same.dirt, water, location, and fertilizer. Either way, I am totally pumped that anyone can grow watermelons in Massachusetts. :-)

zone5a east hartford, ct. first year growing watermelons and I'm pretty happy. Growing Jubilee and we've gotten 5 so far and am hoping to get a few more although i know there is not much time left. I know they are growable in CT as I used to raid the neighbors garden in the late 60s and those tasted even better than mine. I had not had any success until this year and I attribute that at least partly to following the suggestion about digging a post hole and filling it with compost. I also feel part of my success was as a result of covering the top of the soil with about 4 inches of shredded leaf compost which kept moisture in the soil even after 5 weeks of no rain here. I didn't want to water because of reading about the sugar concentration at the end of the growing cycle. At this point, about 1/3 of my plants are showing signs of fungus but the rest of the leaves are pretty green and healthy looking. Having read in an earlier post about first year always being the best as far as growing watermelons, I am wondering if I need to move my watermelon growing spot a bit and if so, how far from current one. The compost on top of the soil thing I got from watching the documentary film Back to Eden from 2011 and there is a part of me that hopes that the same spot with new compost on top might work, but I expect the smarter people will tell me that that is not going to work. Hoping to retire maybe to Delaware so I can extend the growing season in about 2 yrs. With a bit more land than 1/4 acre and a bit more warmth, maybe I can become successful in growing more varieties!!!

I planted a water melon plant by the name of yellow doll. The rest of my garden was destroyed by a falling tree. Any way, I got three melons that weighed about 10 pounds each. Will try to get some star brite seeds for next year.

Where can I get the best seed

Do you think new roots coming out of vines are important?

Don, watermelons roots only grow from the base of the plant, you can't bury a watermelon vine and get new roots to grow.

I have read they put little roots out just like squash vines to do and I really thought mine did. I had several winter squash finds 20 or 30 feet long and the original base was completely gone so they were getting all of their nutrition from the new roots. They were doing great.

Everything I found said they do put nee roots out

Maybe they do then? I will have to check that out, thanks for correcting me! I almost always grow my watermelons on landscape fabric so there is no way mine get secondary roots. Since my watermelons grow so well without secondary roots, I would guess that it isn't all that important. Here are some of my melons :) Also I have grown them in containers, trellised, no secondary roots for those either.

I have seen secondary roots on squash, pumkins, etc, though.