Good morning Steve,

Probably the biggest reason watermelons don't do as well in the North, is
because most of them need a high germinating temp, 60 or above. Then, if
you transplant them and the temp falls to around 50, they get "set back", or
stunted in their growing process.

The second reason, and this is just my opinion which is not based on facts,
is that when you start your plants indoors, it is critical that you
transplant them on time. Melons, squash and others have a tap root. This
root goes down several feet to provide the plant with water. I haven't
actually compared the results, but melon plants I have transplanted after
they were already pretty big, needed to be watered nearly every day. People
I knew that raised melons and actually planted the seeds in the ground,
didn't water nearly that often. I feel that the tap root on my transplants
had gotten root bound with the rest of them, rather than what it was
intended to do.

Try planting the seeds in the ground next year, but not too early. If it is
too cold, they wont germinate until it warms up enough for them. It that
takes too long, they will mold in the ground, unless coated with a fungus
preventing solution (some I bought were red from the coating that the
supplier had used).

Dwayne

wrote in message
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Hi,

I am trying to grow crimson sweet watermelon this year and the plant is
growing really slowly. Compared to the pumpkin and cucumber we planted
it is really lagging in its growth. We started with only 2 plants and
one died and the one that is still hanging in there had some problems
with wilting but it pulled through and now its growing ok but really
slowly and the stem is still fairly thin.

I am in Northern New Jersey and I started thes plants around the end of
may and transplanted them in early june.

I'd appreciate any tips and info on growing watermelons.

Thanks,
Steve